Comentários de Citação sobre Números 16:9

The word שם is the “home” of the כרובים, as we know from Samuel II 6,2 להעלות מ-שם את ארון האלו-הים אשר נקרא שם שם י-ה-ו-ה צבאות יושב הכרובים עליו, “to bring up from there the Ark of G’d to which the Name was attached, the name Lord of Hosts enthroned on the Cherubim.” This was the attribute of G’d in whose honour King Solomon built the Temple as a residence on earth. This is why you find Solomon refer to it again and again as a sanctuary built לשמך, “in honour of Your name.” (Examples: Kings I 8,44: “the house I built for Your name.” Kings I 19: “the house he will build for My name.”] The sacrifices which were offered up on the altar of that Temple were all offered to the attribuite described there as שמך, “Your name.” Solomon’s father David had already instructed him that דע את אלו-הי אביך ועבדהו, “know the G’d of your father and serve Him” (Chronicles I 28,9). When Moses upbraids Korach in Numbers 16,9 for wanting to be a priest not only a Levite, he describes the function of the Levites as כי הבדיל אלו-הי ישראל אתכם מעדת ישראל להקריב אתכם אליו, “for the G’d of the Israelites has separated you (elevated) from the community of Israel to bring you near to Him.”

וכפר בעדו, “he will perform atonement for his personal sins;” he will recite a confession by mouth. If you were to assume that the Torah here refers to an atonement by means of the blood of a sacrifice, our sages understood, after looking at verse 10 where we read the words: לכפר עליו in connection with the scapegoat, where it is clear that a confession by mouth is described, that the same expression being used here is meant to draw a parallel, i.e. that he is to recite a verbal confession. In verse 21 the words: והתודה עליו “he will make a verbal confession,” are spelled out clearly. This confession was in addition to the blood of the animal being sacrificed. If you were to ask why the High Priest did not also recite a confession over the male goat whose blood was sprinkled inside the Sanctuary, the reason was that it was destined for G-d, and it would be unseemly to make use of it for the needs of creatures here on earth. The Torah had especially written that this animal had been chosen by lot to be G-d’s. (verse 9) (Sifra). [According to Malbim, the unnecessary word עלה in this verse may be the reason for the Sifra’s comment.]

It is worth noting that in the entire paragraph Moses refers only to the Ineffable Name when referring to G’d. Only here in this verse, seeing Moses had to mention אלוקי ישראל was he forced to employ a different attribute of G’d in order to allude to their attributes (the attribute of the founding father of the Levites, the original Levi, brother of Shimon who was described as an exponent of the attribute of Justice by our author on Numbers 1,51).