the flowering stick

chapter 1: אלעזר makes a covering for the מזבח

פסוקים א-ה

ה׳ wanted אלעזר to gather all the fire pans from קרח’s rebellion and save them because they are holy, “כי קדשו”. Then flatten them so they could be made into a covering for the אלעזר .מזבח did this instead of אהרן because אהרן was a כהן גדול so it wasnt proper to do the dirty work. This was a sign for בני ישראל that only a כהן גדול could bring קטרת,

“מזרע אהרן הוא להקטיר קטרת לפני ה׳”.

Chapter 2: בני ישראל complain so ה׳ wants to destroy them

פסוקים ו-י

בני ישראל start to complain about how they think that אהרן and משה killed all the Jews that died during קרח’s rebelion, “אתם המתם את עם ה׳”.

ה׳ was very angry when he heard this so he wanted to destroy all the Jews except אהרן and משה

“הרמו מתוך העדה הזאת ואכלה אתם כּרגע”. in reaction to this משה and אהרן fall on there faces to pray.

משה

Chapter 3: משה and אהרן make a plan to save בני ישראל

פסוקים יא-ט״ו

משה tells אהרן to quickly get a fire pan and bring קטרת,

“קח את המחתה ותן עליה אש … והלך מהרה אל העדה”. So ה׳ will forgive בני ישראל and stop the plague. אהרן ran to do this and ran into מלאך המות who started to argue with him.  The מלאך המות argued that he was sent by ה׳ to kill everyone and אהרן said he was sent by משה to stop him.  אהרן convinces the מלאך he is right by showing him משה talking to ה׳ at the אהל מועד.

“אם אין אתה מאמין הרי הקבּ”ה ומשׁה אל פּתח אהל מועד”

Chapter 4: אהרן’s blosoming stick

פסוקים ט״ז-כ״ו

ה׳ wanted the head of every שבט to write there name and שבט on a stick and put it in the אהל מוע. Then ה׳ would choose one and that persons stick will blossom. They put them in an order so that אהרן’s stick would be in the middle of everyone else’s so no one would feel jealous,”שׁלא יאמרו מפּני שׁהניחו בצד השׁכינה פּרח”.

אהרן’s stick was the one that blossomed. It had a bud, flower and almond on it, “ויצא פרח ויצץ ציץ ויגמל שׁקדים”. This was a miracle that proved to everyone that אהרן was chosen by ה׳ to be the כהן גדול.

Chapter 5: בני ישראל is scared that they will die and make more mistakes

פסוקים כ״ז-כ״ח

בני ישראל are very scared.  They go to משה and tell him they are afraid they are going to die, “שבט הן גוענו אבדנו”.  They are afraid that all of בני ישראל will be destroyed, “כלנו אבדנו”.