Who was the First High Priest of Israel?
It is generally accepted that Aharon, the brother of Mosheh, was the first High Priest of Israel. But is it so? At first glance, Aharon appears to be the first High priest, but a closer examination shows that much of the text of the Torah and Tanach has been overlooked. It is the object of this work to seek the answer to this question.
A careful reading of the Tanach, the Hebrew Scripture, will show that there was another one who was rightfully acknowledge as the first priest of Israel. So, if Aharon was not Israel’s first High Priest, who was before him? As we will show, this study is not a mere rendition of rabbinic literature but also a further development of the concept of priesthood, as the present author has added his personal understanding in order that the studious reader can obtain more knowledge of some less-obvious matters. We will explain the matter in the following vein, as we would like to posit another way to look at this.
In the last Torah portion of the Book of Exodus, “Accounts of” (Exodus 38:21-40:38), we learn of the final preparations for the inauguration of Aharon and his sons as priests of the newly born nation. This inauguration will take place in the Torah portion of the Book of Leviticus, Shemini, “The Eighth” (Leviticus 9:1-11:47) on the first day of service of the official priesthood of Israel. What follows in Leviticus 11:1-27:34 is the sanctification of the children of Israel. Therefore, in the above outline we see the progression from the sanctification of the Tabernacle to the sanctification of the priesthood to the sanctification of Israel. These teachings on the sanctification of the nation will continue throughout the rest of the Book of Leviticus. Meanwhile in the first Torah portion of the Book of Leviticus, Vayikra, “And he called” (Leviticus 1:1-5:26), the Lord will start introducing laws which Mosheh is to teach the children of Israel concerning unintentional sins. At the end of this study, we will understand why.
The Torah portion Pekudei begins like this, “These are the accounts of the Mishkan (Residence), of the Residence of Testimony”. From the very beginning of the Torah portion Pekudei (“accounts of”) is to disclose the purpose of the Mishkan. According to the plain meaning of the text, it is implied that its purpose is to serve as a residence of the Covenant (The Ten Witnesses) of the Eternal among His people. Hence, the correct translation of the Hebrew word mishkan: “residence”. According to the great medieval Torah commentator Rabbi Moses Nachmanides (1194–1270), the plain meaning of the text implies that the purpose of the mishkan is to bring God down to earth. We should recall that at the construction of the Tabernacle, YHVH told Mosheh that He would make His meetings with him at the ark in the most sacred place.
About nine months had elapsed between the arrival of the Israelites at Sinai, in the third month after the Exodus of Israel from Egypt (see Exodus 19:1), when on the first day of the second year, all the work regarding the building of the Residence of YHVH was finished and erected (Exodus 40:2). But all this time of nine months from their arrival at Sinai was not spent for the building of the Tabernacle and all other attributes connected with the service YHVH commanded Israel to do, because there were three days of preparation for the revelation of the Covenant and the Book of the Torah (Exodus 19:1-24:11), and the 120 days Mosheh was with YHVH on the mountain (Exodus 24:18; Exodus 34:28) and the intermediate days between his first and second ascension (see Exodus 32 and 33). Hence, the work on the building of the Tabernacle and its vessels lasted about five months.
Then Pekudei continues in Chapter 40 with the command of YHVH spoken to Mosheh to raise the Tabernacle (Mishkan) on the first day of the first month. And it came to be in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, that the Residence was raised up (Exodus 40:17). But meanwhile, YHVH instructed Mosheh to anoint the Residence wherein His Testimony would reside, the copper altar for the burned offerings and the basin to set them apart. And when this job would be done, then Mosheh was to bring Aharon and his sons to the door of the Tabernacle and wash them with water, and to anoint Aharon and set him apart to serve as priest to YHVH. And only when Aharon was anointed, Mosheh was to anoint his sons to serve as priests in everlasting priesthood.
And he took the Witness and put it into the ark, and he put the poles through the rings of the ark, and put the lid of atonement on top of the ark, (Exo 40:20)
When all the work on the Tabernacle and the Ark was finished, Mosheh placed the Tablets of the Covenant inside the Ark. He took the Tablets out of the wooden box (the wooden ark he himself built), where they had been kept in his tent since he brought them from the Mountain with him and put them into the golden Ark that Betzalel constructed. That ceremony happened on the Day of Atonement, as we explained in Chapter The First Year at Mount Sinai of the book The Reckoning of Time. He then placed the poles in the rings of the Ark, so that could stay there forever, and placed the golden cover with cheruvim on top of the Ark with the Testimony. He brought the Ark into the most sacred placed in the Tabernacle and placed the partition curtain to divide it from the rest of the Tabernacle, as YHVH had commanded him. He then put the pieces of the broken tablets into the wooden ark he had made. After Mosheh brought the ark with the Tablets of the Covenant into the most set-apart place of the Tabernacle, the very tablets he held in his arms, and hung the dividing curtain to divide the most sacred from the sacred, he saw the tablets no more. They were placed in the golden Ark, covered with the lid not to be seen by anyone. Mosheh then burned sweet incense on the altar of incense, as the Eternal had commanded Mosheh (Note this, because the language of the text, if properly considered, contains the answer),
And he put the golden altar in the Tent of Meeting before the veil. And he burned on it incense of sweet spices, as YHVH commanded Mosheh. (Exo 40:26-27)
And he put the altar for the burned offering before the door of the Residence of the Eternal, and offered upon it the offering, as commanded (Exodus 40:29). It is worth noting here that the sacrificial service was performed upon both altars before they had been anointed (compare to Leviticus 8:10-11). It is also worth noting that the Tabernacle and its furniture were not made sacred by the mere anointing. They were made sacred by the fact that they were built, prepared, and set up, according to the instructions given by the Eternal, by the fact that after the Tabernacle had been erected as a residence for the Eternal among His people, His glory filled the Tabernacle (see Exodus 40:34). But Mosheh was not able to come into the Tent, because of the cloud began to dwell on it by day and fire was on it by night, and so was it when the children of Israel travelled in the wilderness. With this account the Book of Exodus ends in order to introduce the next book of the Torah: Leviticus.
By now the careful reader must have noticed the pattern we have followed through and the end point we will reach by logical reasoning. This matter has already been expounded by other commentators, but there is yet more to be learned from it.
Although Aharon was anointed on the first of the seven days, Mosheh served as a High Priest for the first seven days before the inauguration of his brother in the Priesthood. All these seven days of initiation, Mosheh performed the duties of the High Priest as expected, for there was no one in Israel greater than him. And since Aharon entered the High Priesthood only on the eighth day, Mosheh therefore had acted as High Priest during the first seven of the consecration of Aharon and his sons in the Tabernacle, as instructed to act. And only after that, Aharon took over the priesthood on the eighth day, and since then he acted in the position of the High Priest of Israel until his last day.
Now, there is a unnoticed verse in the Psalms wherein Mosheh was actually called kohein, “priest”, as we have Scriptural proof of this Psalm 99. We read,
Mosheh and Aharon were among His priests, And Shemu’el was among those calling upon His Name. They called upon YHVH, and He answered them. (Psa 99:6)
In order to make this clear to the reader, the psalmist calls both Mosheh and Aharon “priests”. The psalmist wants us to know this. Note this as he is not merely being informative here. Since Aharon had never been a regular priest but on the eighth day began to perform the function of the High Priest, and since Mosheh inaugurated him as such, it is most appropriate to read and interpret the phrase in question as “among His [high] priests”. It is for the reason of what is said in Psalm 99 that the great Torah commentator Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, Nachmanides, wrote in his commentary to Exodus 40:27: “Thus, Moses our Teacher was the first priest in all these acts of service, therefore he also burned the incense”. The Psalms makes explicit what is implicit in the Torah. Therefore, the correct interpretation of Exodus 40:27 appears to us to be that of Nachmanides who understands the verse to refer to Mosheh being the first High Priest of Israel. This is apparent to the understanding that only the High Priest was permitted to burn incense on this altar. The reader who is acquainted with the Torah will succeed in finding these texts.
At this point in the discussion, it is necessary to understand why they are both called “high priests”. In order to better understand what really happened at the transition from the Torah portion Pekudei to Vayikra, we need to understand first what had happened in the events that led to the Torah portion Pekudei. With regard to the priesthood, we need to widen out this concept a bit, as we will explore this matter in the context of the story of the Golden Calf, a story that poses significant challenges for the careful thinker.
A pivotal point in the Torah and history of the nation of Israel that changed the way we read, understand, and do Torah is the Golden Calf incident. How did that error of creating an image of the Eternal turned the history? The studious reader knows that before the Golden calf the firstborn of Israel were set apart to become the priests to serve the Lord. They were chosen for this service as an exchange for saving their lives when the Israelites put the blood of the Passover lambs on their doorposts in Egypt. But because the Israelites sinned against the Lord with bowing down before the altar of the Golden Calf, this high-level service was taken away from the firstborn and given to the Levites, who did not participate in this cult. Moreover, because the Levites were so jealous for the Lord that they stood behind Mosheh and executed judgement on about 3,000 who donated their jewelry for the making of the Golden Calf. This grave error changed the way we serve the Lord today. In what way did it change it?
The firstborn children of Israel were chosen for the service of the priesthood. The whole nation was brought to the sacred mountain to witness the revelation of the Lord and receive the Covenant (The Ten Witnesses) written with the finger of the Lord on two stone tablets. Along with the Covenant the Lord gave Mosheh the Book of the Covenant (see Exodus 20:22 to Exodus 23:19). Prior to the giving the Covenant and Torah, the laws of the Sabbath Day were also given right after the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 16), and even further the laws of the Passover while Israelites were still in Egypt (Exodus 12). In the Book of the Covenant, only three festivals of ingathering were instituted: The Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering (see Exodus 23:14-17). To these three pilgrimages the other appointed times of YHVH (like Yom Kippurim) were added in Leviticus 23, as a result of the sin of the Golden Calf, in order to atone for the unintentional sins, the people might commit in the future (see Leviticus 4:2). It is the opinion of the present author that had the children of Israel not sinned with the idol, there would have been no necessity for the commandments of bringing sacrifices before the Lord for atonement of sins. Had they not sinned, the firstborn would have been the priests of Israel, Aharon included for he was indeed the firstborn of his father. All this happened to Israel because of the Golden Calf. Hence, all laws of the Book of Leviticus are legislated to serve as a reminder that the sin of the Golden Calf had not been erased completely, for it is said in Exodus 32:34: “In the day of My visitation I shall visit their sin upon them”.
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