(ו) וַאֲנִ֗י הִנֵּ֤ה לָקַ֙חְתִּי֙ אֶת־אֲחֵיכֶ֣ם הַלְוִיִּ֔ם מִתּ֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לָכֶ֞ם מַתָּנָ֤ה נְתֻנִים֙ לַֽיהוָ֔ה לַעֲבֹ֕ד אֶת־עֲבֹדַ֖ת אֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵֽד׃ (ז) וְאַתָּ֣ה וּבָנֶ֣יךָ אִ֠תְּךָ תִּשְׁמְר֨וּ אֶת־כְּהֻנַּתְכֶ֜ם לְכָל־דְּבַ֧ר הַמִּזְבֵּ֛חַ וּלְמִבֵּ֥ית לַפָּרֹ֖כֶת וַעֲבַדְתֶּ֑ם עֲבֹדַ֣ת מַתָּנָ֗ה אֶתֵּן֙ אֶת־כְּהֻנַּתְכֶ֔ם וְהַזָּ֥ר הַקָּרֵ֖ב יוּמָֽת׃ (ס)
(6) I hereby take your fellow Levites from among the Israelites; they are assigned to you in dedication to the LORD, to do the work of the Tent of Meeting; (7) while you and your sons shall be careful to perform your priestly duties in everything pertaining to the altar and to what is behind the curtain. I make your priesthood a service of dedication (Everett Fox: "and you are to do-service; serving-tasks of special-grant I give your priesthood"); any outsider who encroaches shall be put to death.
(ז) עבדת מתנה. בְּמַתָּנָה נְתַתִּיהָ לָכֶם:
(7) עבדת מתנה [I HAVE GIVEN YOUR PRIESTHOOD UNTO YOU] AS A SERVICE OF GIFT — This means as a gift have I given it to you, [and the stranger that comes near shall die].
It is possible that [the purpose of God’s words] is that the priests, who are God’s servants, not grow haughty. The Torah scholar [, after all, achieves his status] by his own efforts and is therefore greater [than the priest, who holds a position he] “did nothing to earn.
The Torah is only too keenly aware that belief in divine election can easily give way to triumphalism and self-congratulation—and even worse, to the conviction that God has given Israel a moral blank check. Do not delude yourselves, says Deuteronomy; God chose you through no merit of your own. And the nation as a whole is more culpable— not less—on account of its special status.6 Similarly, the priests must bear in mind at all times that their elevation flows from divine grace rather than human achievement.
[Priestly service is] Characterized as a gift, of giving oneself, of devotion. All the acts performed in the Sanctuary reach their height in the concept of matanah, of giving oneself up, of devotion… The whole service in the Sanctuary has the purpose of teaching us to give ourselves and to give all the gifts that we receive from God up to God and God’s Torah.
Rabbi Shai Held: R. Abraham Joshua Heschel sharply distinguishes between two ways of being —“the way of expediency,” on the one hand, and “the way of wonder,” on the other. In the former, our eye is always on how we can get what we want; in the latter, our focus is on how we can serve. As R. Heschel puts it, when we are driven by expediency, “we accumulate information in order to dominate”; when we are animated by wonder, in contrast, “we deepen our appreciation in order to respond.” We are, all of us, pulled by two opposing forces, “the impulse to acquire, to enjoy, to possess and the urge to respond, to yield, to give.”