Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Torah

NOW THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF AARON AND MOSES IN THE DAY THAT THE ETERNAL SPOKE WITH MOSES IN MOUNT SINAI. “And yet [in the following verse] Scripture only enumerates the sons of Aaron, [as it is said, And these are the names of the sons of Aaron! If so, why does it say here and Moses?] They [were indeed the sons of Aaron, but] they are called the generations of Moses because he taught them Torah. This establishes the principle that if one teaches the Torah to one’s fellow man, Scripture accounts it to him as though he had begotten him. In the day that the Eternal spoke to Moses did these children [of Aaron] become his [Moses’], because he taught them then what he learned from the mouth of the Almighty.” This is Rashi’s language. However, the expression in the day that the Eternal spoke to Moses is intended [not to convey the idea mentioned by Rashi, but] only to say that these were [Aaron’s four] sons [namely, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, as mentioned in Verse 2] in the day that the Eternal spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai, and then Scripture states [in the following verses] that Nadab and Abihu died, and that therefore they, for the reason that Rashi explained, but he is of course referring to Aaron’s sons. have no children now except Eleazar and Ithamar. Now Scripture mentions this in order to state that in the day that the Eternal spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai these [sons of Aaron] were chosen to be anointed, and their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting priesthood, but as for the rest of the tribe [of Levi], Moses was not commanded that they be chosen [for service in the Tabernacle] until now. And the reason why He mentioned the generations of Aaron and Moses at this place is that since He had completed the census of all Israel by their generations and by their fathers’ houses, and He now wanted to mention the generations of the tribe of Levi, He began with the leaders of that tribe. According to the plain meaning of Scripture, the sense of [the expression] the generations of Aaron and Moses is that the sons of Aaron were anointed priests separated from [the rest of] the tribe [of Levi] so that they be most holy, and the generations of Moses were the family of the Amramites which He mentions further on, since of the Amramites there were only the children of Moses, and they are counted among the Levites. This [verse] is thus similar to that which it is written, The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated, that he should be sanctified as most holy. But as for Moses the man of G-d, his sons are named among the tribe of Levi. And the homiletic interpretation [which Rashi mentioned, that the generations of Aaron are also attributed to Moses because he taught them Torah], the Rabbis based upon [the fact that] Scripture does not state “and these are the names of the sons of Moses,” as it does with the sons of Aaron [stating in Verse 3: These are the names of the sons of Aaron — therefore the Rabbis explained that the verse says: Now these are the generations of Aaron and Moses] to allude to [the principle that] the sons of Aaron are also the generations of Moses because he taught them Torah, for it is the way of the Torah to explain and to allude [to spiritual truths].

AND ELEAZAR AND ITHAMAR MINISTERED ‘AL PNEI’ AARON THEIR FATHER - “that is, during the lifetime [of Aaron their father].” This is the language of Rashi. Now [Rashi] does not mean to say that they ministered during their father’s lifetime, for all priests of the family of Aaron may minister during their fathers’ lifetime [so why should Scripture single out Eleazar and Ithamar in this respect?] Rather, [the verse says that they were anointed during Aaron’s lifetime], because He had stated [that Aaron’s sons were] the priests that were anointed, meaning that they too were like the High Priests in that they were anointed during Aaron’s lifetime, just as he [Aaron] was anointed, a procedure which was not applicable in later generations. But the correct interpretation is that the expression al pnei refers to the beginning [of the verse, and the order of the phrases is to be understood as if inverted, as follows]: “And Nadab and Abihu died before the Eternal ‘al pnei’ (in the presence of) Aaron their father, when they offered strange fire.”. And so indeed it is stated in the Book of Chronicles: And Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children, and Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest’s office. The meaning of [the expression] before the Eternal is that they died a miraculous death which came [directly] from Him. Similarly it is stated in the case of the spies that they died by the plague before the Eternal.

AND THE ETERNAL SPOKE UNTO MOSES IN THE WILDERNESS OF SINAI. The reason for this statement is that since Scripture said above in the day that the Eternal spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai, it refers back and says [here] that the command for counting the Levites was not given in Mount Sinai; for only the choosing of the [four] children of Aaron [as priests] took place in Mount Sinai on the day that He commanded Moses about the making of the Tabernacle, but he was not given the command about the choosing of [all] the Levites [as ministers to the priests] at Mount Sinai, but in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting, just like the commandment mentioned [above] concerning [the counting of] the children of Israel [about which it is clearly stated that it was in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting]. Now the tribe of Levi was not like all the other tribes, for [even though they were counted] from a month old and upward [unlike the other tribes who were counted only from the age of twenty years and over], they were still only twenty and two thousand, and from thirty years old and over they were all together [only] eight thousand [and five hundred and fourscore]., 4:48. Thus, their number from twenty years old and over does not reach even a half of the [number of the] smallest of [the other] tribes of Israel! And they did not as yet carry the ark, [that we should say] that its holiness took a toll of them! This is indeed astonishing, that His servants and His pious ones should not be blessed of the Eternal as were the rest of the people! Therefore I am of the opinion that this is a confirmation of what our Rabbis have said, 6. See also Ramban on Exodus 5:4. that the tribe of Levi was not [subject to] the enslavement of Egyptian bondage and the rigorous work [that was imposed on the rest of the tribes]. Now since the children of Israel’s lives were made bitter by the Egyptians with hard work in order to diminish them, the Holy One, blessed be He, increased them [miraculously] to overcome the decree of the Egyptians, just as He said, And as they afflicted them, so they multiplied and so they grew,, Verse 12. and just as it is said also with reference to the decree that if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, Verse 16. — and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty, Verse 20. — since the Holy One, blessed be He, said: “We shall see whose words shall stand, Mine or theirs. ” But the tribe of Levi [which was not subject to bondage] reproduced and increased in a normal way, and therefore they did not become as numerous as the other tribes. Perhaps also [their small numbers were] on account of the anger of the patriarch [Jacob] towards them, for the tribe of Shimon which now had a large population. decreased, so that at the time of their entry into the Land [they numbered only] twenty-two thousand [and two hundred — whereas most of the other tribes increased in the same period, or decreased relatively slightly]; similarly, Levi, the tribe of His pious ones, was not decreased in the plague [caused because of Peor, and yet at the time of entry into the Land they numbered only one thousand more, 26:62. than their present twenty-two thousand! Thus we see that it was the anger of the patriarch which affected the numbers of both Shimon and Levi.]

THE FAMILIES OF THE GERSHONITES WERE TO PITCH BEHIND THE TABERNACLE WESTWARD. Scripture did not begin from the east in [explaining] the charge of the [various families of the] Levites as it did in the case of the standards [of the other tribes], because the Levites had no charge there, except for Aaron and his sons the priests and Moses the priest of the priests. Therefore it began from the west, which was the position opposite the east. But He put the sons of Kohath who were the most honored of the Levites in the south [of the Tabernacle], which is the most distinguished direction [after the east], and He gave them [the charge of carrying] the ark and [all] holy vessels; and in the west [of the Tabernacle] He placed the sons of Gershon, since he was the firstborn [of Levi], and gave them [the charge of carrying] the Tabernacle and the Tent, and in the north, which is the last of the [four] directions, He put the sons of Merari, and gave them [the charge of] the implements of the sacred things.

TAKE THE LEVITES INSTEAD OF ALL THE FIRSTBORN AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The firstborns had become sanctified to G-d from the time that He commanded Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn … among the children of Israel etc. There were thus many firstborns in Israel who had not been redeemed until now, since it had not yet been said who would “redeem” them, for it was only now that the priests became sanctified, and [Israel] had not yet been commanded about the gifts of the priesthood. Thus they [the firstborns] continued without restriction in their sanctity, and it is possible that they performed the Service of the offerings, as our Rabbis have said. The correct opinion appears to me to be that not all these firstborns were born in the desert in one year, for the people did not increase there so rapidly [that there should have been twenty-two thousand firstborns in one year, corresponding to the twenty-two thousand Levites, with an excess over the Levites of two hundred and seventy-three]. Rather, all firstborns of Israel [alive at that time, even those born many years previously] were counted, for they were all sanctified, as I have explained there. Now, He exchanged them for the Levites, and this was their “redemption,” and He commanded to redeem those that exceeded [the number of the Levites by means of each one giving five shekels]. And He gave the redemption-money to Aaron and his sons, as is the commandment for all generations [that a firstborn son be redeemed by giving five shekels to a priest].