The Torah records Moshe’s reaction to Aharon’s words by saying, “וַיִּשְמַע מֹשֶׁה וַיִּיטַב בְעֵינָיו – Moshe heard and it was good in his eyes.” (VaYikra 10,20) The simple meaning of these words is that upon hearing Aharon’s argument, Moshe concurred with it. However, the Meshech Chochmah explains that there is a deeper level of understanding why Aharon’s words were “good in Moshe’s eyes.”
As the Gemara (Zevachim 101a) explains, the halachah that an onein is forbidden to consume meat of korbanos is not stated by the Torah explicitly, but is derived from a kal vachomer argument. The pasuk (Devarim 26,14) states that an onein may not partake of maaser sheni; hence, if this is true of maaser sheni, whose laws are generally less stringent than korbanos, then it is certainly true that an onein may not partake of korbanos.
Why would these words be “good in Moshe’s eyes”? Because Moshe had a special relationship with the idea of a kal vachomer...
The Gemara (Shabbos 87a) states that Moshe did three things “מדעתו – of his own initiative,” with which HaShem subsequently concurred:
- He added a day of preparation for matan Torah
- He separated from his wife.
- He broke the luchos.
Of these three things, the latter two were based on a kal vachomer argument:
- If Bnei Yisrael were told to separate from their wives as part of their preparation of receiving the Torah from HaShem then Moshe, who stood to receive communication from HaShem on an ongoing basis, should certainly be separated from his wife.
- If an idol-worshipper is barred from the one mitzvah of partaking of the korban Pesach, then Bnei Yisrael who worshipped avodah zarah with the Egel Hazahav should certainly be barred from receiving the luchos which contain the entire Torah.
Tosafos (Shabbos 87a) raise the question: kal vachomer is an established way of expounding the Torah. If so, then why are Moshe’s actions called “of his own initiative”? If the kal vachomer arguments he advanced are cogent, then this is simply a matter of expounding the Torah correctly!
R’ Meir of Posen, in the Introduction to his sefer Beis Meir, (Even haAezer) responds simply that at the time Moshe propounded these arguments, the principle of kal vachomer had not yet been presented as a means of expounding halachah. As such, Moshe essentially intuited the concept of kal vachomer and hence his decisions are referred to as “of his own initiative”!
Thus, we see that Moshe has a special relationship with the principle of kal vachomer. Therefore, says Meshech Chochmah, when he heard Aharon’s argument regarding onein and korbanos, which was based on a kal vachomer, Moshe derived a special satisfaction from it – “Moshe heard, and it was good in his eyes”!
