Comentário sobre Êxodo 29:10

AND THOU SHALT BRING THE BULLOCK BEFORE THE TENT OF MEETING; AND AARON AND HIS SONS SHALL LAY THEIR HANDS UPON THE HEAD OF THE BULLOCK. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented, that the meaning of it is that when you will bring the bullock before the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon it, for [the bringing of the bullock] has already been mentioned above.¹⁸⁵Verse 3. The correct interpretation appears to me to be as I have explained,¹⁸⁵Verse 3. that above He commanded to bring them but did not explain “to the Tent of Meeting,” but only that he bring them; the purport being that he bring them to the place of the priests so that they be ready [for sacrifice], thus it would be sufficient that they be before the door of the court of the Tabernacle. But now He required that they be brought before the Tent of Meeting, to the door of the Tent, as He will explain in connection with the slaughtering thereof,¹⁸⁶Verse 11. for it is there that the laying of hands will take place.

וסמך אהרון ובניו את ידיהם, "and Aaron and his sons will place their hands, etc." The reason that the Torah uses the singular וסמך instead of the plural form וסמכו, is that Aaron was to place his hands on the bullock and his sons were to repeat this action individually, one at a time. I have come across a Tossephta in chapter 10 of Menachot which states: "When five people jointly offer one sacrifice they all perform the rite of placing their hands with all their weight on the animal; they do not do this simultaneously but one after another." Maimonides rules similarly in chapter 3 of Maaseh Ha-korbanot. Accordingly, we can well understand why our verse describes the act of סמיכה in the singular, i.e. וסמך, instead of וסמכו, as they were not to do this simultaneously. We still have to clarify why the Torah had to give these instructions twice in connection with the ram in verse 19 and was not content with Leviticus 8,18 where it is reported that Aaron and his sons did perform סמיכה and the fact is reported in the plural. Perhaps the Torah felt that if it would not repeat the report we would think that seeing that the bullock was a sin-offering, only Aaron performed the rite of סמיכה because only he and not his sons had been involved in the sin of the golden calf. By telling us that the same procedure was followed in connection with the ram which was a total-offering, the Torah made plain that none of these offerings were connected with Aaron's share in the making of the golden calf. The method chosen by the Torah makes it clear that the performance of סמיכה was required for all meat-offerings other than birds. Now we can understand why there was no need to write the word ויסמכו in the singular in Leviticus 8,18, seeing the point had been made already in our verse here. [With all due respect to the author, why did the Torah repeat the point in Leviticus 8,14 where the Torah again uses the singular in connection with Aaron and his sons? Ed.]

והקרבת את הפר לפני אהל מועד, “you shall bring the bull close to Tent of Meeting.” Nachmanides, in referring to the commentary by Ibn Ezra, writes that according to Ibn Ezra both Aaron and his sons placed their hands firmly (סמיכה) on the bull at the time when he brought it in front of the entrance of the Sanctuary. Seeing that the actual presentation of the bull in front of the entrance of the Sanctuary in verse three (by implication) had already been mentioned, it would not be repeated without adding a new dimension to it, he writes that in his personal opinion all that happened at the entrance to the Sanctuary after the bull, etc., were presented there, was that they received the directive to offer these animals as sacrifices on the altar in the courtyard. The only reason the location is mentioned here again, is to ensure that the slaughtering, etc., would be performed in the areas designated for the priests to perform these procedures. There would have been no need to spell out the placing of their hands on the sacrificial animals, as this is always done immediately before the animal is slaughtered.

V. 10. סמיכה .וסמך ist kein bloßes Händeauflegen, sondern ein mit ganzer Kraft zu vollziehendes Aufstützen. Damit ist die Identifizierung der Person mit dem Opfer zum Ausdruck gebracht. Aaron und seine Söhne werden sich bewusst, dass sie hier im פר vor dem Heiligtum stehen. Die soeben mit dem Priestertum Bekleideten haben nun die Bedingungen und Anforderungen zu lernen, die dieses Amt und diese Würde ihnen bringen. Zuerst das Amt: dass sie sich als פר, als dienende Mitarbeiter an dem großen Gotteswerke begreifen, und zwar nicht als פרים, sondern als פר, nicht als vereinzelte viele, sondern als eine Einheit, deren jegliche Glieder zur Lösung der einen gemeinsamen Aufgabe zusammen zu wirken haben. Und sie stehen noch vor dem Heiligtum. Um ins Heiligtum einzugehen, müssen erst Bedingungen gelöst werden: