Comentário sobre Números 31:21

ויאמר אלעזר הכהן וגו׳ AND ELEAZAR THE PRIEST SAID etc. — Because Moses fell into anger (Numbers 31:14) he fell into error: there escaped him the laws concerning the removal of uncleanness absorbed by vessels which have contained the food of heathens. This, too, do you find was the case on the eighth day of the installing of the priests, as it is said, (Leviticus 10:16) “And Moses was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar”, — he fell into anger, he fell into error (cf. 10:16 that he made an error regarding the שעיר החטאת which Aaron refused to eat). Similarly, also, when he said, (Numbers 20:10, Numbers 20:11) “Hear, now, ye rebels”, … “he smote the rock”; it was through his anger that he made the mistake (Sifrei Bamidbar 157:9; cf. Pesachim 66b).

זאת חקת התורה, the instructions you have received from Moses concerning your own purification rites, including being sprinkled with water containing ash from the red heifer, is a decree by the Torah. The institution known as פרה אדומה has as its purpose the purification of people afflicted with ritual impurity due to direct or indirect contact with the dead.

ויאמר אלעזר הכהן אל אנשי הצבא, “Eleazar the High Priest said to the soldiers, etc.“ Moses, personally, conveyed the previous paragraph to the respective commanders concerning the ritual contamination of the people involved. Eleazar addressed the entire people who were all directly involved seeing that all received their respective shares of the loot and had to know how to purify the various vessels or garments. The only loot the commanders of 1000 troops each had taken for themselves were costly garments.

He credited the teaching to his master. Meaning that he should not have said that he heard this from his master, instead he should have said it without elaborating, for surely the entire Torah was given through Moshe. Rather, it was in order to relate the matter in the name of the one who said it, as with “And Esther told the king in Mordechai’s name” (Esther 2:22).

V. 21. ויאמר וגו׳ הבאים למלחמה. Da es nicht heißt מן המלחמה, sondern למלחמה, so dürfte dies zu der Annahme berechtigen, es sei die hier folgende Vorschrift nicht erst bei der Rückkehr aus dem Kriege, sondern bei dem Auszuge erteilt worden.

ויאמר אלעזר הכהן, “the High Priest Elazar said:” the reason that it was Elazar who issued the instructions following concerning how to purify the loot, was that it had been he who had prepared the first red heifer whose ashes would be the instrument that made the purification process possible. (Numbers 19,3) Although Moses had instructed him in these procedures, of course, and Elazar had quoted him, he was punished for preempting Moses in revealing what the procedures were to be taken now. The punishment was that we do not find that Joshua again required the services of the High Priest Elazar, although when he had been appointed the Torah had written that “he will stand before Elazar the High Priest,” (Numbers 26,21) suggesting that the latter outranked Joshua. (Talmud tractate Eyruvin, folio 63)

אשר צוה ה׳ וגו׳ [AND ELEAZAR SAID … THIS IS THE ORDINANCE OF THE LAW] WHICH THE LORD HATH COMMANDED [MOSES] — he associated the decision with his teacher (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 157:9).

זאת חקת התורה (siehe zu Kap. 19, 2).

זאת חקת התורה, “this is the statute of the Torah;” he referred to what Moses had told him in verse 19, that anyone who had killed someone had to undergo the purification rites. The details had all been spelled out in Numbers chapter 19 commencing with verse 13 when the details of the red heifer are discussed.