Hillel and Shammai received the transmission from them. Hillel said: Be of the students of Aaron, who loves peace and pursues peace, loves people and brings them closer to Torah.
Aaron is described in the present tense as someone who loves peace, as if he was still alive. This is consistent with the Chazal's understanding that one can be a student of a teacher who has long passed from among the living, for example in the first chapter of Yoma:ושני תלמידי חכמים .תלמידיו של משה לאפוקי צדוקין
The emblematic source for this definition of a student - not someone who actually learns from a particular teacher but someone who follows in the ways of a great master of the past is found here (Sanhedrin 11a):
It once happened that Rabban Gamaliel said: 'Send me up seven [scholars] early in the morning to the upper chamber [for this purpose].' When he came in the morning and found eight, he asked: 'Who is he who has come up without permission? Let him go down.' Thereupon, Samuel the Little arose and said: 'It was I who came up without permission; my object was not to join in the intercalation, but because I felt the necessity of learning the practical application of the law.' Rabban Gamaliel then answered: 'Sit down, my son, sit down; you are worthy of intercalating all years [in need of such], but it is a decision of the Rabbis that it should be done only by those who have been specially appointed for the purpose.' — But in reality it was not Samuel the Little [who was the uninvited member] but another; he only wished to save the intruder from humiliation.
Similarly it once happened that while Rabbi was delivering a lecture, he noticed a smell of garlic. Thereupon he said: 'Let him who has eaten garlic go out.' R. Hiyya arose and left; then all the other disciples rose in turn and went out. In the morning R. Simeon, Rabbi's son, met and asked him: 'Was it you who caused annoyance to my father yesterday?' 'Heaven forfend that such a thing should happen in Israel,' he answered.
And from whom did R. Hiyya learn such conduct? — From R. Meir, for it is taught: A story is related of a woman who appeared at the Beth Hammidrash of R. Meir and said to him, 'Rabbi, one of you has taken me to wife by cohabitation.' Thereupon he rose up and gave her a bill of divorce, after which every one of his disciples stood up in turn and did likewise. And from whom did R. Meir learn this? — From Samuel the Little. And Samuel the Little? — From Shecaniah son of Jehiel, for it is written, And Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam answered and said unto Ezra: We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. And Shecaniah learnt it from [the story told of] Joshua. ...
Similarly Tosef. Sot. 13:3: "Once the sages were gathered together in the upper chamber of the house of Guria in Jericho, when a heavenly voice came out and said to them: 'There is one here among you who is worth of receiving the holy spirit (prophecy), but his generation does not deserve it'. They all looked at Hillel the Elder. When he died they said: So humble; so pious – a true disciple of Ezra." Hillel lived much after Ezra but because Hillel followed in Ezra's ways he is called "a student of Ezra". There are other such passages in the Talmud. We will return to this point shortly.
Our mishna is quoted in Sanhhedrin 6b, except that insted of, "loves people and brings them closer to Torah", it says, " and makes peace between people".
Avis D"Rabbi Noson, Chapter 12 (3-4) it illustrates how Aaron did this. Aaron would see someone acting improperly, he would not go over and rebuke or criticize the fellow directly. He would *befriend* him, pretending not to be aware of his faults. The person would eventually grow ashamed: "What would my friend Aaron think if he knew I acted this way behind his back? How could I betray his trust and friendship?" Sooner or later the man would repent his ways. If Aaron would observe two people quarreling, he would afterwards approach one of them with the following: "I just saw the other fellow besides himself with grief. He's sitting there saying it's all his fault and how can he possibly face you again." Aaron then promptly went to the other fellow with the exact same story.... When the people met they were hugging and kissing each other. He also brought peace between man and wife as described there. The mishna attests that in those times thousands of children were named after him -- because they would have never been born had Aaron not been there to save the parents' marriages.
When we think about it we realize that not once is Aaron presented in Chumash as being confrontational or in conflict. Instead," And Aaron was silent (Lev. 10:3)". Even in the story of the Golden Calf, he acommodated, rather than chastised; in that case it was his undoing but still it accurately portrays his character. Sanhedrin 6b lays out the difference between Moshe and Aaron along these lines.
What makes Aaron a man of peace? Aaron is a priest and priests make peace. So did Malchi Tsedek, the "Priest of the Most High" brought out bread and wine to Abraham, as Rashi explains, "to demonstrate that he did not hold it against him that he killed his descendents in battle". Malachi 2:6.writes of the High Priest, "he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity."
It is interesting that in every place in which the priest's duties lend him to war, the Torah presents Eleazar, and not his father Aaron.
Numbers 27:21"Moreover, he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD. At his command they shall go out and at his command they shall come in (in war), both he and the sons of Israel with him, even all the congregation."
Numbers 26: So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,Take a census of the people from twenty years old and upward, as the LORD has commanded Moses."
Numbers 31:12 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, "This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded Moses:
Eleazar is also associated with Para Adumah and Ketores. WIthout going too far off-tangent, it is explained by the fact that the function of a priest/ cohen is to unite heaven and earth and connect the physical and spiritual by bringing up a physical animal flesh up to heaven - in other words, make peace between the lower and higher spheres. Incense and Red Heifer, on the other hand, require Eleazar rather than Aaron for they involve destruction of evil rather than its pacification, as explained here.
We started by suggesting that Hillel advised all men to be students of Aaron by living and acting as he did. However, this statement can also be explained in the most simpple of manners. To do so we must remember that HIllel's teachers were Shemaya and Avtalion. These two great personalities, albeit they were converts, functioned as High Priests according to this source:
Yoma 71b relates that at end of Yom Kippur the crowd deserted the High Priest upon the approach of Abtalion and Shamaia and followed them. When the two Sages came to greet the High Priest he told them: Let tthe descendents of Gentiles go in peace. (Rashi explains that the High Priest spoke in tones of contempt because they were of the descendants of Sennacherib, as mentioned in Gittin). The Gemara continues: "They said to him, 'the descendents of the other peoples greet you in peace, because they are like Aaron who loved peace and pursued peace. But you who are the descendant of Aaron do not behave like Aaron."
Accordingly, Hillel is calling his generation to study from his teachers, who took the place of High Priest. This explanation is strengthened by the following gemara:
Pesachim 66b:
Subsequently Hillel began to reproach them, and said: "What induced you to set me up as a prince among you? Only your own idleness in not taking advantage of the learning of the two great men of your generation, Shemaiah and Abtalion."
Comments