In I got It!
‘Yahrzeit’ – its source in the Torah
Throughout the ages we have had the custom of commemorating the anniversary of a Tzaddik’s death. What is the singular Yahrzeit mentioned in the Torah?
The one and only Yahrzeit that is found in the entire Chumash is that of Aharon haKohen, the first Kohen Gadol in history.
The date of his passing falls on the first of Av 2488 (1272 BCE), during the fortieth year of the nation’s trek through the desert. We see this in Sefer Devarim 33:38 – “And Aharon the Kohen ascended Har Hahar at the command of Hashem, and he died there in the fortieth year following the exodus of the Jewish nation from Mitzrayim, in the fifth month, on the first of the month”.
Aharon haKohen was buried on Har Hahar, a mountain identified today as being situated in the territory of Jordan. It has been renamed by the Arabs ‘Nabi Aharon’.
Accompanying Aharon to his final resting place were eighty thousand young men who were named after him – on account of his lifetime pursuit of peace, whether between man and his friend or man and his wife.
After his passing, the nation mourned him for thirty days - as we see in Bamidbar 20:29: “and all the congregation saw that Aharon had departed, and the entire house of Israel cried for Aharon for thirty days”.
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