When Hashem instructs Moshe to publicly appoint Aaron and his sons as Kohanim, the Medrash notes that Hashem’s instructive that Moshe do such was to serve as a public vindication of Aaron’s involvement in ‘leading the nation’ in serving the idol: the Golden Calf. Upon descending Mount Sinai Moshe witnessed the Jewish nation serving an idol with Aaron seemingly there at the forefront of the people. In reality the nation, panicked by Moshe’s absence and urged on by certain demagogues, quickly turned into a mob and murdered one of the leaders of the time. Aaron, knowing that only Moshe could restore the people to their senses, attempted to stall for time-unsuccessfully-and ended up being pulled along by the mob into what eventually morphed into the Sin of the Golden Calf. As such, Hashem was instructing that Moshe put his own doubts to rest regarding Aaron’s integrity by publicly vouching for him.
Now we all know that you’ve got to practice what you preach, right? We call our Torah, Toras Moshe, Moshe’s Torah, so Moshe had to fulfill all the commandments in the Bible! We’re all familiar with the concept of judging people favorably by giving them the benefit of the doubt. Why than did Moshe need Hashem to alleviate his doubts regarding Aaron? Surely, he never truly doubted that his holy brother advised the nation to serve the Golden Calf? Furthermore, this instructive to appoint Aaron as a Kohen is well after the episode of the Golden Calf; surely Moshe spoke to Aaron regarding those events and Aaron clarified that things weren’t as they seemed!
We must answer then that of course Moshe believed that Aaron was innocent and did not participate in the sin of the Golden Calf. So why then was there a need for Hashem to vindicate Aaron in the eyes of Moshe? Rabbi Henach Leibowitz z’l answered that while Moshe knew intellectually that Aaron bore no guilt for what had transpired; the effects of having seen Aaron amidst the people, in front of the Golden Calf, had made an indelible impression on him. The First Impression, as we call it, is a powerful thing indeed. No matter that Moshe knew that the Torah instructed him to think best of his fellow Jew, and no matter that he later clarified that things were not the way they seemed, nevertheless, having seen them in such a light wasn’t something he could simply shrug off! Moshe needed something as emotive and as poignant as his first take- Hashem’s public stamp of approval, to countermand his lingering reservations regarding his brother.
In life we live and learn. Hopefully over time our views become more sophisticated and advanced than they were. However the Torah is making us aware of a phenomenon; our first impressions: the way that we perceived the workings of the world, don’t just leave us when we determine that it was an elementary or fallacious viewpoint. The rationality of the belief may have been disproven but the emotionality of it is still alive and well inside us until we find a way to connect with feeling to our newfound belief system.
We are approaching Shabbat U.K. Hopefully most of us understand that keeping Shabbat is important. However, in the past we’ve quite possibly enjoyed certain ‘extracurricular Shabbat experiences’ that were highlights for us that to this day we remember fondly. Even if we learn today how those activities diminished our capacity to enjoy Shabbos and even if we agreed that Shabbos should be kept in its ideal manner, those previous experiences would still call to us from the pub (or the car, or the TV etc). The only way to learn how precious Shabbos is in its ideal form is to experience it! To connect in an immersive and emotional way to the purity and the serenity of the holy day, is to begin to truly change the way we feel about Shabbos.
Have a great Shabbos!
Menachem Schreiber