Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: By consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. –Thomas Jefferson At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion Beha’alotcha, we read that Aaron the high priest was charged with the daily lighting of the menorah. Rashi, explaining the connection between the end of last week’s portion dealing with the princes bringing their offerings to this week’s beginning, says: “When Aaron saw the inauguration of the princes, he felt bad about it, for neither he nor his tribe was with them in the inauguration.
The Holy One Blessed is He, said to him, ‘By your life! Your role is greater than theirs, for you kindle and prepare the lamps,’” (Rashi on Bamidbar 8:2). The Ramban asks the question of why God didn’t console him by saying that he gets to offer the twice-daily offering of the incense and/or he gets to enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. He suggests “that the consolation offered to Aaron was not the fact that the high priest would kindle the menorah daily during the duration of the Temple service.
Rather, the consolation was that the menorah would be kindled in all generations as a result of the heroism of Aaron’s descendants, the Hashmonaim priests. In other words, the consolation alludes to the Hanukkah Menorah which will continue to be lit, even after the suspension of the Temple service. Rabbi Yissocher Frand writes.
