Comentários de Citação sobre Números 8:11

והניף אהרן את הלוים תנופה, “Aaron shall wave the Levites as a wave-service.” The word תנופה, “waving,” appears three times in this paragraph It appears in verse 11 as “Aaron shall wave the Levites...in the presence of the Lord.” It appears again in verse 15 ”you shall perform a wave-service with them.” It appears a third time in verse 13 in a similar connotation. According to Rashi the reason it appears three times is once each for the Kehatites, once for the Gershonites and once for the Merarites. This is the reason why the Torah varies the job-description of the Levites each time, once speaking of עבודת ה', i.e. the Kehatites who carried the Sanctuary (literally), i.e. the sacred vessels including the Holy Ark. When the Torah justified the other wave-offering describing the Levites in question as (כי עבודת הקדש עליהם (7,9, this was a job description of the Kehatites. Concerning the Gershonites the Torah merely writes 'תנופה לה, “a wave-offering for the Lord,” seeing that they too carried the woven materials of the roof and the courtyard. The third group of Levites, the Merarites who transported the beams, the sockets, etc., are referred to simply as undergoing a תנופה waving, but there is no mention of the word לה', “for the Lord,” seeing that this group was furthest from the center of sanctity. At the end of the whole paragraph (verse 21) we find once more that “Aaron waved (all) the Levites as a wave-offering in the presence of the Lord,” in order to show that all the Levites had qualified. As to the meaning of the words נתונים נתונים המה לי, “for presented, presented they are to Me,” in verse 16, this means that they have been presented to the Lord to perform either the song and music or the work of transportation, as the case may be at different times. Alternatively, these words are a justification for the appointment of the Levites to these sacred tasks in recognition of when they had presented themselves as totally dedicated to G’d during the golden calf episode.

והנפת אותם, Aaron waved them first, followed by Moses. (compare verse 11)

ורם לבבך ושכחת, “and your heart feels superior, as a result of which you will forget” (the Lord and His largesse). Moses had warned against such a phenomenon already in verse 11. The phenomenon of becoming haughty is tragically all too common.