Early in this week’s Sedra Hashem instructs Moshe Rabeinu to appoint Aharon his brother to be the Kohen Gadol. The Medrash tells us that Moshe Rabeinu wasn’t so eager to do so. The Medrash relates (Shemos Rabba 37, 4) that when Hashem instructed Moshe to appoint Aharon Kohen Gadol it was difficult for Moshe Rabeinu. The Medrash explains that Hashem answered Moshe Rabeinu that it was difficult for Him to give the Torah to Klal-Yisroel, yet nonetheless He did. The Medrash then explains Hashem’s retort with the following Mashal: There was once a man who married a woman very dear to him. After they were married for a decade without children the man asked his wife to help him find another wife so that he could have children. The man explained to his dear wife that although he didn’t really need her consent, he nevertheless wished to give her more power through her being the one to select the additional wife.

There are many complexities with this Medrash. Firstly, how could someone as great and as humble as Moshe Rabeinu begrudge giving his older brother the position of Kohen Gadol? Furthermore, what is the answer of the Medrash? And thirdly, what is so remarkable in being named an intermediary to appoint someone else to a position of power? How can being such a conduit be equated to having power? 

Perhaps we need to pay greater attention to the broader context within which this takes place.  Hashem comes to Moshe Rabeinu to instruct him regarding the Avoda in the Mishkan, and eventually in the Beis Hamikdash. What is involved is not merely a position of power, but rather the highest level in Avodas Hashem. Thus it already seems more understandable for Moshe to desire such a position. Therefore Moshe Rabeinu truly had a hard time coming to terms with passing on such a special position to his brother.

When Hashem gave Klal-Yisroel the Torah it is true that Hashem somehow relinquished some of that which belongs to Him. But for whose sake was Hashem doing this? For the sake of Am-Yisroel fulfilling the Torah – something that Hashem “couldn’t” do on His own. While there may, therefore, have been “so to speak” some sort of difficulty for Hashem to “part” from the Torah in some capacity Hashem nonetheless did so in order to facilitate more Torah and Mitzvos in the world.

This would help to explain the Mashal. The power the first wife would have over the second is that of the facilitator. Perhaps this is the message the Medrash is trying to convey: that the moment we understand that the purpose of the Torah in this world is to facilitate the greatest Kiddush Shamayim possible, we then understand that what it involves is not per say a competition, but rather a joint effort for the ultimate greatest Kiddush Shamayim.  If we would only internalize this message – how much more would we truly be Mekadesh Shem Shamayim?

A very warm Good Shabbos, Rabbi Y. Dov Krakowski.