Truth and Peace in the Eyes of the High Priest (Titzaveh)

In פרשת תצוה, we find ה’ instruct משה to prepare his brother אהרן to be the כהן גדול.

ואתה הקרב אליך את אהרן אחיך ואת בניו אתו, מתוך בני ישראל לכהנו לי — שמות כח

In retrospect, it seems like such a given. But it wasn’t always supposed to be this way. Before there was a משכן, before there was a מתן תורה, before there was even the sovereign Jewish nation, it was משה who was destined to fill the role of the כהן גדול. But then משה angered ה’ and was punished. משה refused to accept his responsibility to lead בני ישראל out of מצרים, and for that משה lost his right to the כהונה גדולה to his brother.

ויחר אף יהוה במשה ויאמר הלא אהרן אחיך הלוי ידעתי כי דבר ידבר הוא וגם הנה הוא יצא לקראתך וראך ושמח בלבו — שמות ד

ויחר אף. רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן קָרְחָה אוֹמֵר כָּל חֲרוֹן אַף שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה עוֹשֶׂה רוֹשֶׁם וְזֶה לֹא נֶאֱמַר בּוֹ רוֹשֶׁם וְלֹא מָצִינוּ שֶׁבָּא עוֹנֶשׁ ע”י אוֹתוֹ חָרוֹן; אָמַר לוֹ רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אַף בְּזוֹ נֶאֱמַר בּוֹ רוֹשֶׁם — הלא אהרן אחיך הלוי — שֶׁהָיָה עָתִיד לִהְיוֹת לֵוִי וְלֹא כֹּהֵן, וְהַכְּהוּנָה הָיִיתִי אוֹמֵר לָצֵאת מִמְּךָ, מֵעַתָּה לֹא יִהְיֶה כֵן אֶלָּא הוּא יִהְיֶה כֹּהֵן וְאַתָּה הַלֵוִי, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר וּמֹשֶׁה אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים בָּנָיו יִקָּרְאוּ עַל שֵׁבֶט הַלֵּוִי — רש”י

It’s a bit ironic, come to think of it. ה’ informs משה that he is destined to lead the Jews out of מצרים. And משה repeatedly refuses to accept his destined role. One might expect ה’ to say: “Fine. You do not want to be the leader, so you don’t get to be the leader.” That would be a fitting consequence for משה’s insolence. And yet, no matter how much משה refuses to go to מצרים, he remains the chosen leader. But another destined role of משה’s, to be the כהן גדול, is taken away. משה never complains about his role as the כהן גדול, and yet, when he refuses to be the leader, it’s the role of כהן גדול that he loses.

Does the punishment fit the crime? Does משה’s refusal to be the leader somehow make him less deserving to be the כהן גדול? It’s hard to see how either of those roles affects the other.

It begs the question. What is the role of the כהן גדול anyhow? A leader leads. But what does the כהן גדול do in the משכן? What void does the כהן גדול fill that an ordinary כהן, a כהן הדיוט, could not?

Maybe that void is the עבודה of יום כיפור. Only the כהן גדול is allowed to enter לפני ולפנים, into the קדש הקדשים. So without a כהן גדול, there would be nobody to bring about the atonement of יום כיפור. This would be a plausible “role” for the כהן גדול to fill.

And yet, when אהרן is introduced as the כהן גדול, he is introduced with the oil of the מנורה, not with the blood of the יום כיפור offerings. This week’s פרשה breaks from describing the כלים of the משכן to describe אהרן, his clothes, and the process of his initiation. But first, it describes the oil used by אהרן to light the מנורה. And then again, in פרשת בהעלותך, when the משכן is finally complete, אהרן is commanded to enter … and light the מנורה.

What’s more, the discussion of אהרן’s clothing and initiation is in the midst of the משכן’s construction. This suggests that אהרן’s fills not just a role in the משכן but a part of the משכן’s very construction. It’s as if the משכן is not complete without אהרן. The רבינו בחיי draws out this idea — that אהרן is the completing piece of the משכן —in his introductory comments to the פרשה:

בארו ז”ל כי כשם שהזכיר הכתוב שמחה בהקב”ה אחר מעשה בראשית שאמר דוד: יהי כבוד ה’ לעולם ישמח ה’ במעשיו, כך מצינו שמחה בהקב”ה לאחר מעשה המשכן שצוה בהדלקת המנורה ובהקטרת הקטורת ושרתה בו שכינה, ועל זה אמר שלמה ”שמן וקטרת ישמח לב,“ (משלי כז’) וכבר ידוע כי מעשה המשכן שקול כמעשה בראשית, וכשם שמצינו במעשה בראשית שנברא באחרונה מי שהיה מכיר את ה’ ועובד ומיחד והוא האדם, כן מצינו אחר מעשה המשכן שהוצרך לצוות שיהיה במשכן עובד ומיחד, והוא הכהן הגדול

According to the רבינו בחיי, the primary role of the כהן גדול was to bring שמחה to the משכן. Just as the creation of אדם הראשון — a being capable of recognizing his Creator — was necessary to bring שמחה to the creation of the world, so too was the כהן גדול necessary to bring שמחה to the construction of the משכן.

But what’s not readily clear is how that שמחה is brought forth from the lighting of the מנורה or from the burning of the קטרת. The רבינו בחיי elaborates on the פסוק in משלי quoted by the מדרש:

שמן וקטרת ישמח לב ומתק רעהו מעצת נפש — שלמה המלך ע”ה יזהיר את האדם בכתוב הזה לרחם על הגר שגלה ממקומו ומארץ מולדתו…והנה הוא נקשר עם הכתוב שלמעלה ”כצפור,נודדת מן קנה כן איש נודד ממקומו“ המשיל את האדםשיצא מן המקום אשר נולד שם כעוף היוצא מקנו ששם תחלת הויתו וסבת תולדתו והידיענו בזה כי חייב האדם לשמח לב האיש הנודד ממקומו בספוק מזונות…ויתחייב עוד בהסברת פנים, וזהו ומתק רעהו שימתיק לו דבריו והסברת פניו

The פסוק in משלי, according to the רבינו בחיי, discusses the manner in which one cheers up a stranger who is far away from home, like a bird who flutters away from its nest. First, the פסוק says to serve good foods. But, that’s not enough. Good food may fill a stranger’s belly, but will he feel at ease? Will he feel at home? No. So, the פסוק says, give him a pleasant smile. Only with that smile will the stranger feel at ease, feel at home.

So שמחה doesn’t just come from a nice favor, but from the attitude shown in performing the favor. The פסוק in משלי clarifies one more thing about the שמחה generated from lighting the מנורה and burning the קטרת: it wouldn’t be enough to just do those עבודות without מתק רעהו, without a big smile. A big smile like אהרן’s. Like the one אהרן had when he found out his brother would be the leader of the בני ישראל.

Look back at the conversation between משה and ה’, when משה refuses to lead the בני ישראל. It’s true, משה has good reasons to turn down the assignment. He knows that a proper leader should have the right speaking skills, and that he does not possess those skills. In משה’s eyes, he just can’t be the right person for the job.

משה has vision of the way the world should work. And to משה, the world cannot — or at the least, should not — work any other way. Each person, each piece, must fill and play the role for which they are best suited. In that sense, משה views his appointment as the leader of the בני ישראל as disruptive to the world, and an impediment to wholeness, שלמות. Stated another way, everyone and everything has a true purpose, an “אמת,” and there can only be שלום, true wholeness, in a world where that אמת is realized. Let’s call this “אמת ושלום.”

The same cannot be said for אהרן’s vision of אמת and שלום. As the archetypal אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, lover of wholeness and chaser of wholeness, אהרן never let the אמת get in the way of making שלום. When אהרן would see two Jews in argument with one another, he would approach each Jew separately and inform him that the other regretted having the argument and wished to apologize and make up. Now, אהרן clearly does not see the need for אמת in making שלום. Quite the contrary, אהרן is able to overlook the אמת (that these two Jews are arguing), and even uses a little שקר (that they wish to make up) in order to being about שלום. But ultimately, once those Jews do make up, they realize that they never wanted to fight in the first place. אהרן just uses those two Jews’ overwhelming desire for שלום to push their conflict to the side, and to remind them that, באמת, they really just want to be friends.

Whereas משה uses אמת to bring out the שלום in the world, אהרן does it in reverse: he uses שלום to bring out the אמת. Let’s call this “שלום ואמת.”

When משה refuses the leadership, he does it because it’s “just not right.” שלח נא ביד תשלח, he says, send someone You’d ideally send, someone who is actually fit for the job. For this, ה’ reprimands משה, and reminds משה of his brother’s very different attitude. הנה הוא יצא לקראתך וראך ושמח בלבו, when אהרן sees you, he isn’t going to question whether you’re the right man for the job. He’s just going to take one look at you, and be so happy, so proud. אהרן is going to proudly say: “My brother gets to be the leader.” And he would never ask: “How did my brother get to be the leader.”

Because, in אהרן’s eyes, there’s no question whether משה’s appointment is right or wrong. אהרן’s approval and excitement for his brother makes it right, makes it the אמת, that it should be no other way.

When ה’ orders the בני ישראל to build a משכן, He promises that His Presence will dwell in it. Effectively, He promises to leave His heavenly home to reside in a far less heavenly structure, and in the midst of his people’s impurity. But, כצפור נודדת מן קנה כן איש נודד ממקומו, leaving home is not easy. And while some שמן וקטרת — a warm, well lit home and a few sacrificial meals — may help the transition a little, there would still be something missing. This Earth is still not שמים, and ה’ is still a צפור נודדת. The only thing that can make ה’ feel at home is מתק רעהו. What ה’ needs for His משכן is an אדם to be מכיר his בורא and to make ה’ feel welcome in the מחנה. That’s where the שמחה of a משכן really comes from, from אהרן and his big smile.

Imagine a משכן run by משה: “We built it just the way You told us to, so of course You should be happy in your new home.” But is that going to make ה’ feel at ease, at home, or for that matter, happy? No matter how well built the משכן, it’s still not the קנה, and ה’ is still a stranger far from His home.

But אהרן running a משכן is so much different: “I’m so glad you’re here. Let me light the מנורה, for You. Let me burn some קטרת, for You. Is there anything else I can do for you?” It’s a completely different attitude. And while the אמת may be that the משכן is not ה’s original home, with אהרן there, it starts to feel more like home. The שלום of אהרן sure makes it feel like the אמת that this משכן is ה’s home.

So when משה refuses to be the leader because “it’s just not right,” ה’ responds in kind. משה would still make a great leader. He would be ready to argue with ה’ if ever necessary (and it was necessary many times). But to fill the role of the כהן גדול, to welcome ה’ to His new home? That’s just not a role for the אמת ושלום of משה. His brother, אהרן, the embodiment of שלום ואמת, was much better suited for that role.

This past י”א אדר was the first yahrzeit of my grandmother, שינדל בת ר’ ישעיה צבי, we called her Bubby. Perhaps no trait describes Bubby as well as the שלום ואמת of אהרן הכהן. Bubby had no complaints, everything was alright for her, all the time. But that wasn’t just her attitude about herself. It was her attitude about everyone. No matter what was happening in your life, or in her life, she was always happy for you, wishing you מזל and ברכה, and that everything should be good. To her, there was never an assessment “is this the way things should be.” It just was the way it was, and that was great. She would make you feel like everything was the way it should be.

She’d bake those enormous trays of cookies for her late husband’s yahrzeit on שמיני עצרת. She’d make a kiddush in Aunt Susan’s סוכה. And they got some crowd for those kiddushes. But there was always enough for everyone (and plenty of leftovers for the grandchildren). People did not just come for the cookies. They came to see Bubby. They really felt like she baked that extra platter of cookies for them. And why? Her attitude. Her tremendous sense for שלום, that made the feeling that “Bubby baked this for me” into not just a whim, but the אמת.

It’s that same שלום that אהרן exuded. When אהרן felt left out of the חנוכת המזבת — the נשיאים had all brought gifts and אהרן’s שבט had not brought any — he was reassured, “your חלק is greater than theirs.” If the משכן were a restaurant, the נשיאים would be the delivery men, having dropped off the meat for someone else to prepare. But אהרן is the maitre d’. Bubby too, she didn’t just prepare the cookies, she served them. And with a smile. And that make all the difference.