One final characteristic of Aharon related to the crown is found in the verse, “Happy is the man You choose and bring near” (בֵרָקְתּר וַחְבִּי תֵרְׁשַא). There are many souls that are chosen and many that are brought near, but Aharon is the only soul who is both chosen and brought near. Abraham for instance was chosen, but he was brought near. He came close through the virtue of his own Divine service. God wanted Abraham to bring himself closer to God. The same is true of Jacob. Even Moses was chosen but not brought near. Likewise, King David.
There are other souls that God brings near but does not treat as chosen. Those are the souls of the righteous converts, or of true ba'alei teshuvah among the Jewish people. The two examples that the sages give are Jethro whose conversion facilitated the Giving of the Torah. The second example is Rachav, who ended up converting and marrying Joshua after she was saved from Jericho. To be chosen means to be chosen from birth. We learn from this that we are responsible for bringing the souls of the converts near. If there is any source in the Torah that we should reach out to potential converts, then this is it. We need to be able to identify who is a potential convert and once we see their sincerity and seriousness in becoming Jewish, we should not wait until they decide to pursue a path of conversion to reach out to them.
Once again, Aharon is the only individual who was both chosen (from birth) to be a High Priest and who is brought near. The Torah describes that it was Moses who was commanded to bring Aharon near, “You shall bring your brother Aharon near” (ָיךִחָן אֹרֲהַת אֶ אָיךֶלֵב אֵרְקַה הָּתַאְו). Moses needed to bring him near because he was not ready to bring himself forward to become the High Priest. Moshe had to pull him in. Aharon is thus the happiest soul in the world for having been both chosen and brought near. The state of happiness (רֶׁשֹא) that Aharon has is a crown property. The two acts of being chosen and being brought near relate to the wisdom and understanding of the crown.
Putting all these attributes in Aharon's crown together, we get the following model:
letter of Havayahsefirah within the crownAharon’s characteristictip of yudcrownDid not sacrifice himself to prevent the construction of the Golden Calfyud and heiwisdom & understandingLove of delightsvavbeautyBlessing the Priestly Blessing with loveheikingdomSatisfaction of being chosen and brought nearAharon did not sacrifice himself to prevent the making of the Golden Calf. Although it might not have prevented the Israelites from going ahead with the Golden Calf and its idolatry (as we see that Hur’s sacrifice did not stop it from happening), it would have rectified Haran’s soul, which is what God wanted from him. This is the crown of the crown.
The love of delights corresponds to wisdom and understanding of the crown. Both wisdom and understanding are related to delight or pleasure, but the difference is that in wisdom, there is no experience of pleasure, while in understanding there is. They are alluded to in the phrase, “A source of delight day by day” (םֹם יוֹים יוִעּוׁשֲעַׁש), where the two “days” each correspond to either wisdom or understanding.
That Aharon is the source of the line of light that comes down from before the primordial contraction corresponds to the sefirah of beauty and clearly to the letter vav (whose form is a line) in Havayah. The Priestly Blessing which manifests this also corresponds to the sefirah of loving-kindness that is part of the vav in Havayah.
Finally, the state of utter satisfaction that Aharon has from being both chosen and brought near is in the kingdom of the crown. Normally, satisfaction is a negative experience, as it tends to dampen enthusiasm and to increase egocentricity. However, in this case, by knowing that both his chosen status and his nearness are from Above, his satisfaction is rectified and complete.
Notes:
1. Songs of Songs 7:7.
2. He appears once more in the lineage of Bezalel, the artisan who was in charge of making the Tabernacle.
3. Psalms 36:10.
4. Psalms 65:5.
5. Exodus 28:1.
6. Proverbs 8:30.
