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This week’s parasha describes the 7-day ceremony of מילואים, the inauguration of the כהנים. One pasuk includes an unusual cantillation mark, the שלשלת:
It appears only 4 times in the Torah:
We’ve talked before about what it seems to indicate: a sense of hesitation. Lot doesn’t want to leave Sodom; Eliezer doesn’t really want to find a wife for Yitzchak (remember the aggadah that he wanted Yitzchak to marry his own daughter); Yosef was wavering in his opposition to Potiphar’s wife. What is Moshe hesitating about?
Moshe gets a portion of this last קרבן because it is a שלמים and Moshe is acting as the כהן.
Moshe is hesitating because this is the last offering, the last time Moshe will act as a כהן. So he doesn’t want to let it go.
Now, that’s a nice little וורט. But Rav Kamenetsky says I’m wrong:
His point is that the actual slaughtering is not part of the כהן's service. It can be done by the בעלים, and the grammar of the pasuk implies that it was.
So if my וורט is correct, then the שלשלת should be on the ויקח or the ויקטר, Moshe’s last עבודה, not on the וישחט. However, the Malbim says Rav Kamenetsky is wrong (Rav Kamenetsky actually knows the Malbim; he mentions it and addresses it). The Malbim starts wtih the ספרא:
Rav Kamenetsky concedes that he cannot argue with the ספרא, and Moshe did slaughter the איל המלאים, but it wasn’t as part of the עבודה:
By the end of the week of מילואים, Aharon knows how to offer the sacrifices. he is certainly capable of doing the שחיטה. But he sees the שלשלת on וישחט; he realizes that Moshe is feeling that his days of serving ה׳ are ending. So he gives up his own מצוה to make Moshe his שליח, to give Moshe this last gift. That is the nature of Aharon. And in stressful times like these, that is the lesson to learn. Be מוותר, be understanding of those who are having a tough time.
And we have a tradition of stressing out before Pesach. But this year, let’s not do that.