Parashat Tetzaveh is the second of the four parashot that envelop the sin of the golden calf, the Egel Zahav. It begins with the lighting of the menorah. Hebrew is a language of pictures through which the principles that GOD wants to teach us unfold. Tetzaveh will speak of the menorah lit with “pure” oil, which burned clean to not fill the Mishkan with smoke. It would also be used to anoint the priests and furnishings in the Sanctuary. It is the beginning of the priesthood. It is important to understand the etymology of the word ‘cohen’ (priest), which denotes link. It portrays a “ruler” which measures out a standard within which we should walk. In Latin, it’s called canon.
In Ex 19:6, Israel was called to be a “goy kadosh”, a holy nation and a kingdom of Priests (Cohanim). However, after the sin of the golden calf, the role of the Cohanim would be moved from the people and limited to the house of Aaron, through his four sons and their descendants, and their roles would be teachers of the Torah. All Israel had the role of teaching the Torah; sadly, this has been lost – but it can be recovered. It is available to everyone. We know that this parashah is not chronological since it announces this priesthood, which had been only given to Aaron and now his four sons would be mentioned. Note that the Mishkan or Sanctuary was built after the sin of the golden calf.
Next, the vestments of the priests would be described as differing from the regular garb of the people. The High Priest would wear eight different garments, but during the most important times of year, alluding to Yom Kippur, only four simple, white vestments would be worn. Why did the creator have them make all these intricate vestments?
Exodus 29:46 – 48 is important. It says: “And I will sanctify the Ochel Moed, and the altar; I will also sanctify Aaron and his sons, to minister to Me in the role of priests. And My Shechinah will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will be their God. And they will acknowledge that I am the LORD their God, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and I will dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.”
Verse 46 repeats the idea from Exodus 25:8 that the Creator would “dwell among them” – Shachanti B’tocham”. Why did the Creator have them make a special place?
Although chronologically, it hadn’t happened yet, Israel would destroy the relationship between them and the Creator with the Egel Zahav. Moshe Rabeinu pleaded with GOD because He was going to completely turn away from them. They would be on their own. Now He had them make this Mishkan after the people realized what they had done and had repented. The Mishkan was designated as the sole place for the people to gather where they could “focus upon Him alone” and where they would slowly be weaned away from idolatry, from the gods of Egypt. The word “focus” is important here. They could no longer have altars anywhere they wanted. The Ochel Moed would be the one place where GOD would be worshipped, and within which would be placed the Ark containing the two Tablets of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
FOCUS is the crux of the matter. Sometimes, you and I can become too distracted. When we are having a conversation with someone who is busy with their iPhone or newspaper and not paying attention to you, how does that make you feel? This is a common complaint between husbands and wives. I have seen that happen here when people are playing on their phones while they are listening to the message. Why are they coming here? The Creator wanted and still wants His people to focus on Him so that we can be in a relationship with Him. That’s where religions have missed the target. They teach us things to do instead of understanding why we do it. It’s form without substance.
The Creator told the people to make very intricate vestments for a reason. Did He need it? No, we needed it. We were comparing GOD with the gods of Egypt. We couldn’t see or touch our God, whereas the Egyptian gods had magnificent Temples, and their high priests were tremendously adorned. We needed continuity until the Creator could slowly wean the people away from idolatry and redirect their attention. Was that meant to be eternal? The word “olam” is translated as forever or perpetual, but the best way to understand it is according to the requirements of their situation. It no longer applies to us since we don’t have the Beit ha Mikdash today. We become that Mikdash.
This Shabbat is called Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat of Remembrance, and falls just before Purim. In 1 Samuel 15:13-15, part of the Haftarah reading, the prophet Samuel confronted King Saul, who had had been ordered to destroy all the Amalekites, including women, children and cattle. He didn’t do it. This command is so difficult for people to understand…how could the Creator ask the king to do such a terrible thing? People refer to these verses to demonstrate how the GOD of the New Testament is more merciful than the God of the Old Testament. But in hindsight, we know that there was a reason. Only God knows the heart of man. He knew that the Amalekites were evil and would forever be a thorn in the flesh for the Israelites.
Saul gave Samuel the excuse that he had kept the best cattle alive to “sacrifice” to God. He tried to justify his actions and sounded more humane than the Creator. The prophet Samuel immediately stopped him and asked why he disobeyed, saying,” 17 And Samuel said: ‘Though you are little in your own sight (because he is from the smallest tribe- Benjamin), are you not head of the tribes of Israel? And the LORD anointed you king over Israel.” Anointed here is mashiach. Shaul was considered a mashiach, showing us that not all were good! 18 and the LORD sent you on a mission and said: Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. 19 Why then did you not obey the LORD’s voice? “ Why did you fall on the booty and do what is wrong in the LORD ‘s eyes?’ ” Who is right, Saul or the Creator? Although Shaul seems to show more mercy or heart than GOD, he wasn’t doing it for mercy. The true reason was that he wanted the booty, the spoils of war, for himself. He tried to appear pious and righteous, but in the end, his true motives were revealed.
20 And Saul said to Samuel: But I did listen to the voice of the LORD and have fulfilled the mission that the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.
This next verse is used by those religious people to emphasize and justify the sacrifice of animals or any human…22 To which, Samuel said: Is the LORD pleased by burnt offerings and sacrifices or by obedience to the LORD’s voice? The LORD always sees our hearts. We can’t fool Him or make a mockery of Him. He wants our obedience. Shema Israel Listen Israel means obey Israel. To listen means to obey. God wants to see our hearts. Some religions say that the killing of an animal or a human being is the way we achieve forgiveness for our sins, that someone or something else would pay for our sins. Such a deal! Who wouldn’t want that?
Saul insisted that he did everything right by keeping the best for GOD. He said that he was following God, but he was only deceiving himself. Samuel is warning us that any idolatry is witchcraft and seeking other gods will not end well for us. How many of us think we can fool the Creator? But we are only deceiving ourselves. “Truly, obedience is better than sacrifice, submissiveness than the fat of rams.” God doesn’t need to eat; He doesn’t need our sacrifices. 23 Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, stubbornness is like idolatry! ‘Since you have rejected the LORD ‘s word, He has rejected you as king.’ Witchcraft is the same as seeking after other gods.
Because of King Saul’s disobedience, we have Purim today. Because of Saul’s disobedience, we had Haman, a descendant of King Agag. Even Arafat claimed to be an Amalekite. The entire Middle East and the United Nations are infected with the spirit of Amalek, the hatred of Israel. Amalek is the spirit of evil in conflict with the GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is true that Israel is not pure and innocent, but God will deal directly with the people of Israel who are not standing up for our GOD. The root of the problem was that Israel said that she wanted a king in order to be like the other nations and ended up with a terrible king. The Creator had set Israel apart, “goy kadosh,” and wanted the people to turn to Him as their only King.
The oil was used to light the “ner tamid”, the eternal flame, as well as to “anoint” the priests and all the elements within the Mishkan. The word for anoint is “mashiach,” and as we see in the Haftarah portion in 1 Samuel 15, King Saul was anointed, but he turned out not to be a good mashiach. Why is Saul such a bad example? He was anointed because the people of Israel said, “We want to be like the other nations”. What a big mistake! Like the word kadosh (holy, set apart), the word mashiach is dependent upon the context of the noun to which it is associated. Any Hebrew word can have opposite meanings depending upon the context.
Every detail of the Mishkan was designed to show us that externals are not important; the outer tent was nothing special to look at, but it was the beauty within that mattered. The priests were dressed in their elaborate vestments to show the people of Israel that their God was no less majestic than the gods they had just left. The people, for a time, would need what was visible, and it would take quite a few years until they could trust in a God who could not be seen with the naked eye, but only with the heart.
Hopefully, today, we have matured and have a better understanding that we do not need these majestic buildings or costumes to worship God. We can worship Him in our hearts. He is asking for our obedience, not our gold. By taking care of ourselves and our neighbors, we are taking care of HIS good name. The priests are the teachers, the guides who explain the proper teachings of the Torah. Today, we have so many teachers who teach whatever they want but without teaching the Word of GOD.
We need to be humble before our Creator, to cleanse our hearts like the pure oil in the mishkan. He doesn’t want us to be too proud to learn from Him. How many of us are truly interested in what He is saying to us? The Creator is not interested in our sacrifices, He wants our focus and our intention. Are we talking to the Creator, or is our attention elsewhere? Those here are to participate and place our focus on Him. Let us not put on an act of false piety; rather, let us learn to be obedient to Him. The Creator wants a two-way relationship.
Shabbat Shalom
Ranebi z”l