Ex. 27:20-30:10
Précis: The parasha continues with a description of ritual items in the Tabernacle, including oil for the lamp, priestly clothing, the ephod, breastplate, robes, plate, and miter. Aaron and his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eliezer and Ithamar are designated as Priests and are consecrated with sacrifices and ceremony. The parasha concludes with a description of the daily sacrifices and incense to be offered at the Tabernacle.
Ex. 28:1 “You shall bring forward your brother Aaron, with his sons, from among the Israelites, to serve Me as priests: Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron.”
As has been noted before, this parasha is the only one in the final four books of Moses to omit mention of Moses himself. There are a variety of reasons from the commentators (it was done out of modesty by Moses, we do not want to make Moses a cultic hero, or simply that Moses was indeed humble).
I’d like to offer a slightly different rationale. Moses is omitted because by focusing on Aaron and the priests, we are underlining the fact that the leadership of the Jewish People is to be divided, between the religious leadership (the Priests) and what we might call the governmental leadership (represented by Moses). In fact, through most of Jewish history, these roles were indeed separate (actually being united only under the Hasmoneans of Chanukah fame).
The division of leadership as it relates to Israel today is clear to me: the haredi leaders are impinging on the political/governmental sphere by their rejection of religious pluralism; actions by the current government supporting the haredi community violate this division of authority from the other direction.
In the United States, a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that frozen embryos were children. “Even before birth, all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing His glory,” Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in a concurring opinion. The threat of theocracy is alive in both the United States and Israel.
By omitting mention of Moses in this parasha, the text is telling us that no one, even the greatest Prophet of all, can be all things. When we think about Moses’ humility and our reluctance to turn him into a cultic hero, we should understand that MAGA supporters of the former President as well as Netanyahu’s far-right coalition in Israel endanger this most critical differentiation.
