לעשות את כל המעשים. להחליף הבכורים בלוים ודע כי דבר גדול היה ומכעיס לאשר איננו מאמין להסיר הבכורים מכהונתם ולהשיב המעלה למשפחת משה לבדו וכל זה הי' בעבור מעשה העגל כי ויעלו עולות ויגשו שלמים הבכורים העלום כי הם היו לבדם הכהנים ובני לוי הרגו עובדי העגל ויש בכאן שאלה ותשובתם בפרשת וילך משה: TO DO ALL THESE WORKS. To have the Levites take the place of the first-born. Note, it is a major and grievous act to the one who does not believe that God ordered the first-born to be removed from their position as kohanim and to have this status conferred only upon the family of Moses. All of this was done66The first-born were removed and the Levites substituted in their place. because of the incident of the golden calf, because and offered burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings (Ex. 32:6) speaks of the first-born who offered these sacrifices, for they alone were the kohanim. Also, the sons of Levi67Alone. killed those who served the calf.68The first-born did not join Moses in extirpating the worshippers of the calf. Thus the first-born showed themselves unfit to be kohanim. There is a question here.69It isn’t clear what the question is. I believe it to be the issue of God changing His mind. According to medieval Jewish philosophy, God and His mind are one. Thus God’s mind is immutable. This being the case, how could He change His mind regarding the fitness of the first-born to serve as priests? Its answer is found in the Torah portion which opens with the words va-yelekh mosheh (Deut. 31:1).70I.E. there explains that God does not change. It is people who do. See I.E. on Deut. 31:16. Here I.E. is probably hinting that it wasn’t God who changed His mind but rather the first-born who changed by becoming unfit to serve as kohanim.