Comentário sobre Êxodo 30:21

ולא ימתו THAT THEY DIE NOT — This statement is intended to declare subject to the death penalty anyone who ministers at the outer altar without having washed his hands and his feet, because from the first mention of “death” (v. 20) we can only infer that one is subject to death for entering the Sanctuary under these circumstances.

חק עולם, an eternal law. Even though the priest may have just emerged from immersing himself in a ritual bath in order to purify himself from a more severe category of impurity, this does not relieve him of the need to wash his hands and feet from the water of the כיור. The Torah warns the priest for the fifth time not to risk the death penalty to warn him that the ritual immersion did not replace the commandment to wash their hands and feet before either entering the Sanctuary or approaching the copper altar in the courtyard to perform service therein.

V. 21. חק עולם לו וגו׳, eigentlich: eine für ewige Zeiten von den Priestern dem Heiligtum zu leistende Gebühr. Durch קידוש ידים ורגלים zollen die Priester dem Heiligtum die Anerkennung seiner idealen Überordnung, dass sie nicht vermöge ihrer konkreten Individualität, sondern vermöge der durch sie symbolisch zu repräsentierenden Anforderungen des Heiligtums als dessen Diener aufzutreten gewürdigt seien. Das והיתה bezieht sich wohl auf רחצה (V. 18) Dieses Waschen soll ihnen usw.

ורחצו ידיהם, ‘they are to wash their hands;” this has also been repeated to stress that this was a law for all future generations.