ויהי ביום השמיני קרא משה לאהרן ולבניו, “It came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called upon Aaron and his sons;” he intended to consecrate them as priests;

ולזקני ישראל, “and the elders of Israel;” so that they could stand and watch them present their sacrificial offerings.” (B’chor shor)

קח לך עגל, “take for yourself a calf;” it was customary for the priest to take a bull as a sin offering as is written in Leviticus 4,3: ,'אם הכהן המשיח יחטא וגו, “if the High Priest will sin, etc.; in other words, the calf will atone for the sin of the golden calf. [According to Sifra we must understand that verse as referring specifically to this High Priest. Ed.]

קחו שעיר עזים, “take a he-goat as a sin offering to atone for your sins, etc;” they had to pray for atonement for what their forefathers had done to Joseph, when they had sent his tunic soaked in the blood they had taken from the heg-oat they slaughtered for that purpose. (Genesis 37, 31-32) (Sifra) An alternate explanation: They needed to offer a sin offering for idolatry they had been guilty by burning he goats for idols. (in Egypt) (Tanchuma, section 4 on this portion) We find that also on other occasions such animals were burned in idolatrous rites outside the camp. (Torat Kohanim, chovah chapter 6,5.) This is why this he-goat was burned outside the camp, as we are told in verse 11.

ומנחה בלולה בשמן, “and a gift with oil mixed in;” the same applied to frankincense, as we had already learned in Parshat Vayikra, chapter 2, a standard procedure with all such gift offerings. We have also learned this in the Talmud tractate Menachot folio 59. All of these gift offerings consisted of unleavened dough, including this one.

כי היום ה׳ נראה אליכם, “for today the Lord will appear to you.” This is why it is appropriate to appear before him with a variety of offerings, including samples of all the categories of offerings. (B’chor shor).

זה הדבר, “this is the thing;” the sacrifices of which we spoke.

קרב אל המזבח, “come close to the altar;” seeing that during all of the seven days of the consecration Moses was performing all the duties in the Tabernacle and around it, he had to tell Aaron on the eighth day that the time had come for him to take over.

וכפר בעדך, “and (commence) by obtaining atonement for yourself,” and subsequently,“for the people,” so that someone free from guilt performs these rites. After all, both Aaron as well as the people had born a share of the guilt associated with the sin of the golden calf.

ואת הבשר ואת העור, “and both the meat and the skin, etc;” Rashi explains here that there is no other occasion when the blood of the sin offering is burnt outside the Tabernacle, except in this instance and on the preceding seven days. (when Moses officiated.) If you were to question that we find that the blood of the second bull offered by the Levites in Numbers 8,8-15 was also offered before the Levites entered the Tabernacle, and that in the Book of Ezra chapter 8,35, we encounter something similar, a) these were consecration offerings prior to the second Temple beginning to function, and b) Ezekiel had already predicted in Ezekiel 45,18-20, that in the new Temple the ritual involving all these sin offerings would take place outside the doorposts of Temple itself. What Rashi meant when he commented on our verse refers to every place when the consecration rites of the Tabernacle in the desert had been discussed, as well as when the consecration rites in the days of Ezra were discussed and when the prophet prophesied about the consecration rites of the third Temple, hopefully in our own days. The answer given to the question raised above in the first chapter of the Talmud, tractate Horiyot, is that what was done in the days of Ezra was an emergency measure, one from which no conclusions may be drawn for normal times.

שרף באש, “he burned in fire;” the reason for this has already been explained in both Exodus 29,14, and in the last Parshah.

על העולה — with the Olah offering

מלבד עולת הבקר, “in addition to the burnt offering in the morning.” This teaches that on this occasion two gift offerings were presented, one which was part of the daily burnt offering in the mornings, the other on its own. (Compare verse 4 in our chapter, and chapter 28 in the Book of Numbers).)

וישא אהרן את ידיו, “Aaron raised his hands, etc.;” this verse has been truncated somewhat; it should have commenced with: “from having completed the rites of the sin offering and the burnt offering and he then raised his hand in order to bless the people.”

וירד מעשות החטאת, “he descended from the altar from performing the rites of the sin offering,” i.e. burning up the parts not to be eaten.

ויבא משה ואהרן אל אהל מועד, “Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Meeting.” They did so in order to see the glory when heavenly fire would descend as proof that their sacrificial service had been accepted in heaven.

וירא כבוד ה, “the glory of the Lord appeared.” How so?

ותצא אש וגו, “Heavenly fire descended,” etc.; the heavenly fire that was visible in the time of Moses did not depart from the copper altar until the days of the Temple of Solomon. It disappeared only in the days of King Menashe, who had incurred G-d’s wrath more than any King of the kingdom of Yehudah before him.