Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Moses wanted to inform his brother of his impending death, but knew not
how to go about it. At length he said to him: "Aaron, my brother, hath
God given anything into thy keeping?" "Yes," replied Aaron. "What,
pray?" asked Moses. Aaron: "The altar and the table upon which is the
shewbread hath He given into my charge." Moses: "It may be that He will
now demand back from thee all that He hath given into thy keeping."
Aaron: "What, pray?" Moses: "Hath He not entrusted a light to thee?"
Aaron: "Not one light only but all seven of the candlestick that now
burn in the sanctuary." Moses had, of course, intended to call Aaron's
attention to the soul, "the light of the Lord," which God had given
into his keeping and which He now demanded back. As Aaron, in his
simplicity, did not notice the allusion, Moses did not go into further
particulars, but remarked to Aaron: "God hath with justice called thee
an innocent, simple-hearted man."
While they were thus conversing, a cave opened up before them,
whereupon Moses requested his brother to enter it, and Aaron instantly
acquiesced. Moses was now in a sad predicament, for, to follow God's
command, he had to strip Aaron of his garments and to put them upon
Eleazar, but he knew not how to broach the subject to his brother. He
finally said to Aaron: "My brother Aaron, it is not proper to enter the
cave into which we now want to descend, invested in the priestly
garments, for they might there become unclean; the cave is very
beautiful, and it is therefore possible that there are old graves in
it." Aaron replied, "Thou art right." Moses then stripped his brother
of his priestly garments, and put them upon Aaron's son, Eleazar. [636]
As it would have been improper if Aaron had been buried quite naked,
God brought about the miracle that, as soon as Moses took off one of
Aaron's garments, a corresponding celestial garment was spread over
Aaron, and when Moses had stripped him of all his priestly garments, he
found himself arrayed in eight celestial garments. A second miracle
came to pass in the stripping of Aaron's garments, for Moses was
enabled to take off the undermost garments before the upper. This was
done in order to satisfy the law that priests may never use their upper
garments as undergarments, a thing Eleazar would have had to do, had
Moses stripped off Aaron's outer garments first and with these invested
his son. [637]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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