Excerpted From a Ma’amar by the Tolna Rebbe שליט"א
ומשחת את הכיור ואת כנו וקדשת אותו – “And you shall anoint the basin and its base, and consecrate it.” (40:11)
This refers to the formal consecration of the kiyor, the water basin from which the kohanim were required to wash before entering the Mishkan to perform the avoda.
Targum Yonasan ben Uziel surprisingly interprets this pasuk as an allusion to Yehoshua, the close disciple and attendant of Moshe Rabbeinu:
ותרבי ית כיורא וית בסיסיה ותקדש יתיה מטול יהושע משומשנך...דעל ידוי עתידא ארעא דישראל לאיתפלגא ומשיחא בר אפרים דנפיק מיניה שעל ידוי עתידין בית ישראל למנצחא לגוג ולסיעתיה בסוף יומיא.
And you shall anoint the basin and its base, and you shall consecrate it because of Yehoshua, your servant...through whom the Land of Israel is destined to be divided, and [because of] Mashiach ben Efrayim who will come forth from him, through whom the House of Yisrael is destined to triumph over Gog and his company in the end of days.
Many have struggled to explain the connection between the kiyor and Yehoshua.
This question becomes even stronger in light of the fact that the kiyor, unlike the other furnishings in the Mishkan, is not indispensable for the avoda. The purpose of the kiyor is merely to facilitate the kohanim’s washing, but it itself is not required. The Gemara (Zevachim 22a) clearly establishes that all utensils are suitable for use for the kohanim’s washing, and this does not have to be done specifically with water from the kiyor. For this reason, the Torah does not specify the dimensions of the kiyor, and the kiyor is not mentioned in Parshas Teruma along with the other furnishings. As the Ramban (30:19) writes: הרחיצה היא המצוה אבל הכיור צוה בו להזמנה ואיננו מעכב – the mitzva is the washing, and the kiyor’s function is simply to provide the water. In fact, as the Ramban proceeds to note, on Yom Kippur, the kohen gadol would wash not from the kiyor, but rather from a special golden pitcher made in his honor (Yoma 43b). (The Acharonim (see, for example, Meshech Chochma to Shemos 30:18) explain that the washing must be done at the location where the kiyor stood, but did not require the kiyor itself. Accordingly, the Tiferes Yisrael (Yoma 7:3) writes that on Yom Kippur, the kohen gadol would wash from the golden pitcher at the site of the kiyor.)
It turns out, then, that the kiyor was not even considered one of the keilim (sacred articles) of the Mishkan, and was only a means of facilitating water for the kohanim to wash. This reinforces the question of why Yehoshua was compared specifically to the kiyor – an association which, at first glance, seems demeaning to Yehoshua, our great leader and prophet.
We might explain that to the contrary, this is precisely why Yehoshua was compared to the kiyor, because Yehoshua’s unique quality and essence was that of לית ליה מגרמיה כלום – self-negation, submitting himself entirely to Moshe Rabbeinu. In telling of Moshe’s ascent to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, the Torah writes (Shemos 24:13), ויקם משה ויהושע משרתו ויעל משה אל הר האלוקים – “Moshe, and his servant, Yehoshua, arose, and Moshe ascended to the Mountain of G-d.” Rashi writes that Yehoshua accompanied Moshe as far as he was permitted to go, and then Moshe proceeded by himself to the mountaintop. Yehoshua pitched his tent at the foot of the mountain and waited there all forty days for Moshe to return. Later (33:11), the Torah tells, ומשרתו יהושע בן נון נער לא ימיש מתוך האוהל – “and his attendant, Yehoshua bin Nun, did not budge from the tent.” The Ramban writes that according to the calculation made by the Ibn Ezra, Yehoshua was 56 years old at the time – and yet he is referred to as נער (“youth”). The reason, the Ramban explains, is that דרך לשון הקודש שיקרא כל משרת נער – someone who serves and submits himself to another person’s authority is called a נער, as he is subordinate to his master, like a child who defers to the authority of adults. The Torah is telling us that Yehoshua was a נער, placing himself entirely at Moshe’s service, never leaving his tent.
This is the meaning of the Gemara’s comment (Bava Basra 75a) that when Yehoshua was named Moshe Rabbeinu’s successor, the elders of the generation exclaimed, פני משה כפני חמה פני יהושע כפני לבנה – “Moshe’s face is like the surface of the sun, Yehoshua’s face is like the surface of the moon.” Moshe Rabbeinu, like the sun, shone upon the world around him, like the sun, and Yehoshua reflected the light he received from Moshe – just as the moon has no light of its own, and merely reflects the light it receives from the sun. Yehoshua always saw himself as merely a reflection of Moshe, having nothing of his own to give. This is also why, as the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabba 21:14) teaches, Moshe thought his sons would succeed him, and not Yehoshua – because he saw Yehoshua as too humble and self-negating to assume the mantle of leadership.
We can now understand why Targum Yonasan compares Yehoshua specifically to the kiyor – which had no intrinsic significance as a keli of the Mishkan, and served merely to contain the water from which the kohanim would wash. The kiyor truly symbolizes the quality of לית ליה מגרמיה כלום, of seeing oneself as merely a receptacle, which was the outstanding quality that characterized Yehoshua.
The Kabbalists (Sefer Ha’cheishek, 31) noted that the word כנו, used in reference to the base of the kiyor, has the same gematria (76) as the word עבד – “servant.” The kiyor symbolizes the quality of Yehoshua, who submitted himself entirely to Moshe Rabbeinu, as though he were his עבד.
Targum Yonasan then continues that this outstanding quality of humility and submission is what will ultimately lead to the emergence of Yehoshua’s descendant, משיח בן יוסף, in whose merit we will triumph in the war of גוג ומגוג. It is through this attribute that we will be worthy of defeating our enemies and seeing the final redemption, במהרה בימינו, אמן.
In memory of Sidney Teichman, אלכסנדר סנדר דניאל בן שמואל ז"ל, a close chasid of the Rebbe שליט"א
