The third law revealed on this day was the command that the children of
Israel put out of the camp every leper and every unclean person. When
Israel moved out of Egypt, the majority of the people were afflicted
with physical defects and diseases, contracted during their work on the
structures they had been compelled to erect in Egypt. One had his hand
crushed by a falling stone, another's eye blinded by splashing of loam.
It was a battered and crippled host that reached Sinai, eager to
receive the Torah, but God said: "Does it become the glory of the Torah
that I should bestow it on a race of cripples? Nor do I want to await
the coming of another, sound generation, for I desire no further delay
of the revelation of the Torah." Hereupon God sent angels to heal all
among Israel that were diseased or afflicted with defects, so that all
the children of Israel were sound and whole when they received the
Torah. They remained in this condition until they worshipped the Golden
Calf, when all their diseases returned as a punishment for their
defection from God. Only the women, during their stay in the desert,
were exempt from the customary ailments to which women are subject, as
a reward for being the first who declared themselves ready to accept
the Torah. When the Tabernacle had been consecrated, God now said to
Moses: "So long as you had not yet erected the Tabernacle, I did not
object to having the unclean and the lepers mingle with the rest of the
people, but now that the sanctuary is erected, and that My Shekinah
dwells among you, I insist upon your separating all these from among
you, that they may not defile the camp in the midst of which I dwell."
The law in regard to lepers was particularly severe, for they were
denied the right of staying within the camp, whereas the unclean were
prohibited merely from staying near the sanctuary. [412] The lepers
were the very ones who had worshipped the Golden Calf, and had as a
consequence been smitten with this disease, and it was for this reason
that God separated them from the community. Thirteen sins are punished
with leprosy by God: blasphemy, unchastity, murder, false suspicion,
pride, illegal appropriation of the rights of others, slander, theft,
perjury, profanation of the Divine Name, idolatry, envy, and contempt
of the Torah. Goliath was stricken with leprosy because he reviled God;
the daughters of Zion became leprous in punishment of their unchastity;
leprosy was Cain's punishment for the murder of Abel. When Moses said
to God, "But behold, they will not believe me," God replied: "O Moses,
art thou sure that they will not believe thee? They are believers and
the sons of believers. Thou who didst suspect them wrongly, put not
they hand into thy bosom,…..and he put his hand into his bosom: and
when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. " Uzziah
presumed upon the rights of the priesthood, and went into the Temple to
burn incense upon the altar of incense. He was just about to commit the
offence, when "the leprosy brake forth in his forehead." Leprosy fell
upon Naaman, who had grown arrogant because of his heroic deeds. For
slandering Moses Miriam became leprous as snow; and Gehazi was punished
by leprosy because he frustrated the purpose of Elisha, who desired to
accept nothing from Naaman in order that the cure might redound to the
glory of God. [413]
Another important law revealed on this day referred to the celebration
of "the second Passover feast." Mishael and Elzaphan, who had attended
to the burial of Nadab and Abihu, were godly men, anxious to fulfil the
commandments of God, hence they went to the house where Moses and Aaron
instructed the people, and said to them: "We are defiled by the dead
body of a man; wherefore are we kept back that we may not offer an
offering of the Lord in His appointed season among the children of
Israel?" Moses at first answered that they might not keep the Passover
owing to their condition of uncleanness, but they argued with him,
asking that even if, owing to their condition, they might not partake
of the sacrificial meat, they might, at least, be permitted to
participate in the offering of the paschal lamb by having the blood of
the offering sprinkled for them. Moses admitted that he could not pass
judgement on this case before receiving instruction concerning it from
God. For Moses had the rare privilege of being certain of receiving
revelations from God whenever he applied to Him. He therefore bade
Mishael and Elzaphan await God's judgement concerning their case, and
sentence was indeed revealed immediately. [414]
It was on this day also that God said to Moses: "A heavy blow of fate
had fallen upon Aaron to-day, but instead of murmuring he thanked Me
for the death that robbed him of his two sons, which proves his trust
in My justice toward them, who had deserved punishment more severe. Go
then, and comfort him; and at the same time tell him 'that he come not
at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat,
which is upon the Ark.'" These last words greatly aggrieved Moses, who
not thought: "Woe is me! For it seems as if Aaron had lost his rank,
since he may not at all times enter the sanctuary. The statement of the
periods for his admission into the sanctuary is also so indeterminate
that I am not at all sure whether they are to recur hourly, or daily,
or annually, every twelve years, perhaps even seventy, or not at all."
But God replied: "Thou art mistaken, I was not thinking of fixing a
certain time. Whether hour, or day or year, for Aaron may enter the
sanctuary at any time, but when he does so, he must observe certain
ceremonies." The ceremonies that Aaron, as well as every other high
priest, had to perform on the Day of Atonement before his entrance into
the Holy of Holies were symbolical of the three Patriarchs, of the four
wives of the Patriarchs, and of the twelve tribes. Only by depending
upon the merits of these pious men and women might the high priest
venture to enter the Holy of Holies without having to fear the angels
that filled this space. These were obliged to retreat upon the entrance
of the high priest, and even Satan had to flee whenever he beheld the
high priest, and did not dare to accuse Israel before God. [415]
Aaron's grief about the death of his sons was turned to joy when God,
on the day of their death, granted him the distinction of receiving a
direct revelation from the Lord, which prohibited both him and his sons
from drinking wine or strong drink when they went into the Tabernacle.
[416]
On this day, also, Moses received the revelation concerning the red
heifer, whose significance was never vouchsafed to any other human
being beside himself. On the following day, under the supervision of
Eleazar, Aaron's son, it was slaughtered and burned. Although, beside
this one, a number of other red heifers were provided in future
generations, this one was distinguished by having its ashes kept
forever, which, mingled with the ashes of other red heifers, were
always used for the purification of Israel. But it is in this world
alone that the priest can purify the unclean by sprinkling with this
water of purification, whereas in the future world God will sprinkle
clean water upon Israel, "that thy may be cleansed from all their
filthiness, and from all their idols." [417]