Background
Aaron was the founder of the priestly family, elder brother of Moses and a member of the tribe of Levi, which became consecrated to the service of the sanctuary, and later the Temple.
Aaron was the founder of the priestly family, elder brother of Moses and a member of the tribe of Levi, which became consecrated to the service of the sanctuary, and later the Temple.
When Moses - because of his stammer - was reluctant to accept the divine order to appear before Pharaoh and demand the release of the enslaved Israelites, God told him to take Aaron as his spokesman. The brothers acted together during the period of the ten plagues, although Moses was always the major figure.
Aaron personally brought on three of the plagues, using the staff given by God to Moses. With the Exodus his role diminished, but when Moses was on Mount Sinai, the people became impatient and turned to Aaron with their request to make a golden calf for them to worship. Aaron gathered their golden ornaments and fashioned the idol. After Moses’ descent, God wished to destroy Aaron, but he was saved at Moses’ intercession.
When the sanctuary was constructed, Moses appointed Aaron its high priest, whom he anointed and dressed in the special robes ordained for the office (Lev. 8-10). Of Aaron’s foursons, who were also consecrated for the priesthood, two, Nadab and Abihu, met their death for offering “a strange fire.” The other two, Eleazar and Ithamar, served faithfully, enabling the hereditary continuation of the priesthood, which has traditionally been maintained to the present (kohen, the Hebrew for priest, is in various forms still preserved in many Jewish names) among the descendants of Aaron.
Aaron and his sister Miriam were involved in a quarrel with Moses concerning Moses’ wife. Aaron again escaped punishment but Miriam was struck with leprosy and only cured on Aaron’s intervention. It was his incense offering on behalf of the Israelites, who had sided with Korah in his revolt against Moses that led God to end the plague He had brought on the people as punishment (Num. 16-18). After this incident his priesthood was vindicated and reaffirmed, when his staff blossomed with almonds.
Aaron was associated with Moses in striking the rock to produce water instead of addressing it as God had commanded (Num. 20), and both brothers were punished by dying before they entered the Promised Land. Aaron died in the wilderness on Mount Hor, at the age of 123, in the last year of the Israelites’ wanderings. Before his death his high-priestly robes were transferred to Eleazar.
