By Rabbi Moshe Pogrow
All fruit trees are similar, watered by rain and producing leaves and blossoms. Almond trees are unique because they blossom even before growing leaves. They are called shkeidim, from the shoresh of zeal and devotion. While its brothers are still making up their minds, it has already completed the work—the whole purpose of the blossom is to produce fruit. This is a perfect depiction of the spirit of Levi. Only the Leviim responded to the call of “Mi laHashem eilai” (Shemos 32:26) and gathered around Moshe, and this spirit was inherited by the elite of the family—Aharon and his sons.
At the same time, a promise is expressed here. The almond tree only precedes the others in blossoming and producing fruit—it leads the way, but the other trees eventually follow its example. Similarly, the Leviim and kohanim lead the way in spiritual development, and the rest of the tribes are called upon to follow their example and attain the same level.
Just as the luchos attest to the Divine origin of the Torah, Aharon’s staff attests to the Divine origin of his role: only on the basis of Hashem’s choice do he and his descendants serve as kohanim. His staff was placed beside the luchos, and from this we learn its significance: the sons of Aharon are chosen from the Leviim, the Leviim from the people, and the people are kept at a distance from the Sanctuary, a continuation of the hagbalah first mentioned at Matan Torah, when the luchos were given.
This hagbalah demonstrated that the Torah came to the people and did not develop from within them—it is eternal, immutable, and inviolable. But the same hagbalah is continued by the fact that the kohanim and the Leviim camp around the Sanctuary, while the people are kept at a distance.
One day, the gap between the Torah’s ideal and its realization amidst the people will close, and the presumptuousness in Korach’s claim—ki kol ha’eidah kulam kedoshim ubesocham Hashem—will gradually diminish. The more this ideal is realized, the more we have to fear that man might rebel and deny the Torah’s Divine origin, considering it a creation of the human mind.
For this reason boundaries were given, applying for all time. They keep the people at a distance from the edus by means of the Leviim and the kohanim, and it warns even the greatest Torah sages, who are constantly preoccupied with the love of Torah, that they, too, must grasp the Torah in absolute objectivity.
For the Torah is Divine and unapproachable, and even the kohanim may approach the edus of the Torah only in the vestments symbolic of their service and only after kiddush yadayim v’raglayim. Throughout the centuries, the warning of hagbalah issues from Sinai.
Based on the commentary of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l on Chumash, with permission from the publisher.
