Comentários de Citação sobre Números 8:15

HE BEAMED FROM MOUNT PARAN — He regarded them and placed their needs in the light of His countenance emanating from Mount Paran. The sense thereof is as follows: The beginning of their entry into the great wilderness was from Paran, as it is said, And the children of Israel set forward by their stages out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran.¹⁹Numbers 10:12. Then G-d shone forth upon them to see what they needed in the great and dreadful wilderness.²⁶Ibid., 8:15. This expression is similar to, and Thou didst shine forth upon the counsel of the wicked,²⁷Job 10:3. meaning that You have observed and seen with Your great light all their secret thoughts.

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.

According to the plain meaning of the text, the reason that the inaugural sacrifices comprised both burnt-offerings, sin-offerings as well as peace-offerings, was that the sin-offering was in order to obtain atonement for any desecration of the Altar that might have occurred by oversights in these various procedures. The Torah had already spelled this out in 34,15 ויקדשהו לכפר עליו, “he sanctified it (the Altar) in order to enable it to serve as a source of atonement.” The reason the Priests had to offer the burnt-offerings was in order to establish G’d’s goodwill vis-a-vis the Priests. The peace-offerings formed part of the inaugural procedures in order to express thanks to the Lord for His having given the Jewish people the means to establish close relations with Him through the presence of the Tabernacle and everything connected with it.
When you examine what Maimonides writes in Maasseh Ha-Korbanot 2,14 you will find that when the Temple of the future will be inaugurated similar inaugural procedures will take place when the Altar will be consecrated. In fact, according to Moed Katan 9, these rites will override the Sabbath and those offerings will be offered on the Altar also on the Sabbath. All of this is spelled out in Ezekiel 46,4. May the Lord grant us that we see the fulfillment of all these promises including the rebuilding of the Holy Temple soon in our days. May Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 60,7) “all the flocks of Kedar shall be assembled for you, the rams of Nebaioth shall serve your needs; they shall be welcome offerings on My Altar, and I will add glory to My glorious House,” be fulfilled speedily.