Parshat Acharei Mot, by Levi Genesove

This week’s parshah, Acharei Mot, discusses the service of the Kohen Gadol on the holy day of Yom Kippur.

It says in this week’s parshah, “And Hashem said to Moses: Speak to Aaron, your brother – he may not come at all times into the Sanctuary... With this shall Aaron come into the Sanctuary: with a bull, a young male of cattle, for a sin-offering and a ram for an olah-offering” (Vayikrah 16:2-3).

In Parshat Pinchas it says regarding the offerings on Yom Kippur, “You shall offer a burnt-offering to Hashem... one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs in their first year...” (Bamidbar 29:8).

The gemarah in Masechet Yoma (70b) brings an opinion which says that the ram mentioned in Acharei Mot is the same ram mentioned in Parshat Pinchas. The Gra asks why does this only mention the ram from Parshat Pinchas and not the other offerings which are needed to be offered, like the ram and the seven male lambs?

The Gra (the Vilna Gaon) explains this by bringing a Midrash (see Vayikrah Rab 21:7) which says that when Hashem told Moshe Rabeinu that his brother, Aaron, may not come at all times into the Sanctuary (i.e. Kodesh HaKedoshim), Moshe felt very upset and was worried that Aaron will have such a strong desire to enter the Sanctuary that he will enter on a day that is forbidden for him to enter. Hashem explains to Moshe that Aaron is allowed to enter the Sanctuary any day during the year so long he does the service which Hashem details to Moshe.

It seems from this that the other Kohanim are only allowed to enter the Sanctuary on Yom Kippur, but Aaron is allowed to enter if he does the service mentioned in this parshah.
Now we can understand the parshah for in the whole parshah only Aaron is mentioned (“with this shall Aaron”, “and Aaron shall offer”, “and Aaron shall give”) until it says, “This shall remain for you an eternal decree” where the parshah continues with saying what the “kohen” should do and the end of the parshah says, “This shall be an eternal decree to bring atonement upon the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year...” This means that the kohanim will do the service once a year to atone on Yom Kippur while Aaron is permitted to enter with this service all year.

Now the opinion in Yoma makes sense to only mention the ram since Aaron did not need to offer the additional offerings during the year for the additional offerings are only offered on Yom Kippur.

This also helps us with a later pasuk in the Parshah which says, “Aaron shall come to the Tent of Meeting – he shall remove the linen garments that he had worn when he entered the Sanctuary, and he shall leave them there” (Vayikrah 16:23). Rashi says that this pasuk is not in the correct order of the service for it needs to take place later in the service after his olah-offering and the olah-offering of the people, and the burning of the specified parts of the bull and the he-goat. We can derive from our new insight that when Rashi says that this pasuk is in the wrong place he is referring to the service of Yom Kippur, but for Aaron who can do this service during the whole year, this pasuk is exactly in the correct order of the service when Aaron does the service during the year.


Shabbat Shalom