Hashem said to Moshe, "Go, now, and I will be with your mouth and I will instruct you what to say." But [Moshe] said, "Please, my L-rd, send your mission through someone else." Hashem became angry with Moshe, and He said, "Is not your brother Aharon the Levi? I know that *he* knows how to speak. He is now coming out to greet you, and he will see you and rejoice in his heart."

(Shmot 4:12-14)

"Aharon your brother the Levi" -- He was originally supposed to be a mere Levi, while the priesthood was supposed to have come from you. Now, however,(because of your insistence on rejecting My call) this will no longer be the case; rather, he will be the Kohen, and you will be the mere Levi, as it says, "And as for Moshe, the man of G-d, his children are counted with the tribe of Levi." "And he will see you and rejoice in his heart." -- It is not as you think, that he will mind that you are attaining a high position." Because of this goodness of heart that Aharon displayed, he was awarded the privilege of wearing the breastplate, which was worn over the heart.

(Rashi, 4:14)

Rav Yakov proves this contention from a verse in last week's Parsha (B'reishit 49:7): "Cursed is their (Shimon and Levi's) anger, for it is fierce... I will spread them out among Israel." Rashi comments there that Levi's being "spread out among Israel" is a reference to their traveling from place to place to collect their Levitical tithes. Thus, we see that Yakov Avinu himself made the association between Levi's fierce impetuousness and selfless zealousness, and his rights to the Levitical and priestly dues. Someone who considers his devotion to the sanctity of G-d's Name more important than his own personal safety is worthy of becoming His representative in the priestly service of the Beit Hamikdash.

As Rav Yakov demonstrates, this trait of Levi surfaces several other times throughout the Torah. In Sh'mot 32:26, when the Jews sinned with the Golden Calf and Moshe cried out, "Whoever is for Hashem, let him come to me!", we read that the only ones who responded were the Levi'im: "All the children of Levi gathered to him." The Levi'im were even willing to eradicate the sinners in their own families, as the Torah tells us in Sh'mot 32:29 and D'varim 33:9.

Rashi to B'midbar 26:13 quotes the midrash which relates that after the death of Aharon the B'nei Yisrael lost heart and began to march back to Egypt. It was again the tribe of Levi that pursued them and, through fierce fighting and with numerous casualties, managed to bring the people back to their journey towards Eretz Yisrael.

In Yehoshua 22:13, it was the Kohen Gadol, Pinchas, who headed the delegation that went to reprimand the eastern tribes who had built an unauthorized altar in their territory, and to warn them that they would be faced with armed resistance if they did not capitulate. We also find that the prophet Eliyahu, who according to most opinions was a Kohen, was outstanding in his zealous behavior (see I Melachim, Ch. 18 and 19:14).

Perhaps we can add to Rav Yakov's observation, that even after Biblical times we find this trend continuing. The zealots who found the courage to defy the powerful Greek army in the Chanukah story were none other than the Chashmonaim, Kohanim from the family of the Kohen Gadol.

The Mishnah in Sanhedrin (9:6) tells us that if a Kohen would ever dare try to perform the sacrificial service in a state of ritual impurity, he would not be brought for a trial to the religious court. Rather, his fellow Kohanim would split open his head with hatchets. Guarding against the desecration of the Temple grounds and the sacrificial rite, one of the main functions of the Kohanim and the Levi'im (see Rashi B'midbar 3:7), had to be carried out with zealous fervor

When the Levi'im were first appointed to their position, replacing the firstborn of Israel as the spiritual leaders of the people, this was as a response to their positive reaction in the wake of the episode of the Golden Calf (Rashi B'midbar 8:17).

Pinchas was granted the status of a Kohen (which he would not ordinarily have been entitled to despite his being descended from Aharon) as a result of his zealousness in the face of the sin of Baal Peor (Rashi B'midbar 25:7,13).

Perhaps this is also why Yocheved merited to become the ancestress of the Kohanim and Levi'im after she refused to slay the Jewish male-babies, in the beginning of this week's Parsha (Rashi Shmot 1:21). When Yocheved valued the honor of heaven over her own life, and risked her life to defy Pharaoh's orders to eliminate the Jewish nation, she demonstrated the zealousness of the priestly servants of Hashem.

In our Parsha, Hashem tells Moshe that He is ready to rescue the people of Israel from their dire situation in Egypt, to take them out and lead them to their promised land. Yet when Hashem offers Moshe Rabbeinu to be the agent of this historical event, he tries to refuse. The trait of zealousness to rectify any desecration of the holiness of G-d's Name -- as the enslavement to Egypt certainly was -- despite personal discomfiture, was not present to a sufficient degree in Moshe. By his refusal to accept this divine mission, he showed that he did not have the proper qualities for being the founder of the institution of the Kehunna.

Aharon, on the other hand, demonstrated just this quality. When he learned that his younger brother was to become the spokesman and leader for the entire nation before Pharaoh, while he himself was to be the attendant and assistant, he displayed not the slightest hint of jealousy or uneasiness about this demeaning situation. Aharon was too preoccupied with rejoicing over the fact that the process that was to lead to the Exodus from Egypt was finally getting under way, that the Israelites would finally be removed from the depravity of Egyptian culture and would be free to worship Hashem, to entertain such petty personal thoughts. This, then was the man who showed himself worthy of becoming the first Kohen, and the ancestor of all future Kohanim. The very first appointment to a position of Kehunna was thus also the result of a show of zealousness. Aharon was chosen to be Kohen for demonstrating that his yearning to see the revelation of Hashem's glory took precedence over any personal considerations!