Rabbi Yudan of Gaul began: “Does the eagle ascend at your directive?” (Job 39:27). The Holy One blessed be He said to Aaron: ‘Did I rest My Divine Presence upon the Ark by the word of your mouth, or did I remove My Divine Presence from upon the Ark by the word of your mouth?’17The verse the midrash is commenting upon is one in which God speaks to Job, and therefore some emend the text such that it reads: The Holy One blessed be He said to Job: Did I rest My Divine Presence upon the Ark by the word of your mouth, or did I remove My Divine Presence from upon the Ark by the word of your mouth, as I did by the word of the mouth of Aaron? (see Etz Yosef). “[On a rock it dwells and stays the night, on the crag of the rock and the stronghold” (Job 39:28).]
“On a rock it dwells” – the first Temple; “and stays the night” – one lodging. The second Temple is “on the crag of the rock and the stronghold,” – many lodgings,18Just as one would lodge more permanently in a stronghold than on a rock, the second Temple lasted longer than the first (Rabbi David Luria). as we learned there: When the Ark was removed, the foundation stone was there.19Thus, the word rock alludes to the Temple.
Why was it called that? Rabbi Yosei ben Ḥalafta said: It is because from it, the world was founded. That is what is written: “From Zion, from the perfection of beauty” (Psalms 50:2).20The Talmud (Yoma 54b), in citing this verse, adds: From it was formed the beauty of the earth. What was the prayer of the High Priest on Yom Kippur when he emerged from the Inner Sanctum?21After emerging from the Holy of Holies, while still in the Sanctuary, the High Priest would say a prayer on behalf of the entire nation (Mishna Yoma 5:1).
He said: ‘May it be Your will that this year will be rainy, hot, and dewy. A year of goodwill, a year of blessing, a year of inexpensiveness, a year of plenty, a year of commerce, and may Your people Israel not need one another. May Israel not exert authority upon one another. Do not turn to the prayers of the wayfarers.’22Travelers would not want rain to fall while they were traveling.
However, if God were to grant the requests of each traveler in this regard, rain would never fall, which would have terrible consequences for all. The Rabbis of Caesarea said, regarding our brethren in Caesarea: ‘May they not exert authority.’ The Rabbis of the south said, regarding our brethren in the Sharon region: ‘May their houses not become their graves.’ “From there it searches for food” (Job 39:29); from there he would search for food to take for all the days of the year.23The High Priest would hope that through his prayer in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, there would be plentiful sustenance for the entire year.
“Its eyes look afar” (Job 39:29); from the beginning of the year, he would know what would be at its end. How so? When he would look and see the smoke of the arrangement ascending to the south, he would know that the south would be satiated; ascending to the west, he would know that the west would be satiated; ascending to the east, he would know that the east would be satiated; and the same is true of them all.
If it ascended to the center of the heavens, he would know that the entire world would be satiated. After all this praise, “its fledglings swallow blood” (Job 39:30) – he saw his fledglings wallowing on the ground and was silent.24After all the greatness Aaron merited; the fact that God rested His Presence on the Ark through him, and the fact that his descendants would perform the service in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur and thereby bring sustenance to the entire people, Aaron saw his sons, Nadav and Avihu, die in the Tabernacle, and he was silent (see Leviticus 10:3).
“Where the slain are” (Job 39:30), Nadav and Avihu; “there it is” (Job 39:30), the Divine Presence. Rabbi Yudan in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi and Rabbi Berekhya in the name of Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said: “Approach, carry your brethren from before the Sanctuary” (Leviticus 10:4); it does not say: “From before the Ark,” but rather “from before the Sanctuary,” like a person who says to another: ‘Move this corpse from before this mourner, how long must this mourner suffer?’ That is what is written: “After the death of the two sons of Aaron.”