Comentário sobre Números 7:13

שניהם מלאים סלת BOTH OF THEM WERE FULL OF FINE FLOUR — for a free-will meal-offering.

FINE FLOUR (MINGLED) WITH OIL FOR A MEAL-OFFERING. The princes dedicated the altar with all the kinds of offerings that can be brought upon it. Therefore they brought a meal-offering, incense, a burnt-offering, a sin-offering, and a peace-offering. Now the incense and the sin-offering were [permitted to be brought by] a special temporary decree, since they cannot usually be brought as freewill offerings. But [this exception was made] in order to complete the dedication with all kinds of offerings, for no other offerings can be brought in Israel except for these offerings [mentioned here], the sin-offering and the guilt-offering being the same thing and having the same name, and there is one law for them.¹⁸⁵Leviticus 7:7: As is the sin-offering, so is the guilt-offering; there is one law for them. Hence although no guilt-offering was brought as part of the dedication-offerings, it may yet be said that all kinds of offerings were brought on these days of dedication, since the sin-offering was brought.
Now the Glorious G-d¹⁸⁶Deuteronomy 28:58. agreed to the intention of the princes and commanded, they shall present their offering, each prince on his day.¹⁸⁷Verse 11. Therefore it is possible that this is a commandment for all generations, that the Sanctuary and the altar should always be dedicated [with special offerings upon their completion]. It is for this reason that Solomon made a dedication of the House [of G-d], as it is written, So the king and all the people dedicated the House of G-d.¹⁸⁸II Chronicles 7:5. Similarly the men of the Great Assembly dedicated [the Second Temple], as it is written, And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of captivity, kept the dedication of this House of G-d with joy.¹⁸⁹Ezra 6:16. And so [will it be also] in the days of the Messiah, as it is said in the Book of Ezekiel, Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; so shall they consecrate it. And when they have accomplished the days, it shall be that upon the eighth day, and forward, the priests shall make your burnt-offerings upon the altar, and your peace-offerings,¹⁹⁰Ezekiel 43:26-27. this being the dedication of the altar with offerings to consecrate it. Thus the subject of this commandment is similar to that of the section about the impure people on Passover,¹⁹¹Further, 9:1-13. and the section concerning the sons of Joseph,¹⁹²Ibid., Chapter 36. See also in Seder Korach, Note 67. whose opinion coincided with the opinion on High, and which we were commanded to observe in all subsequent generations.
Beha’alothcha

'וקרבנו קערת כסף אחת, וגו; each one of the princes offered all these components as part of his offering. They comprised: a burnt offering, עולה, a gift offering, מנחה, a sin offering, חטאת, as well as peace offerings, שלמים, and incense, קטורת. The reason why the Torah does not simply lump all these offerings together but tells us separately, 12 times what each prince’s offering consisted of, is that each one had intended thereby to atone for all the sins he was aware of that members of his tribe had committed, had been guilty of. Each prince performed the סמיכה, the act of placing all his weight on the animal becoming the sin offering on behalf of the members of his tribe guilty of sins requiring such a sin offering to atone for their sins. This was a regular procedure when communal offerings were being brought.

וקרבנו, and his offering, etc. The justification for the letter ו in this word is found in what we wrote about every offering consisting of two aspects in our commentary on the word המקריב. It is a reference to the hidden spiritual aspect of the sacrifice which preceded the Torah's revelation of the material aspect. One may also simply understand the letter as alerting us to the many qualities Nachshon possessed in addition to initiating the kind of offering the princes brought at this time.

וקרבנו, a reference to the sacrifice mentioned previously in verse 12. The components of Nachshon’s sacrifice (gift) are being enumerated now. Just as the Torah had listed separately the composition of the four army camps of the Israelites headed by 1 flag each in Numbers chapter 2, so it lists the gift of each of the princes separately in our chapter.

וקרבנו, “and his offering, etc.” At this point the Torah wrote an apparently superfluous letter ו at the beginning of the word וקרבנו, seeing Nachshon was the first one of the princes to offer his קרבן, so that a prefix connecting it to something previous appears totally uncalled for. Similarly, we find an uncharacteristic letter ו in the word עתודים, rams, in verse 17. [On the other 13 occasions when that word occurs in the Torah it is always spelled defective, i.e. without the letter ו. Ed.] The reason for these exceptions is to draw our attention to 6=ו new developments which occurred on that day. 1) It was the first day on which priests performed their functions. 2) It was the first day that the priests began the daily routine of blessing the people. 3) It was the first day on which the publicly financed sacrificial offerings in the Tabernacle were presented on the Altar. 4) It was the first day of the first month of the year. 5) It was the first anniversary of the calendar reform introduced in honour of the Exodus from Egypt. 6) On that day the first red heifer was burned and its ashes preserved to enable the Israelites to purify themselves. Ibn Ezra writes that the meaning of the additional letter ו at the beginning of the word וקרבנו is grammatically completely justified in view of the Torah having written previously in verse 12 that Nachshon was the first of the princes to offer this particular offering. The Torah continues therefore by listing the details of his offering. Of the princes who offered the parallel offering on the second day, (verse 18) the Torah writes: הקריב קרבנו, although at first glance these words appear superfluous, because so much verbiage had been written since verse 12. We have similar examples of such apparently superfluous verbiage when the Torah writes (Genesis 22,7) ויאמר יצחק אל אברהם אביו ויאמר אבי!, “Yitzchok said to his father Avraham, saying: “My father!” You will note that the Torah does not bother to write the word הקריב, ”he presented the offering,” in connection with any of the other 10 princes. This was in order to be as brief as possible without becoming misleading.

As a voluntary meal-offering. This is the first meal-offering mentioned in Vayikra, not the meal-offering of the libations. This is learned from the context. Just as “filled with incense” (v. 14) refers to a voluntary offering, so too “the fine flour” is also a voluntary offering.

V. 13. קערה .וקרבנו וגו׳ ist ein כלי שרת, in welchem ein מנחה die Heiligung seiner Aufnahme vom Heiligtum empfängt und in welchem es durch הגשה im S.-W., der Seite des dem Gesetze zugewandten und an dem Gesetze sich erleuchtenden Geistes dargereicht wird. מזרק ist eigentlich ein Wurfgefäß für die זריקה des Blutes zu den Altarhöhen hinan. Nach ספרי waren beide Gefäße, obgleich an Gewicht verschieden, doch an Umfang gleich, מזרק war nur dünner, גלדו דק, so dass sie beide das gleiche Quantum fassten, eine Gleichheit, die in dem שניהם מלאים ihren Ausdruck hat (vergl. Wajikra 16, 5). Indem der Stammesfürst als ראש בית אבתיו und נשיא מטהו beide mit Mehl und Öl gefüllt zu einem מנחה brachte sprach er damit den Gedanken aus, dass, was sein Stamm an Gütern der Nahrung und des Wohlstandes nach seiner Eigenart erwirbt, dem Geiste des göttlichen Gesetzes huldigend geweiht sein solle, und dass sein Stamm nie in dem Schaffen und dem toten Besitze dieser Güter sozialen Wohlstandes an sich ein Moment der Größe erblicken, dass vielmehr aller materielle Güterreichtum ihm nur so viel bedeuten solle, als die Güter lebendig gemacht, als das Mehl und das Öl in "Blut", in נפשות umwandelt würden, die zu der Höhe ihrer gottgewiesenen Bestimmung hinanleben, dass in dem künftigen דם der מזרקות das סולת und שמן selbst den sittlichen Adel eines zu Gott hinanstrebenden Lebens gewinnen solle.

וקרבנו, “and his offering;” the prefix letter ו in this verse is superfluous. [i.e. available for exegesis. Ed.] The Rabbis understand it, i.e. “and his,” as a warning to Nachshon not to allow this honour to go to his head and to boast about it. [The fact that he is the only one of the princes presenting these offerings not to be given his title, is evidence of his modesty. Ed.]

וקרבנו, “and his offering, etc.” the strange prefix of the letter ו meaning: “and,” when no other offering had been offered as yet, is explained by the Torah having written in verse 12; ויהי המקריב, “and he that presented, etc.” By adding this prefix the Torah wishes us to understand that what follows was what the person mentioned in verse 12 presented. An alternate approach: the reason that Nachshon’s offering is introduced by the connective letter ו is that he should not boast about having been the first prince to be allowed to present this offering. [If he even did not mind that his title was omitted, he was hardly likely to boast about anything. Ed. ]

סלת בלולה בשמן למנחה, “filled with fine flour, mixed with oil, as a meal-offering.” Nachmanides writes that the princes consecrated the Altar with all the different kinds of offerings that would be offered on it in the future; this was the reason why they also offered meal-offerings on this occasion. Seeing that neither the incense offering nor the sin offering were of the categories that qualified for free-willed offerings, special dispensation had been required to enable them to present these offerings. Seeing that the guilt offering, אשם and the sin offering, חטאת are in respect of inadvertent transgressions, they are basically the same kind of offering so that the guilt-offering is not mentioned separately. It is possible that what is legislated here is a מצוה לדורות, not just a one time legislation, but whenever a Temple and an Altar would be inaugurated, the same procedures would apply, and that would explain why when Solomon consecrated his Temple he performed rites called חנוכת הבית, as did the men of the great Assembly when the second Temple was consecrated. (Compare Chronicles II 7,5 and Ezra 6,15) In all these instances the people initiating these rituals had divine inspiration and G’d subsequently anchored what they had done in the Holy Scriptures, eternalizing it..

'קערת כסף אחת וגו, “one silver dish;” the weight of this dish, i.e. one hundred and thirty shekels, is an allusion to Yocheved, Moses’ mother’s age at the time she gave birth to him.

קערת כסף, “a silver dish,” what is the difference between a קערה and a מזרק, a basin? According to the Sifri, a bowl is thick and a מזרק is thin. It weighed only slightly more than half the weight of a מזרק

מזרק אחד כסף, “one silver basin, etc.,” the basin’s weight, i.e. seventy shekels, is an allusion to the seventy elders who assisted Moses in his arduous task of leading his people.

שניהם מלאים סלת בלולה בשמן, “both of which, i.e. the dish and the basin, filled with incense mixed with oil;” in order that we should not think that Aaron was inferior to Moses, the Torah adds the word: מלאים, “filled,” i.e. one was equal to the other.