Comentário sobre Números 3:38

משה ואהרן ובניו [BUT THOSE THAT ENCAMP BEFORE THE DWELLING … SHALL BE] MOSES, AND AARON AND HIS SONS — and adjacent to him was the standard of the camp of Judah, and next to the latter were encamped Issachar and Zebulun — “Well is it with the righteous, well with his neighbour!” Because they (the sons of Judah, Issachar and Zebulun) were the neighbours of Moses who occupied himself with the Torah, they themselves became eminent scholars in the Law, as it is said, (Psalms 60:9) “Judah is my lawgiver”; (I Chronicles 12:32) “and of the children of Issachar which were men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel had to do [the heads of them were two hundred]” — i.e., two hundred heads of the Sanhedrin; and (Judges 5:14) “and out of Zebulun came those that handle the pen of the writer” (Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar 12).

Near them. (Gur Aryeh) Here too, Rashi comes to answer the question: It should have stated “Moshe, Aharon and his sons shall camp in front of the Tent of Meeting.” However the Torah is not coming to instruct them, only to inform that those who camped in front of the Tent of Meeting were these important individuals, therefore those people who camped near them were like them.

V. 38. שמרים משמרת המקדש. Die בני קהת (V. 28) als die Träger der eigentlichen Heiligtumsobjekte, und auch alle andern (V. 32) waren שומרי משמרת הקדש, auch ein einzelnes Objekt des Heiligtums ist ein קדש. Das Gesamtheiligtum wird aber in der Regel מקדש genannt. מקדש ד׳ כוננו ידך (Schmot 15, 16), ועשו לי מקדש (daselbst 25, 8), את מקדש ד׳ טמא. (Bamidbar 19, 20) und sonst. Die andern heißen auch שומרי וגו׳, es war das ihr Amt, der ganze Inhalt ihrer Berufsstellung, ja, da sie מבן חדש gezählt waren, so waren ja alle die hier Gezählten noch nicht שומרים וגו׳, sondern שומרי משמרת הקדש, das משמרת הקדש war ihr Beruf und ihre Bestimmung. Für Mosche und Aharon war diese Bewachung des Heiligtums nur eine Tätigkeit. Sie waren שומרים משמרת המקדש.

Moshe and Aharon. There is a pause between Moshe and Aharon, to inform that Moshe was alone in one place, and Aharon and his sons were alone in another place.