ספר ויקרא

It is also significant that the Torah describes Aaron as ‎descending from the altar on which the sin offering, the total ‎offering and the peace offering had been presented, whereas ‎when reporting Moses and Aaron “leaving” before blessing the ‎people, the Torah does not mention what they had been doing ‎inside the Tabernacle before leaving it.Before answering our question it is necessary to explain a ‎‎Mishnah in Avot 2,1 in which the author of the ‎tractate Rabbi Yehudah hanassi answers his rhetorical ‎question: “what is the correct course in life that a person must ‎walk?” (how must he organize his daily life), The Rabbi answered: ‎כל שהיא תפארת לעושיה ותפארת לו מן האדם‎, “he should only do what ‎reflects credit (distinction) upon himself who adopts it as well as ‎confers credit upon himself in the eyes of other people.”‎We know from psalms 135,4 that the Jewish people achieved ‎great distinction when we read ‎כי יעקב בחר לו קה ישראל לסגולתו‎, ‎‎“for G’d chose Yaakov for Himself, Israel as His treasured ‎possession.” We also know how highly esteemed are the righteous ‎in His eyes who make it their primary concern to serve Him with ‎a sincere heart, so that in the parlance of our sages they are ‎considered as exercising a dominating influence on G’d Himself, as ‎we know from Moed Katan 16 where the Talmud views the ‎source of the righteous dominating influence on G’d as his very ‎fear and awe of G’d. This position of the Jewish people, ‎collectively, is perceived as a higher rank in the celestial regions ‎than that accorded to the angels, and this is why the prophet ‎Isaiah (Isaiah 61,10) was able to say ‎שוש אשיש בה'‏‎, “I greatly ‎rejoice in the Lord,” seeing that Solomon had said in Proverbs ‎‎10.1 ‎בן חכם ישמח אב‎, “a wise son provides his father with joy,” and ‎we, the Jewish people, have been called G’d’s children in ‎Deuteronomy 14,1 where the Torah writes: ‎בנים אתם לה' אלוקיכם‎, ‎‎“you are the children of the Lord your G’d.” From this it follows ‎that the righteous child (son) who serves His Father sincerely and ‎meticulously provides G’d with true pleasure.Let us describe our relationship to G’d in terms of a parable of ‎a father who has a son and this son is so perfect that he does not ‎lack for anything, seeing that his father is blessed with unlimited ‎material wealth and the son provides his father with constant ‎pleasure as he watches his development to manhood. In other ‎words, the father is completely happy. G’d in His capacity of ‎being our “father,” is in a similar position when we serve Him as ‎He deserves to be served, seeing that our obedience and love are ‎the only assets in the universe over which He did not exercise ‎absolute control from the moment they came into existence. ‎Similarly, there is no greater satisfaction for the son than to serve ‎his father lovingly as he is aware that this is the only gift that his ‎father could not have given himself. This is why the prophet ‎Isaiah chose the expression ‎שוש אשיש‎, “I will rejoice and cause ‎joy”, (‎אשיש‎, in the causative mode) emphasizing the reciprocal ‎relationship between us and our father in heaven. Isaiah describes ‎the great joy the Jewish people feel for being privileged to provide ‎this feeling of satisfaction that G’d has when one or more of His ‎free-willed creatures relates to Him in this way. Thousands of ‎angels that obediently carry out G’d’s orders cannot provide Him ‎with a similar feeling of joy, as the angels have not been equipped ‎with a freedom of will, and have to do His bidding regardless of ‎feeling so inclined or not.G’d Himself has stated in Genesis ‎‎8,21 that man is exposed to evil urges from the day he is born, ‎כי ‏יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו‎, and that the evil urge lies in wait for him ‎before he sets foot outside his home, ‎לפתח חטאת רובץ‎, so that He ‎certainly makes allowance for this when comparing man serving ‎Him with the angels serving Him. He, as man’s Creator, is familiar ‎with the obstacles man has to overcome in order to become not ‎only a loyal servant of His, but one who is overjoyed to have been ‎granted the privilege to demonstrate this. Man’s greatest ‎achievement is to humble the evil urge [or better, the ‎urge predisposed to lead man into becoming evil, as being G’d’s ‎creature this urge cannot be evil per se. Ed.]