This sheet on Numbers 17 was written by Marc Bregman for 929 and can also be found here
Despite the fiery end to the abortive rebellion by Korah and his company (chapter 16), the murmuring against Moses and Aaron continues in our chapter (Numbers 17:6). God is now so enraged that He sends a plague to consume the unmanageable congregation of Israelites. But Moses manages to halt the carnage, after 14,700 of the insurgents have died, by burning incense to make atonement for the people (verses 10-15).
In an attempt to stave off further murmuring, God devises a sophisticated plan that ends when Aaron’s Staff miraculously “budded, and put forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and bore ripe almonds” (verses 16-23). God then tells Moses: “Put Aaron’s staff back before the Ark of the Testimony, , to be kept as a reminder to potential rebels, so that their mutterings against Me may cease, lest they die” (verse 25).
The Hebrew word mishmeret, literally “a preserved remembrance”, suggested to the Rabbinic Sages that Aaron’s Staff not only continued to endure well into the future, but also had a prior existence. The Talmud (Bavli, Pesahim 54a) lists Aaron’s Staff among those things created at the very end of the process of Creation (“at twilight before the beginning of the first Shabbat”). The Midrash (Numbers Rabbah 18:23 and parallels) continues the early history of Aaron’s Staff by identifying it with the staff with which Jacob crossed the Jordan (Genesis 32:11), the staff which Judah gave to Tamar as a sign of his pledge (Genesis 38:18), the staff that became a serpent when Moses flung it down at the Burning Bush (Exodus 4:2-4), Aaron’s staff that turned into a serpent and swallowed the serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians (Exodus 7:9-12) and the same staff that Moses then used to bring down the plagues on Egypt (Exodus 7:13-17:9).
After Aaron’s Staff is placed in the Ark of the Covenant (verses 25-26), it continues to make its appearance throughout the rest of Israelite history. For as the Midrash goes on to record, David took the same staff in his hand when he was about to face Goliath (I Samuel 17:40), and it continued to serve as the royal scepter of every king of Israel until it was hidden away when the Temple was destroyed.
But Aaron’s staff will return to serve as the scepter of the Messianic King, as it says, “The staff of Your strength the LORD will send forth from Zion…(Psalms 110:2).
In an attempt to stave off further murmuring, God devises a sophisticated plan that ends when Aaron’s Staff miraculously “budded, and put forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and bore ripe almonds” (verses 16-23). God then tells Moses: “Put Aaron’s staff back before the Ark of the Testimony, , to be kept as a reminder to potential rebels, so that their mutterings against Me may cease, lest they die” (verse 25).
The Hebrew word mishmeret, literally “a preserved remembrance”, suggested to the Rabbinic Sages that Aaron’s Staff not only continued to endure well into the future, but also had a prior existence. The Talmud (Bavli, Pesahim 54a) lists Aaron’s Staff among those things created at the very end of the process of Creation (“at twilight before the beginning of the first Shabbat”). The Midrash (Numbers Rabbah 18:23 and parallels) continues the early history of Aaron’s Staff by identifying it with the staff with which Jacob crossed the Jordan (Genesis 32:11), the staff which Judah gave to Tamar as a sign of his pledge (Genesis 38:18), the staff that became a serpent when Moses flung it down at the Burning Bush (Exodus 4:2-4), Aaron’s staff that turned into a serpent and swallowed the serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians (Exodus 7:9-12) and the same staff that Moses then used to bring down the plagues on Egypt (Exodus 7:13-17:9).
After Aaron’s Staff is placed in the Ark of the Covenant (verses 25-26), it continues to make its appearance throughout the rest of Israelite history. For as the Midrash goes on to record, David took the same staff in his hand when he was about to face Goliath (I Samuel 17:40), and it continued to serve as the royal scepter of every king of Israel until it was hidden away when the Temple was destroyed.
But Aaron’s staff will return to serve as the scepter of the Messianic King, as it says, “The staff of Your strength the LORD will send forth from Zion…(Psalms 110:2).
Marc Bregman is the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies emeritus, at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.
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