ויהי ביום השמיני ...ויאמר אל אהרן וגו', “It was on the eighth day…he said to Aaron, etc.” Up until now the Torah did not spell out which of the sacrifices mentioned had been commanded to Moses in which order, and the Torah contented itself with writing: זה הדבר אשר צוה ה' תעשו, “this is the matter which the Lord has commanded you are to do,” and the sacrifices mentioned here in our portion had not been recorded as being specifically commanded to Moses to command to Aaron and the Children of Israel respectively. Now- as opposed to the seven days previously when Moses had been offering the מילואים inaugural sacrifices,- Aaron and his sons, and subsequently he and his sons on behalf of the people at large, will perform these procedures. The sacrifices mentioned here served as consecration sacrifices for the people. The מנחה gift offering that Aaron was to bring with the sin offering and the burnt offering was the חביטים offering he was required to offer every single day of the year. The Midrash suggests that the calf that Aaron was instructed to offer here served as a sin offering for his share in the sin of the golden calf. Nachmanides writes that Aaron’s sacrifice here was no different in nature from his personal sin offering on the Day of Atonement, and the sin offering on behalf of the people also corresponded to the sin offering he brought on behalf of the people on the Day of Atonement, when he offered a he-goat as their sin offering. It would appear therefore that seeing that the reason for Aaron’s sin-offering corresponded to his sin offering on the Day of Atonement, he burned it, just as he burned the one on the Day of Atonement. This was so, in spite of the fact, that this sin offering was offered on the large altar in the courtyard of the Tabernacle, and part of such sin-offerings are usually consumed by the male priests within the holy precincts. (Zevachim, chapter 5) Though we do not hear that Moses had instructed him to burn this sin offering, it is possible that he had received such instructions and the Torah did not bother to inform us of this. There was no need for the Torah to mention the directive, as clearly, Aaron would not proceed on his own initiative to offer an offering he had not been told to offer. There is a further statement in the Midrash to the effect that the שור, bull, was intended as atonement for the Israelites’ share in the sin of the golden calf, and that the reason that here a male goat was added was to atone for the brothers having dipped Joseph’s coloured tunic in the blood of a male goat at the time, a sin which had not yet been atoned for. [According to an ancient version of the Tanchuma, this was to reassure the Israelites that the sin of the golden calf had been forgiven. Ed.]

ואל בני ישראל תדבר לאמר, “and to the Children of Israel say as follows:” Moses told Aaron to speak to the Israelites directly and command them in the name of the Lord. This was meant to enhance Aaron’s status among the people seeing that it was he who performed all these rites on behalf of the people. If not for this reason it would have been appropriate for Moses to also include the elders in his address to Aaron, seeing that the elders had been mentioned in verse one as having been called to Moses’ presence also. But Moses was anxious for the people to be addressed by Aaron separately, independently of the elders. When the people had been instructed that each Israelite householder was to secure a lamb for the Passover, (Exodus 12,21) Moses had allowed all the elders to convey that directive. [The latter paragraph is phrased in a manner that could suggest that it is a retreat from the author’s first interpretation. Ed.]

ויקרב אהרן אל המזבח וישחט, “Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered;” Nachmanides writes that in his personal view, the plain meaning of the words קרב אל המזבח is that Aaron is to approach the north side of the altar where he is to perform the procedures involving the sin offering and the burnt offering, seeing these two types of offerings need to be slaughtered on the north side of the altar. (Zevachim chapter 5*)* The catching of the blood of these offerings must also be carried out on the north side of the altar in the appropriate vessels. Moses recorded this in abbreviated form as Aaron was already familiar with the procedure. According to a Midrash, seeing that Aaron was a קדוש ה', someone sanctified by Hashem, his life having been stained only by one marginal sin, his involvement in the sin of the golden calf, this sin was something which preyed on his mind constantly, similar to David’s remark וחטאתי נגדי תמיד, “and I am constantly conscious of my sin against You.“ (Psalms 51, 5) He felt that the image of the golden calf constantly intruded upon his imagination and interfered with the proper concentration required when presenting sacrifices on behalf of others. This is why Moses tried to restore his mental equilibrium by telling him not to be depressed, that G’d had already forgiven his involvement in that sin. Some commentators think that it had been Satan that had shown Aaron these images of the golden calf, and that Moses told Aaron that in spite of he fact that as far as G’d was concerned, his sin had been forgiven, he also had to do something to shut up Satan so that the latter would not be able to upset him at the crucial time when he would perform sacrificial duties. This is the approach taken to our verse by Torat Kohanim.

ויקרב את המנחה, “he presented the minchah offering.” Although in the directives, he had first been told about offering a bull and a ram, followed by the gift offering mixed with oil, he offered the gift offering first, because Moses had told them all the meat offerings in one directive followed by the instruction about the gift offering. Aaron actually offered the gift offering in the proper order simultaneously with the meat offering.

מלבד עולת הבוקר, “in addition to the daily burnt offering which was presented each morning.” Nachmanides writes that the Torah had to record this additional detail (about the daily burnt offering in the morning) in order to teach us that an offering brought on behalf of the whole people, such as here- cannot replace the daily mandatory communal offering known as tamid. (Called here עולת הבוקר). Not only this, but the daily tamid is offered before any other offering, communal or private. Actually, if not for teaching us this aspect of the daily communal tamid, there was no need to make special mention of this during the days of the inaugural offerings, seeing those were not communal offerings but private offerings, which had been designed to serve as the introduction of the priests to their position as the people’s intermediary between themselves and G’d. Therefore, there had not been the slightest reason to assume that their offerings could replace the daily tamid. This may be the reason why in the Torat Kohanim the reference is understood as pertaining only to the libation offering, מנחת נסכים, which accompanied the daily tamid, and which was considered a private offering, the wording here teaches that both these libation offerings were presented.

והמכסה, “and the covering fats;” Rashi claims that this abbreviated reference refers to the fat membranes covering various innards.” Nachmanides queries this interpretation, asking why this fat part should be singled out for special mention? He therefore explains that the word המכסה sums up all the fat parts which cover the innards, be it kidneys, parts of the liver, etc, Any fat part offered on the altar and burned up there is included in the term המכסה. Whereas a distinction is made between חלב על and חלב המכסה, when it comes to its function on the altar, there is no such distinction. Basically, our verse refers to what has been written before beginning with the words וימציאו in the middle of verse 18. From the word ומן האיל (המציאו) in verse 19 what is written belongs to what follows in the text. In other words, the parts mentioned after ומן האיל were all burned up on the altar.

וישימו את החלבים על החזות, “they positioned the fat parts on top of the breasts;” The fat tail, the kidneys and the attachment to the liver would be placed below; above that would be placed the various parts of fatty substance; both of these would be placed above the breasts of the animals From the outside only the fatty membranes would be visible; this was out of consideration for the “dignity” of the remnants of the animals.

וישא אהרן את ידיו אל העם ויברכם, “Aaron raised his hands toward the people and blessed them.” Rashi says that he blessed them with the standard blessing of the priests, the verses 24-26 in Numbers chapter 6. Nachmanides comments that if this were so then the paragraph in Numbers must have been inserted in the Torah out of turn. It is quite possible that this is indeed so, seeing that the paragraph following the blessing there dealt with events which occurred on the day the erecting of the Tabernacle was completed, i.e. the 1st day of Nissan of the second year, the day when the inaugural offerings were completed also. It is quite possible that Aaron raised his hands heavenwards, as did King Solomon when he blessed the people when the Temple was inaugurated (Kings I 8,22) If Aaron used the standard blessing used by the priests, this would account for the fact that we did not hear Moses instruct him to bless the people.

וירד מעשות החטאת והעולה והשלמים, “he descended from having performed the sin-offering, the burnt offering, and the peace-offering.” The Torah does not mention Aaron having also performed the minchah, gift offering. Some commentators claim that seeing that the gift offering is only an offering preparatory to ensuring that the major part of offering is acceptable to Hashem, there was no need to mention this. We must assume that the Torah only bothered to mention the animal sacrifices.

ויבא משה ואהרן, “Moses and Aaron came (to the tent of Meeting);” According to Rashi, the reason Moses entered was to teach Aaron the details of the presentation of the incense. All the commentators wonder why Moses delayed this part of Aaron’s instructions until this late stage, seeing that the offering of the incense is slated to take place between the sprinkling of the blood and the burning up of the portions of the daily tamid sacrifice that needs to be burned up on the altar? The answer given is that up until his point the heavenly fire that was to consume this offering had not yet materialized. Moses wanted to await that happening.

ותצא אש מלפני ה' וגו', “fire came forth from Hashem, and consumed the burnt offering on the altar.” According to the sages who accuse the sons of Aaron Nadav and Avihu of having entered the holy precincts while in a state of inebriation, although no decree had yet been issued to forbid this, and we have a rule that no death penalty is applied unless the guilty party had first been warned that what he was about to do would carry such a penalty, one must assume that they were punished for something for which punishment had been withheld thus far, and now that the opportunity of further indictment presented itself, the penalty for prior misconduct was enacted. This answer would also explain why the method of their death was by burning, seeing that the death penalty for entering the holy precincts in a state of intoxication would be punishable by a different death penalty. Nachmanides argues that they were not punished because they were intoxicated, but hat it was their intoxication which led them to commit an error that carried the death penalty.