What is written after the matter? “The priest who is greater than his brethren” (Leviticus 21:10); why is he called the High Priest?40Or, literally, the Great Priest. It is because he is great regarding five matters: Wisdom, strength, beauty, wealth, and years. In beauty, that he is fairer than his brethren; in power, that he is physically strong.
Come and see; when Aaron waved twenty-two thousand Levites, he waved them on one day.41See Numbers 8:5–22. How did he wave them? He would wave to and fro [to each side], and raise and lower them; that is, that he was great in strength. In wealth, from where is it derived that if he was not wealthy, that his brethren, the priests, make him wealthy?
There was an incident involving Pinḥas the stonemason, that they appointed him High Priest. His brethren, the priests, went out and saw him hewing stones. They filled the quarry before him with gold dinars. From where is it derived that his brethren elevate him if he does not have?
As it is stated: “The priest who is greater than his brethren [me’eḥav].”42This can be interpreted to mean that he becomes great through his brethren [me’eḥav]. Not only the High Priest, but the king is similar. Likewise, you find regarding King David, when he went to battle with Goliath, Saul said to him: “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth” (I Samuel 17:33).
David said to him: “Your servant was a shepherd for his father among the sheep, and the lion or the bear would come and carry off a lamb from the flock. I would go out after it, smite it, and save it from its mouth. It rose against me, but I grabbed its beard, smote it, and killed it. Both the lion and the bear, your servant smote, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them” (I Samuel 17:34–36).
Saul said to him: ‘Who said to you that you are able to kill him?’ Immediately, David answered him: “The Lord who delivered me from the hand of the lion and from the hand of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (I Samuel 17:37). Immediately, “Saul dressed David in his garments” (I Samuel 17:38). It is written regarding Saul: “From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people” (I Samuel 9:2).
When he dressed him in his garments and saw that they were appropriate for him, he immediately cast an evil eye on him. When David saw that Saul was humiliated, he said to him: “I will be unable to walk with these, as I am inexperienced. David removed them from upon him” (I Samuel 17:39). You learn that even if a person is short, and becomes king, he becomes taller.
Why to that extent? It is because when one is anointed with the anointing oil, he becomes the most outstanding of all his brethren. David said: ‘I rejoice in the anointing oil with which I was anointed,’ as it is stated: “Therefore, my heart rejoices, my being exults; my flesh, too, rests securely” (Psalms 16:9).