My Thoughts on This Week's Torah Portion

I go back and forth in this space, as I do in life: I put on different lenses and see everything differently.

Last night, at the ARK, where I'm a board member, I was asked to do the little talk that a board member gives at each meeting, about the Torah portion for the week. Here's what I said.

We have learned in the previous week what the Mishkan is to be made of, and how constructed; and now, in parsha Tetzaveh, we learn, among other things, what the eight garments of the Kohanim are made of, and how constructed. We learn about the use of olive oil in the ner tamid, about the urim and thummim, and we learn, through these practical details, about self-effacement; about connection to each other and to God; and about how each detail of Torah reflects a larger principal in both practical and spiritual or mystical terms.

The word Tetzaveh means not only “command”, but also “connect” or “bond”. We are bound to God through commandments, and connected to each other through our observance and performance of them. To be commanded is to be connected; to observe mitzvoth is to be in relationship to the very Source of our existence.

One might wonder why we read in such detail about the making of garments, the fashioning of breastplates and the crushing of olives for oil. What sense, what meaning can be derived, in our moment and place so far removed from the text, from these detailed instructions? What does this have to do with commandment and connection?

God has seen that, lacking direction, the Israelites will begin to worship the work of their own hands, as has happened in the incident of the Golden Calf. And perhaps in part because idle hands turn to idol worship, God goes into great detail about the fashioning of His dwelling. He creates the office of High Priest, and commands (or connects to) Moses, who in turn commands (or connects to) the people, in the fashioning of garments for the new order of priests who will serve God directly.

The Baal HaTurim noted that this is the first Torah portion since the birth of Moses that does not mention Moses by name. Moses says to God later, in Exodus 32:21, “If You do not forgive them, erase me from the book that You have written.” God momentarily does remove Moses’ name from the book – here, in Tetzaveh. God also withholds from Moses the High Priesthood, which until now one could safely have presumed Moses alone could have filled.

We learn along with Moses several important lessons: first, it’s not all about us. Our sacred tasks and obligations must be shared amongst the community if we are to raise that community toward oneness with God.

Second, in the service of God we must be willing to erase all that we hold dear about ourselves: our identities, our reputations, our very names are as nothing before our connection to the Divine.

Third, there are different ways to serve God. We can serve through the observance of ritual, but we also can and must serve with the work of our hands. And here, at the ARK, it is through commandment that we are connected, and through the work of service to others that we are bound to the Divine.

Let us undertake the work we are commanded to do with as much care and devotion as the Israelites displayed in the fashioning of the Mishkan and the priestly garments; let us not place our stories and our reputations before the work of our hearts and our hands. And let us, like Moses, be connected through our work to each other and to God, in whose service we are all one.

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Tomorrow, I go to visit me True Ann-Sister and J; Amba and I will be simul-blogging up a storm, I'm sure.

--T.A.

Comments

[Leah]

Thanks for posting this. The timing couldn't be better... I'm working on my first d'var for my bat mitzvah on the 17th. If you are around, you are welcome swing by my shul (Emanuel in Edgewater) and cringe as I chant Torah for the very first time.

As I stare at my blank word doc, I realize how much work it must be for pulpit rabbis to come up with this stuff every single week. What an amazing skill!

[david]

Leah: Please feel free to borrow liberally -- I'd be honored to think this was actually useful to someone!

I would love to come to your bat mitzvah, but the daughter of a good friend is having hers the same day.

What's on your wish list?

[Leah]

Like any 13 year old, I want to kiss Jacob during the couple's skate, a new bicycle with a banana seat and a pink satin jacket... oh wait, but I'm not actually 13.

My real wish list is very boring--books, havdalah set, MacBook, and an electrician to fix my baseboard heating.