Why Moses Lost the High Priesthood

After giving Moses instructions on how to build the Tabernacle and its accoutrements, God tells Moses to consecrate Aaron and his sons in a seven-day ritual (Exod 29:35). Moses begins this seven-day period by offering a chattat (sin or purification offering) and an olah (burnt offering); he even sprinkles the blood on the altar like a priest (Lev 8:14–21).

Moses then offers the ram of the inauguration (miluʾim), consecrating Aaron and his sons, placing oil upon their heads and clothing, and blood upon their right ears and big toes (Lev 8:22–30). Moses then instructs Aaron and his sons to remain in the Tent of Meeting for seven days (8:31–36), after which they are officially priests, and can now offer sacrifices themselves:

^{ויקרא ט:א} וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי קָרָא מֹשֶׁה לְאַהֲרֹן וּלְבָנָיו וּלְזִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. ^ט:ב וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל אַהֲרֹן קַח לְךָ עֵגֶל בֶּן בָּקָר לְחַטָּאת וְאַיִל לְעֹלָה תְּמִימִם וְהַקְרֵב לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה.

^{Lev 9:1} On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel. ^9:2 He said to Aaron: “Take a calf of the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and bring them before the LORD.”

The Torah does not use the word kohen (“priest”) to describe Moses, but his actions are priest-like. Indeed, Psalms refers to both Aaron and Moses as God’s priests:

^{תהלים צט:ו} מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן בְּכֹהֲנָיו וּשְׁמוּאֵל בְּקֹרְאֵי שְׁמוֹ קֹרִאים אֶל יְ־הוָה וְהוּא יַעֲנֵם.

^{Ps 99:6} Moses and Aaron among His priests, Samuel, among those who call on His name—when they called to the LORD, He answered them.^[1]

Moses as Priest: Talmud and Midrash

One opinion in Leviticus Rabbah (ca. 5^th cent. C.E.) has Moses serving as a high priest for the entire wilderness period:

^{ויקרא רבה (מרגליות) פרשת שמיני פרשה יא} ר' יודן בש' ר' יוסי בר' יהודה ור' ברכיה בש' ר' יהושע בן קרחה כל ארבעים שנה שהיו ישראל במדבר לא נמנע משה מלשמש בכהונה גדולה...

^{Leviticus Rabbah 11} R. Yuden in the name of Rabbi Yossi son of R. Yehudah, and R. Berechiah in the name of R. Yehoshua ben Korha: “All forty years that the Israelites were in the wilderness, Moses did not stop serving as the high priest…”

In contrast, other sages have him serving as priest only during the seven days of consecration, but debate whether even then, he wore the high priest’s clothing or only regular white clothing:

אמ[ר] ר' אלעזר בר' יוסי: פשוט הוא לן שבחלוק לבן שימש משה כל שבעה…

Rabbi Eleazar son of Yossi said, “It is clear that Moses served [as high priest] in a white robe during the Seven Days of Inauguration.”^[2]

ר' תנחום בר' יודן תני כן כל שבעת ימי המילואים היה משה משתמש בכהונה גדולה ולא שרת שכינה עליו.

Rabbi Tanhum son of R. Yudan taught: “Moses served in the office of the high priesthood throughout the Seven Days of Inauguration, but the divine presence did not come down upon him.”

Moses Lost the Priesthood: Babylonian Talmud

The Babylonian Talmud also presents Moses as having served for a week as a priest:

^{בבלי זבחים קב.} וחכמים אומרים: לא נתכהן משה אלא שבעת ימי המלואים בלבד.

^{b. Zevachim 102a} The sages say: Moses only did priestly duty during the Seven Days of Inauguration.

Moses, however, was not permitted to maintain this status, but had to transfer it to his brother Aaron. This was on account of his sin for first turning down God’s command to go to Pharaoh and demand that he free the Israelites, which angered the LORD:

^{שמות ד:יג} וַיֹּאמֶר בִּי אֲדֹנָי שְׁלַח נָא בְּיַד תִּשְׁלָח. ^ד:יד וַיִּחַר אַף יְ־הוָה בְּמֹשֶׁה וַיֹּאמֶר הֲלֹא אַהֲרֹן אָחִיךָ הַלֵּוִי יָדַעְתִּי כִּי דַבֵּר יְדַבֵּר הוּא....

^{Exod 4:13} But [Moses] said, “Please, O Lord, send through whomever you will send (=make someone else Your agent).” ^4:14 The LORD became angry with Moses, and said, “There is your brother Aaron the Levite. He, I know, speaks readily….”

Noting that Aaron is appointed spokesman here as a result of God’s anger, the Talmud draws a connection:

^{בבלי זבחים [כת"י וטיקן 120–121] קב.} "ויחר אף יי במשה" (שמות ד:יד)—ר' יהושע בן קרחה אומ[ר]: כל חרון אף שבתורה נאמ[ר] בו רושם וזה לא נאמ[ר] בו רושם.

^{b. Zevachim 102a} “The LORD became angry with Moses” (Exod 4:14)—Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha said: “With every mention of [God’s] fierce anger in the Torah there is the mention of a lasting effect, but here there is no mention of a lasting effect.”

א[מר] ר שמע[ון] בן יוחי: אף זה נאמ[ר] בו רושם, שנ[אמר] (שמות ד:יד): 'הלא אהרן אחיך הלוי', והלא כהן הוא? אלא אני אמרתי אתה כהן [והוא]^[3] לוי, ועכשיו הוא כהן ואתה לוי."

R. Shimon ben Yochai said: “Here too there is mention of a lasting effect. It says (Exod 4:14): ‘Here is your brother Aaron the Levite.” Wasn’t he a priest? Rather [what God was saying was): ‘I had said originally that you (Moses) would be a priest and he (Aaron) would be a Levite. Now, he will be a priest and you will be a Levite!’”^[4]

Ibn Ezra: Moses Was the Original Priest

Abraham ibn Ezra (1089–1167) also has Moses serving as a temporary priest. He explains this on the verse where the Torah introduces the Aaronide priesthood:

^{שמות כח:א} וְאַתָּה הַקְרֵב אֵלֶיךָ אֶת אַהֲרֹן אָחִיךָ וְאֶת בָּנָיו אִתּוֹ מִתּוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְכַהֲנוֹ לִי אַהֲרֹן נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא אֶלְעָזָר וְאִיתָמָר בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן.

^{Exod 28:1} You [Moses] shall bring forward to you 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.^[5]

Ibn Ezra explains why the command to Moses is phrased as הַקְרֵב אֵלֶיךָ “bring them forward to you”:

^{אבן עזרא שמות [ארוך] כח:א} בעבור היות משה כהן הכהנים בתחלה על כן טעם הקרב אליך

^{Ibn Ezra Exod [long] 28:1} Because Moses was, at the beginning, the priest of priests, therefore, the text states “You shall bring forward to you…”^[6]

The term כהן הכהנים could be a superlative “highest priest” or “the priest that will create the priesthood.” Ibn Ezra repeats this phrase in the next chapter, where the Torah describes how Moses was to consume the breast of the consecration (miluʾim) offering, which is generally reserved for the priesthood:

^{אבן עזרא שמות [ארוך] כט:כב} והשוק והחזה יהיו מהיום נתונים לאהרן ולבניו מזבחי שלמי בני ישראל (ויקרא י:יד). רק החזה מאיל המלואים – משה לבדו יאכלנו, כי הוא כהן הכהנים.

^{Ibn Ezra Exod [long] 29:22} The thigh and the breast would be from that point on given to Aaron and his sons from the shelamim offerings of the Israelites (Lev 10:14). But the breast of the consecration offering, only Moses was to eat that, since he was the priest of priests.

Thus, according to ibn Ezra, Moses was a priest during the seven days of inauguration.

The Special Family of Aaron’s Wife Elisheba

Elsewhere in his commentary, ibn Ezra explains why Moses lost the priesthood. To do so, he offers hints to the “Secret of the Priesthood,” throughout the commentary.^[7]

The first mention of the Secret of the Priesthood appears as a gloss to the genealogy of Levi’s descendants:

^{שמות ו:כג} וַיִּקַּח אַהֲרֹן אֶת אֱלִישֶׁבַע בַּת עַמִּינָדָב אֲחוֹת נַחְשׁוֹן לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה וַתֵּלֶד לוֹ אֶת נָדָב וְאֶת אֲבִיהוּא אֶת אֶלְעָזָר וְאֶת אִיתָמָר.

^{Exod 6:23} Aaron took as wife Elisheba, daughter of Aminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

Ibn Ezra explains why the apparently irrelevant information about Aaron’s wife,^[8] the mother of the future high priest Eleazar, and her brother Nahshon, were included:

^{אבן עזרא שמות [פירוש הארוך] ו:כג} הזכיר אשת אהרן בעבור כבוד אלעזר והזכיר אחות נחשון בעבור סוד^[9] הכהונה.

^{Ibn Ezra, Exod [long] 6:23} [The text] mentions the wife of Aaron because of the honor of Eleazar,^[10] and it mentions that she was the sister of Nahshon because of the Secret of the Priesthood.

Elsewhere in the Torah, we learn that Nahshon son of Amminadab is the leader (nasi) of the tribe of Judah.[11] While the Torah offers no further description of him, the Babylonian Talmud, in a debate about who entered the Sea of Reeds first, depicts his piety.

According to Rabbi Meir, each tribe fought for the privilege of who would enter the water first, and the tribe of Benjamin won out. To this, Rabbi Yehudah responds with a different version of what took place:

^{בבלי סוטה [גניזה] לז.} ר' יהודה או[מר]: לא כך היה מעשה, אלא שקפץ נחשון בן עמינדב וירד תחלה לים,^[12] שנ[אמר] (הושע יב:א): "סְבָבֻנִי בְכַחַשׁ אֶפְרַיִם [וּבְמִרְמָה בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וִיהוּדָה עֹד רָד עִם אֵל וְעִם קְדוֹשִׁים נֶאֱמָן]".

^{b. Sotah [NLI 4° 577.4.54] 37a} Rabbi Yehudah says: That is not what happened, rather Nahshon jumped in and fell first into the sea, as it says (Hos 12:1): “Ephraim surrounds Me with deceit, [the House of Israel with guile, but Judah stands firm with God and is faithful to the Holy One].”^[13]

The Talmud claims elsewhere that the reference to Nahshon in the genealogy highlights the importance of choosing a woman from a good family:

^{בבלי בבא בתרא קי.} מה תלמוד לומר אחות נחשון? מכאן, שהנושא אשה צריך שיבדוק באחיה. תנא: רוב בנים דומין לאחי האם.

^{b.Baba Batra 110a} What does the verse teach when it states: “The sister of Nahshon”? From here we learn that one who marries a woman needs to examine her brothers. It was taught: Most sons resemble their mothers’ brothers.

Ibn Ezra does not explicitly refer to the midrash of Nahshon jumping into the sea, but he seems to know it, since in the continuation of his gloss on the choice of Aaron (quoted above), he refers to the honor of Nahshon’s family:

^{אבן עזרא שמות [ארוך] כח:א} וכבר רמזתי לך למה נבחר אהרן להקדישו לשם בעבור כבוד משפחת נחשון. שיהיו הכהנים מכפרים על בני ישראל.

^{Ibn Ezra Exod [long] 28:1} I have already provided a hint as to why Aaron was chosen to be sanctified to the LORD [to serve as high priest], namely because of the honor of the family of Nahshon, so that they would serve as the priests who would atone on behalf of Israel.

In praising Nahshon’s family, ibn Ezra is almost certainly also referring to the fact that according to the book of Ruth, Amminadab was the ancestor of King David:

^{רות ד:כ} וְעַמִּינָדָב הוֹלִיד אֶת נַחְשׁוֹן וְנַחְשׁוֹן הוֹלִיד אֶת שַׂלְמָה. ^ד:כא וְשַׂלְמוֹן הוֹלִיד אֶת בֹּעַז וּבֹעַז הוֹלִיד אֶת עוֹבֵד. ^ד:כב וְעֹבֵד הוֹלִיד אֶת יִשָׁי וְיִשַׁי הוֹלִיד אֶת דָּוִד.

^{Ruth 4:20} Amminadab begot Nahshon, Nahshon begot Salma, ^4:21 Salmon begot Boaz, Boaz begot Obed, ^4:22 Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David.

Contrast the Midianite Wife of Moses

If marrying into Nahshon’s family made Aaron an ideal candidate for high priest, ibn Ezra continues with the inverse point, that Moses married Zipporah, a Midianite woman. Even though under circumstances that were not his fault—he had to flee Egypt for killing an Egyptian—this intermarriage disqualified Moses from founding a priestly lineage:

^{אבן עזרא שמות [ארוך] כח:א} ואין לדבר על משה אדוננו כי בורח היה ומי יתן לו עברית?

^{Ibn Ezra Exod [long] 28:1} And one should not speak [negatively] about Moses our master, for he was fleeing, and who could have given him a Hebrew woman?

While Moses cannot be blamed for intermarrying, his children would not be the product of a family like that of Elisheba, Aaron’s wife.

Ibn Ezra further explains that Moses was much too busy to be a priest himself:

^{אבן עזרא שמות [ארוך] כח:א} ועוד כי טורח כל ישראל על משה ללמדם המצות ולדון כל דבר קשה

^{Ibn Ezra Exod [long] 28:1} And furthermore, he was burdened with all [the matters of the] Israelites, to teach them the commandments and to judge all difficult cases.^[14]

While ibn Ezra does not go so far as the Sages in claiming that Moses lost the priesthood because of sin, he suggests that his intermarriage disqualified Moses’ descendants from holding a hereditary priesthood.

Intermarriage and the Hebrew Slave Law

Ibn Ezra’s highlighting the genealogy of the priesthood and his suspicion of children born of intermarriage appears in other parts of his commentary. For instance, in Exodus’ Covenant Collection, when a Hebrew slave is freed after six years of service, if he had taken a slave woman as wife during that time, he is to leave her and the children as property of the master:

^{שמות כא:ד} אִם אֲדֹנָיו יִתֶּן לוֹ אִשָּׁה וְיָלְדָה לוֹ בָנִים אוֹ בָנוֹת הָאִשָּׁה וִילָדֶיהָ תִּהְיֶה לַאדֹנֶיהָ וְהוּא יֵצֵא בְגַפּוֹ.

^{Exod 21:4} If his master gave him a wife, and she has borne him children, the wife and her children shall belong to the master, and he shall leave alone.

After explaining that the text is referring here to a foreign (Canaanite) wife, ibn Ezra in his commentary on this verse^[15] explains that seeds planted in certain soil take on characteristics of the earth (i.e., woman) in which they were planted:

^{אבן עזרא שמות [קצר] כא:ד} ואין צורך עד שתהיה כנענית, רק היא מצרית או אדומית, ומן הגוים שהם סביבות ארץ כנען, כי כן כתוב: מהם תקנו עבד ואמה (ויקרא כה:מד).

^{Ibn Ezra Exod [short] 21:4} She does not need to be a Canaanite, but could also be an Egyptian or Edomite, from any of the peoples that were in the periphery of the land of Canaan, for this is what is written (Lev 25:44): “From them you may purchase male and female slaves.”

ודע כי תבואת הזרע תשתנה בהשתנות המקומות, על כן נבחרו בני אהרן לכהונת עולם.

Know that the produce of the land changes depending on the place [where the seed is planted]; this is why the children of Aaron were chosen for the eternal priesthood.

In other words, ibn Ezra is claiming that children inherit the personal characteristics of their mother, and these children would inherit their mother’s foreign characteristics. Thus, Moses’ descendants should be shunned as priests, but with Aaron’s descendants, it is the opposite, since he married a woman from Nahshon’s family.

The Wayward Son: A Product of Intermarriage

In a series of laws, Deuteronomy 21 first permits a man to marry a captive woman (vv. 10–14), then forbids a man from giving preferential treatment to the son of a beloved wife over his firstborn son from a less favored wife (vv. 15–17), and finally describes the wayward son, who disobeys his parents and is executed (vv. 18–21).

The tannaitic midrash Sifrei Deuteronomy, which ibn Ezra refers to explicitly in his commentary, ties the three laws together. It glosses the law of the son of the hated wife, saying she was the beautiful foreign captive he married:

^{ספרי דברים רטו} רבי שמעון אומר: בדרך ארץ הכתוב מדבר, מגיד שסופו להיות שונא אותה ואוהב אחרת.

^{Sifrei Deut §215} Rabbi Shimon says: “Scripture speaks about what will happen as a matter of course, meaning to say, in the end he will come to hate her and love someone else (=an Israelite woman).”

Sifrei then claims that the wayward son is the very son of a hated wife:

^{ספרי דברים ריח} אביו של זה חשק יפת תואר והכניס שטן לתוך ביתו ונעשה בנו סורר ומורה

^{Sifrei Deut 218} His father desired the beautiful foreign captive, and brought a prosecutor (satan) into his house, and his son became wayward.

In line with this interpretation, ibn Ezra offers a cryptic explanation of his own, once again referring to the Secret of the Priesthood:

^{אבן עזרא דברים כא:יח} ונסמכה זו הפרשה בעבור אשת יפת תאר והעד (ויקרא כד:יא) ״ושם אמו״ והרמז שרמזתי בבני אהרן.

^{Ibn Ezra Deut 21:18} This paragraph [about the wayward son] was put here to connect it to [the paragraph about] the beautiful [captive] woman. Supporting this is (Lev 24:11) “…and the name of his mother,” and the hint that I gave explaining the sons of Aaron (Exod 6:23, 28:1)… ^[16]

The hint about the sons of Aaron is clear: Moses intermarried and could not establish the priesthood; Aaron married a woman from the perfect family, and this is why he was chosen to be the father of the priesthood over Moses. As for “…and the name of his mother,” this is a reference to the incident of the blasphemer.^[17]

The Blasphemer: A Product of Intermarriage

Leviticus narrates that a son of an Israelite woman married to an Egyptian man blasphemes God and is executed:

^{ויקרא כד:י} וַיֵּצֵא בֶּן אִשָּׁה יִשְׂרְאֵלִית וְהוּא בֶּן אִישׁ מִצְרִי בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיִּנָּצוּ בַּמַּחֲנֶה בֶּן הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית וְאִישׁ הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִי. ^כד:יא וַיִּקֹּב בֶּן הָאִשָּׁה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית אֶת הַשֵּׁם וַיְקַלֵּל וַיָּבִיאוּ אֹתוֹ אֶל מֹשֶׁה וְשֵׁם אִמּוֹ שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי לְמַטֵּה דָן.

^{Lev 24:10} There came out among the Israelites one whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian. And a fight broke out in the camp between that half–Israelite and a certain Israelite. ^24:11 The son of the Israelite woman pronounced the Name in blasphemy, and he was brought to Moses—now his mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.

Using ibn Ezra’s Secret of the Priesthood, we can see the connection: Just as the wayward son absorbed the bad character of his non-Israelite mother, this son absorbed disrespect for God from his Egyptian father.^[18]

Jonathan vs. Phinehas: The Grandsons

Ibn Ezra refers here to the mother, Shelomith from the tribe of Dan, likely a purposeful nod to the epigraph of the Moses-the-priest theme. In the story of the founding of the worship center in Dan, we are told that the Danites bring an idolatrous Levite to serve as their priest. The story concludes:

^{שופטים יח:ל} וַיָּקִימוּ לָהֶם בְּנֵי דָן אֶת הַפָּסֶל וִיהוֹנָתָן בֶּן גֵּרְשֹׁם בֶּן מְ^נַשֶּׁה [תה"ש: משה] הוּא וּבָנָיו הָיוּ כֹהֲנִים לְשֵׁבֶט הַדָּנִי עַד יוֹם גְּלוֹת הָאָרֶץ.

^{Judg 18:30} The Danites set up the sculptured image for themselves; and Jonathan son of Gershom son of Ma^nasseh [LXX: Moses], and his descendants, served as priests to the Danite tribe until the land went into exile.

The Hebrew מנשה is uniquely spelled with the letter נ suspended, indicating that it had originally read “Moses,” like in the Septuagint. To avoid embarrassing Moses, a later scribe added a nun in the middle of the name resulting in the name Manasseh, but this apostate priest was none other than the grandson of Moses, the son of Gershom, Moses’ oldest son (Exod 2:22).

God’s decision not to allow Moses to be the high priest because of his non-Israelite wife is thus proven correct. The Secret of the Priesthood is that it had to be taken away from Moses and given to Aaron, otherwise the Israelites would have ended up with an idolatrous cult—as proven by the story in Judges.

The Choice of Phinehas

In contrast, Aaron’s grandson is Phinehas, who is introduced in the Torah as the person who kills an Israelite man who has public sex with a Midianite woman, thus saving the Israelites from a plague.^[19] As a consequence of this act of zealotry, God rewards Phineas for his action:

^{במדבר כה:יג} וְהָיְתָה לּוֹ וּלְזַרְעוֹ אַחֲרָיו בְּרִית כְּהֻנַּת עוֹלָם תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר קִנֵּא לֵאלֹהָיו וַיְכַפֵּר עַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{Num 25:13} It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.^[20]

In his commentary on this verse, ibn Ezra notes that Eleazar may have had other sons, but Phinehas and his descendants are granted the high priesthood eternally, because of this act of zealotry against intermingling with foreign women.^[21]

Phinehas’ Mother Was Israelite?

The important role Phinehas will play is foreshadowed by the genealogy in Exodus 6, again by the mention of the matrilineal line:

^{שמות ו:כה} וְאֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן לָקַח לוֹ מִבְּנוֹת פּוּטִיאֵל לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה וַתֵּלֶד לוֹ אֶת פִּינְחָס...

^{Exod 6:25} And Aaron’s son Eleazar took for himself as a wife one of Putiel’s daughters, and she bore him Phinehas…

^{אבן עזרא שמות [ארוך] ו:כה} הזכיר אשת אלעזר בעבור כבוד פנחם כי לו נתנה הכהונה לעולם. ע"כ מדרך הסברא פוטיאל הי' מבני ישראל.

^{Ibn Ezra Exod [long] 6:25} Eleazar’s wife is mentioned because of the honor of Phinehas, as the priesthood was given to him eternally. Therefore, logic suggests that Putiel was an Israelite.

“The honor of Phinehas” is the same language as “the honor of Eleazar,” and ibn Ezra uses it here in the same context, to note that the mother comes from a good, Israelite family. Here ibn Ezra is specifically contradicting a Talmudic tradition that Eleazar’s father-in-law Putiel was given this name because:

^{בבלי סוטה מג.} דאתי מיתרו שפיטם עגלים לעבודה זרה

^{b. Sotah 43a} He was a descendent of Jethro, who fattened (pitem) calves for idolatry.[22]

For ibn Ezra, such a pedigree for the mother of Phinehas goes against the Secret of the Priesthood and had to be rejected. Look what happened to Moses’ descendants! In rejecting this view, he follows the Talmud’s own summary:

^{בבלי בבא בתרא [המבורג 165] קט:} א"ר אלעזר: "לעולם ידביק אדם בטובים שהרי משה שנשא מיתרו יצא ממנו יונתן אהרן שנשא מעמינדב יצא ממנו פנחס."

^{b. Baba Batra 109b} Rabbi Eleazar said: “A person should always attach himself to good people, for we see: Moses, who married from Jethro, Jonathan [of Judges 18:30] descended from him. Aaron, who married from Amminadab, Phinehas descended from him.”

Ibn Ezra’s Secret of the Priesthood is about the importance of genetic and cultural purity. Moses may have been the greatest prophet and leader in Israel’s history, but even he cannot erase the effects of his marrying a non-Israelite woman. His brother Aaron, who was fortunate enough to marry into the family of Nahshon, must therefore take on this role.