[Avodah] What did Moshe Rabenu get angry about?

[Akiva Miller]

Without going into detail, the fourth and fifth aliyos of Parshas
Shmini tell of a disagreement between Moshe and Aharon regarding the
halachos of a certain korban. In the end (Vayikra 10:20) Moshe concedes
that Aharon was correct, and Gemara Zevachim (cited by Torah Temimah on
that pasuk) says that "Moshe admitted [to Aharon]... I learned that, but I
forgot it."

Rashi (Bamidbar 31:21) lists several cases where Moshe Rabenu got angry,
causing him to err, and Rashi lists this incident among them. In other
words, Moshe got angry, and this caused him to be mistaken about the
halachos of that korban.

My problem is that I don't understand this sequence of events. Exactly what
was it that caused Moshe to get angry? Prior to the moment when Moshe saw
that korban, he had no cause for anger, and had not yet forgotten the
halacha. In the next moment, when he did see the korban, his reaction
should have been, "they did it perfectly". But instead, pasuk 10:16 tells
us that Moshe saw and got angry. Why?

There seems to be some kind of paradox going on, or a reversal of
cause-and-effect. Moshe would get angry only as a result of mistakenly
thinking that the korban was done incorrectly. And he would make the
mistake of thinking that it was done incorrectly only if he was already
angry. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Akiva Miller
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