Komentaryo sa Levitico 6:2: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Kli Yakar & Ramban

“Command Aaron” [6:2]. King Solomon, of blessed memory, said. “Visit your neighbor’s house sparingly, lest he have his surfeit of you and loathe you” [Proverbs, 25:17]. The verse teaches us that the person should be careful to have friends and engage with them all the time. He should go to their homes sometimes, but should not go to their homes too often, even though the engagement with the friend is very good. It makes great peace between them. It is known that the one who can have good friends, that he can gather them to himself, he must have two good attributes. One is that he must be humble and not arrogant. When he is haughty, then all the people will separate themselves from him and hate him. The second one is that he should not be afraid of any person. However, in any event it is good to have many good friends. King Solomon also warns the people that they should not always go to their friend’s house, since it will become repulsive because he goes to his house often. Just like honey is sweet, but when one eats too much, then it is unhealthy. Too much of the good things of the world is not good. Even the rain which is the life of the world; the whole world depends on the rain. When there is too much rain, it is very bad and it does much damage, as the verse says, “your neighbor’s house.” That is to say, do not go too often to the house of your best and most beloved friend. How much more so, a middling friend, you should not go to your friend’s house when he is eating, drinking, sleeping, or when he is working or engaged in business. The Midrash says, “visit sparingly.” Do not go too often to the Temple. Here one asks a question. It is written, “I enter Your house with burnt offerings” [Psalms, 66:13]. This means, I will come to the Temple often with sacrifices. The explanation is that you should not commit sins, that you will bring sacrifices for them. The Holy One does not desire your sins and also not your sacrifices. When it is written that one should come often to the Temple, this means that when a person committed sins with his thoughts, since a person cannot completely protect himself from sins that come unexpectedly. Therefore, he should come often with a burnt offering that applies to the thoughts of the person. However, the sin offering or guilt offering which come because of sins that the person does through deeds; he steals or engages in illicit sexual relations. God does not desire these sacrifices. It is known that thoughts occur primarily at night. Therefore, the Torah wrote in this portion.¹Bahya, Tsav, Introduction.

Therefore the Torah wrote in the portion, “Command Aaron and his sons thus, this is the burnt offering … upon the altar all night” [6:2], to bring the burnt offering for the thoughts, which the person had at night, to bring a sacrifice for it at night. It is known that the burnt offering is more important than all the other sacrifices. They did not even give the priest from the sacrifice to eat, even though he did eat from the other sacrifices. However, no person ate from the burnt offering, but it was completely burnt on the altar. Since it was because of the thoughts, thus it was just that no body should have any benefit from the burnt offering. The person should hold himself humble to serve the Holy One, whether it is in prayer or with other commandments. He should lay aside his honor, but only for the honor of the Holy One, when he becomes humble through this. When the priest removed the ashes from the altar, he had to don his best clothes that he wore when he did other important tasks in the Temple. This teaches us that when a person prays or performs some other commandments, he should put on good clothes and keep himself clean. Though the ashes were an ordinary task, yet they had to don the garments. Our sages said: the one who gives great honor to the Holy One, he will also have great honor. However, the one who wants to hold the honor of the Holy One small, heaven forbid, he will be greatly punished by the Holy One. We find a story of someone called Issachar high priest from Barkai who honored himself greatly and held the honor of the Holy One small. What did he do? He did the service in the Temple. He put on silk gloves. This was not proper. He should have done the service with his bare hands. The Holy One punished him. It once happened that the king and the queen argued. The king said that a kid was better than any other animal for a sacrifice. The queen said that a sheep was better for a sacrifice. They both said: who can prove which one is better? They said: the high priest will know this. He brings sacrifices every day. They sent for Issachar. He came and he was waving with his hands and showed himself as one who held the king as nothing and said: if a kid is good as a sacrifice, why do we not bring a kid every day as a sacrifice, morning and evening, but one brings a sheep every day. The king said: because he protects and waves his hands before the king, thus he holds the king as nothing. It is just when one comes before a king or minister that one should not wave his hands. One should stand in awe before them. Thus, the king commanded that Issachar’s right hand should be chopped off. Issachar gave a bribe that his left hand should be chopped off. When the king learned of this, he commanded that they should also chop off the right hand. From here one should be warned that whoever wants to fulfill a divine commandment should serve the Holy One honestly. Rabbi Joseph said: praised be God that He paid Issachar for his sins in this world and not in the world to come. The third thing we learn from the burnt offering. There was a great miracle that the altar was made of wood and only covered with copper the thickness of a golden gulden. The fire always burned on it and the copper was not burned, so too, the wood on the altar. Therefore, the verse says here two times, “not to go out” [6:5], that the fire burned forever. That is to say, to show the miracle that the altar was not burned. The fourth thing we learn from the burnt offering is that God will punish the evildoers in Gehenna. Therefore, the verse says here the third time, “the fire on the altar is kept going on it” [6:2]. The fire burns constantly. It is known that the altar is for the forgiveness of sins, and the evildoers will not have expiation for their sins. Therefore, they are burned in Gehenna, because they did not desire expiation from the fire of the altar. “It is the burnt offering” [6:2]. The one who holds himself haughty and is arrogant is burned in fire, like the generation of the Flood. They held themselves haughty and therefore they were destroyed. The people of Sodom held themselves haughty. Therefore, they were burned in the fire; similarly with Pharaoh and Sannecherib.²Bahya, Leviticus, 6:2–3.

צו את אהרן COMMAND AARON — The expression “Command …!” always implies urging on to carry out a command, implying too, that it comes into force at once, and is binding upon future generations (cf. Rashi on this passage in Kiddushin 29a). R. Simeon said: Especially must Scripture urge on the fulfilment of the commands in a case where monetary loss is involved (Sifra, Tzav, Chapter 1 1; Kiddushin 29a).