Exodus 28:1 names the first family of Jewish priests. Aharon, brother of Moses, is brought near with his four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Elazar, and Itamar. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the list exactly and lingers on the phrase from among the sons of Israel.
The midrashic tradition, preserved throughout the Tanchuma and Sifra, insists the phrase is not incidental. Aaron and his sons were not chosen because they stood apart from Israel. They were chosen from within it. The kehunah, the priesthood, is a service pulled out of the people, not a caste imposed on them.
The four sons stand as a complete story in four names. Nadab and Abihu will die by strange fire before the end of Leviticus, their ascent and fall framing the whole priestly system as fragile. Elazar will succeed Aaron as High Priest and lead Israel into the land with Joshua. Itamar will serve as the chief administrator of the Tabernacle, the one who counts the materials and organizes the Levites. Two tragic, two enduring.
The Targum's insistence on naming all four has a moral weight. The priesthood began with the memory of loss built into it. Every High Priest descending from Elazar's line would know that his uncles' names were spoken at the original call. No triumphalism. No forgetting. The first roster already contained the ones who would fail.
The takeaway the old Maggid would draw: sacred service in Jewish life is never purely a story of success. It is an inheritance carried by those who remain, in the names of those who did not.