Comentários de Citação sobre Números 3:3

ואלה תולדת אהרן ומשה, “and these are the descendants of Aaron and Moses: The reason the Torah mentions the name of Moses here although it does not tell us anything about his sons is that the person who teaches someone else Torah is considered as if he had fathered him. Seeing that Moses taught the sons of Aaron Torah he was included in the people considered as their progenitors. This is also why our verse mentions Mount Sinai, as the Torah had been given at Mount Sinai.
ביום דבר ה' את משה בהר סיני, “on the day the Lord had spoken to Moses at Mount Sinai.” Seeing that the Talmud Sanhedrin 19 makes the point we just made that anyone who teaches the son of his friend Torah is considered as if he had fathered him, the Torah here repeats: “these are the sons of Aaron,” to make sure we understand that biologically speaking the sons now enumerated were fathered only by Aaron. This is also why all four of them are mentioned by name. Later on (verse 3) they are mentioned once more as the ones who had been anointed with sacred oil.

NOW THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF AARON AND MOSES IN THE DAY THAT THE ETERNAL SPOKE WITH MOSES IN MOUNT SINAI. “And yet [in the following verse] Scripture only enumerates the sons of Aaron, [as it is said, And these are the names of the sons of Aaron! If so, why does it say here and Moses?] They [were indeed the sons of Aaron, but] they are called the generations of Moses because he taught them Torah. This establishes the principle that if one teaches the Torah to one’s fellow man,¹⁴³In our Rashi: “the son of his fellow man.” Scripture accounts it to him as though he had begotten him. In the day that the Eternal spoke to Moses did these children [of Aaron] become his [Moses’], because he taught them then what he learned from the mouth of the Almighty.” This is Rashi’s language.
However, the expression in the day that the Eternal spoke to Moses is intended [not to convey the idea mentioned by Rashi, but] only to say that these were [Aaron’s four] sons [namely, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, as mentioned in Verse 2] in the day that the Eternal spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai, and then Scripture states [in the following verses] that Nadab and Abihu died, and that therefore they¹⁴⁴I.e., Aaron and Moses. — Ramban is following the verse which speaks of the children as the generations of Aaron and Moses, for the reason that Rashi explained, but he is of course referring to Aaron’s sons. have no children now except Eleazar and Ithamar. Now Scripture mentions this in order to state that in the day that the Eternal spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai these [sons of Aaron] were chosen to be anointed, and their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting priesthood,¹⁴⁵Exodus 40:15. but as for the rest of the tribe [of Levi], Moses was not commanded that they be chosen [for service in the Tabernacle] until now. And the reason why He mentioned the generations of Aaron and Moses at this place is that since He had completed the census of all Israel by their generations and by their fathers’ houses,⁵⁸Verses 20, 22, etc. and He now wanted to mention the generations of the tribe of Levi, He began with the leaders of that tribe.
According to the plain meaning of Scripture, the sense of [the expression] the generations of Aaron and Moses is that the sons of Aaron were anointed priests separated from [the rest of] the tribe [of Levi] so that they be most holy,¹⁴⁶I Chronicles 23:13. and the generations of Moses were the family of the Amramites which He mentions further on, since of the Amramites there were only the children of Moses,¹⁴⁷Further, Verse 27. Of Amram’s two sons, the sons of the first, Aaron, are already mentioned above; thus the verse must be speaking of Moses’ children only. and they are counted among the Levites. This [verse] is thus similar to that which it is written, The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated, that he should be sanctified as most holy.¹⁴⁶I Chronicles 23:13. But as for Moses the man of G-d, his sons are named among the tribe of Levi.¹⁴⁸I Chronicles 23:14. And the homiletic interpretation [which Rashi mentioned, that the generations of Aaron are also attributed to Moses because he taught them Torah], the Rabbis based upon [the fact that] Scripture does not state “and these are the names of the sons of Moses,” as it does with the sons of Aaron [stating in Verse 3: These are the names of the sons of Aaron — therefore the Rabbis explained that the verse says: Now these are the generations of Aaron and Moses] to allude to [the principle that] the sons of Aaron are also the generations of Moses because he taught them Torah, for it is the way of the Torah to explain and to allude [to spiritual truths].

Another approach: There is a mystical element here when the Torah writes of the four sons of Aaron, two of whom had already died and who certainly were not part of this census anymore. The Torah had described Nadav and Avihu as having died “before the Lord” (verse 4). It is reasonable then to understand the words “these are the sons of Aaron” as referring only to Nadav and Avihu whose death is being repeated in verse 4. Seeing that all four of Aaron’s sons had been anointed with sacred oil, we would have to understand the word לכהן at the end of verse 3, normally translated as: “to function as priest,” as meaning לכוהן, “to be priests,” a reference to someone who would function as priest after his father had died, i.e. Pinchas son of Eleazar. This would also account for Exodus 6,25: “she bore for him Pinchas the heads of the Levites according to their families.” This is also why again at the beginning of Parshat Pinchas (Numbers 26,60-61) the birth and death of Nadav and Avihu is once again mentioned. This is also why in Numbers 25,11 the Torah troubled itself to again trace Pinchas’ genealogy back to his grandfather Aaron. Seeing that the entire Torah is full of hints with profound meanings the Torah here saw fit to refer to these sons of Aaron three times. The first mention covers the intellectual relationship of these sons to their uncle Moses. The second time their existence is mentioned is a reference to their physical existence. The third time they are mentioned was to reveal to us something about the nature of G’d’s system of Justice, how instead of indulging the great it does the reverse and measures each one of their actions minutely. Seeing that two of these insights into G’d’s mind were revealed at the same time, the Torah used the conjunctive letter ו in introducing chapter three with the word ואלה. Seeing that the sons of Aaron had to be mentioned, the Torah also had to repeat what happened to them and why.