## Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar

###### Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 3:1:1
[Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 3:1:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbeinu%20Bahya/s/Bamidbar/r/3:1:1)

**ואלה תולדות אהרן ומשה.** הזכיר משה לפי שלמדם תורה, כי תלמידיו של אדם הן הן תולדותיו העקריות, והיו תולדות אהרן בהולדה ותולדות משה בלמוד התורה, ולזה הזכיר הר סיני שבו נתנה תורה, ואמר **ביום דבר ה' את משה בהר סיני.** וכן דרשו רז"ל כל המלמד את בן חברו תורה מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו ילדו. ואחרי כן הזכיר ואלה שמות בני אהרן לבאר שהיו בנים לאהרן לבדו, ולזה הזכיר ארבעתם בשמותם. ואחרי כן הזכיר שלישית אלה שמות בני אהרן הכהנים המשוחים אשר מלא וגו'.

**Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009:**
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.


###### Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 3:1:2
[Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 3:1:2](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbeinu%20Bahya/s/Bamidbar/r/3:1:2)

**ויתכן**לפרש על דרך הפשט כי הוצרך זה ללמדך שהקב"ה מדקדק עם הצדיקים כחוט השערה, שנאמר (תהילים נ׳:ג׳) וסביביו נשערה מאד, ועל כן הוסיף הכהנים המשוחים ולומר כי אפילו אנשים גדולים כאלו הכהנים המשוחים אשר מלא ידם לכהן לא נשא פניהם כשחטאו לפניו אבל הענישם מיד בעונש מיתה, וזהו שכתוב (דברים כ״ח:נ׳) אשר לא ישא פנים לזקן וכתיב (איוב ל״ד:י״ט) אשר לא נשא פני שרים ולא נכר שוע לפני דל כי מעשה ידיו כלם.

**Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009:**
According to the plain meaning of the text we can explain this apparent duplication of information already supplied by the Torah as proof that G’d is very meticulous when dealing with even the slightest error committed by socially and spiritually eminent people such as the sons of Aaron (and of course Aaron himself as well as Moses). We have a verse to this effect in Psalms 50,3: ”those around Him are judged fiercely.” By adding the words: “the priests who had been anointed,” the Torah explains in advance why even highly esteemed people like Nadav and Avihu do not have their mistakes overlooked; not only is G’d not indulgent with people of such stature, but, on the contrary, He is more demanding of them in light of their representing not only themselves but G’d and His image. When the Torah describes the enemies of Israel who will invade the country as part of G’d’s retribution for Israel’s private and collective sins, it mentions a people who will show no respect for the elderly (Deut. 28,50). The reason this is mentioned is because normally one indulges the elderly, crediting them with wisdom, etc. G’d had to make plain that in His system of justice the more rarefied the spiritual atmosphere in which a person moves the more is he prone to retributive action by G’d if he fails to live up to G’d’s and the people’s expectations. We find the same point being made in Job 34,19 when Elihu tells his friend Job that “he is not partial to princes; the noble are not preferred to the wretched, for all are the work of His hands.”


###### Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 3:1:3
[Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 3:1:3](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbeinu%20Bahya/s/Bamidbar/r/3:1:3)

**ויתכן**עוד שיהיה בכתוב סוד, כי בני אהרן יחזור לנדב ואביהוא בלבד שכבר מתו, והוא שהזכיר וימת נדב ואביהוא לפני ה', ואמר הכהנים המשוחים ומפני שארבעתם היו משוחים לכך הוצרך לפרש אשר מלא ידם לכהן קרי ביה לכהן, כלומר אותם אשר מלא ידם לכהן אחר, והוא פינחס בן אלעזר, והוא שכתוב (שמות ו׳:כ״ה) ותלד לו את פינחס אלה וגו', וזהו שהזכירה תורה מיתת נדב ואביהוא בפרשת פינחס, וזהו שכתוב בתחלת פרשת פינחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן, כי כל התורה כולה רמזים והערות, ועל כן הזכיר בכאן שלשה פעמים אלה לרמוז על שלש הויות, הראשונה הויה שכלית כלפי משה, והשניה גופנית כלפי אהרן, והשלישית הויה מחודשת כפי מדותיו של הקב"ה. ומפני ששתי הויות היו בזמן אחד לכך הזכיר בהן ואלה בקשור וא"ו, מה שאין כן בהויה מחודשת שבה הזכיר אלה בלא וא"ו. והואיל והזכירם פירש מיתתם וחטאם שמתו בו.

**Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009:**
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.


###### Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 3:15:1
[Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 3:15:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbeinu%20Bahya/s/Bamidbar/r/3:15:1)

**מבן חדש ומעלה תפקדם.** אמרו במדרש זהו שאמר הכתוב (תהילים צ״ב:י״ג) צדיק כתמר יפרח, מה תמרה זו צלה רחוק כך מתן שכרן של צדיקים רחוק, מה היא עושה תמרים ועושה נובלות אף ישראל יש בהם בני תורה ויש בהם עמי הארץ, מה היא עושה נובלות שאין נכנסין לאוצר ויש בה תמרים שנכנסין לאוצר כך ישראל במדבר מהם נכנסו לארץ ישראל ומהם לא נכנסו.

**Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009:**
מבן חדש ומעלה תפקדם, “you shall number them from one month up.” Our sages in Tanchuma Bamidbar 15 refer to Psalms 92,13 where the righteous is described as blooming like a date palm, saying that the reason that David chose this metaphor was that the shade of a palm tree can reach very far from its trunk. In other words, most of the time, sitting immediately under that tree you do not get much shade. They compare this to the reward the righteous receives for his righteousness. It is not immediate but delayed just like the full effect of the shade cast by the palm tree. Another similarity between the date palm and the people of Israel is that just as the date palm produces both dates (edible) and unripe or underdeveloped useless offshoots, so the Jewish people produce both righteous people, Torah scholars as well as ignorant people not worth preserving in G’d’s storage chambers. Some Israelites were deemed worthy to enter G’d’s treasure chamber, i.e. the land of Israel, others were not.