moish, you wrote, “yea well any time we don’t have a reason for something that was done before the torah was given we just say ‘oh – before maamad har sini!'”
What exactly is wrong with this argument? Bnai Yisrael could hardly be expected to keep the Toarh before it was given, or what was the point of accepting it? In any case, I’m trying to make a more subtle point. I think I remember learning that the torah shebichsav allows a man to remarry his wife after he divorces her, even if she’s married someone else in between. This was prohibited later to prevent people from using this as a loophole to engage in illicit behavior (wife swapping). If that’s the case, the prohibition against remarrying a divorced wife who married someone else in between didn’t exist until some time after matan torah.
From my undestanding, Amram did not command anyone to divorce his wife, but others followed his example anyways. His daughter Miriam certainly protested his action, because she was a neviah and knew it was the wrong action to take, so it may be the case that Yocheved did as well. And if she did, then she meant this l’shaim shamayim, and Eltzafan would’ve married her with this intention as well. Eltzafan became tameh after buring Nadav & Avihu, so he was surely a tzadik.
I concede this is still a difficult pshat to understand.
postsemgirl, first of all, the Torah wasn’t given at that time, so it’s not clear that the laws of kohanim would apply. In any case, though, it was not until after chait ha’egel that Aharon and his sons were designated as kohanim. While shevet laivi were teachers to b’nai yisrael in mitzrayim, they did not serve as kohanim at that time.