Tzav

Leviticus 6:1−8:36  

 

What Can We Learn from Taking Out the Garbage?

D'VAR TORAH BY: ROBERT TORNBERG for ReformJudasim.org

In reading Parashat Tzav just one week after reading Parashat Vayikra, one cannot help but notice how, on the surface, these two portions are nearly identical. Both of them go into great detail about the five major kinds of sacrifices offered in the Tabernacle in the wilderness (and later in the Temple). There are, however, some obvious differences:

In Vayikra, in the very first line, God instructs Moses to "Speak to the Israelite people" (Leviticus 1:1) and explain the laws of the sacrifices, while in Tzav Moses is told to "Command Aaron and his sons . . . " (6:1). In both cases very similar explanations of the various sacrifices follow.
In Tzav, the entire end of the parashah (8:1-36) contains a detailed description of the consecration of the Tabernacle and the priests. No such description is included in Vayikra.
There are some more subtle differences as well. For instance, the order in which the various sacrifices in the two portions are described is different. And, in discussing the burnt offering (the olah) in Tzav there is a focus on a perpetual fire that must be kept burning on the altar (6:6). Both of these factors provide ample opportunity for interesting questions and a variety of responses, which will not be our focus here.

There is another subtle difference, however, that is very easy to overlook when we struggle through detailed descriptions of material as remote from our lives as these sacrifices. In discussing the olah the text tells us:

The priest shall dress in linen raiment, with linen breeches next to his body; and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and place them beside the altar. He shall then take off his vestments and put on other vestments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a pure place. (6:3-4)
In short, we have a reasonably specific description of how to take out the garbage! Why would this be included in the sacred text? Is it simply yet another detail for the priests to worry about? Is it just a "throw away" couple of lines that teach us nothing important? Is there something to it beyond what is on the surface?

Through the centuries various commentators have been bothered by the inclusion of this section as well. Some focus on the importance of making the sanctuary especially beautiful and ensuring that nothing – certainly not a pile of burnt ashes – mars the awesomeness of the Tabernacle. Others argue that this section teaches us that even the priests – people of great holiness – must take care of daily chores as mundane as taking the trash to the dump.

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Vayikra

Leviticus 1:1−5:26 

D'var Torah By: Robert Tornberg, RJE, for Reform Judaism Magazine

Looking through the Smoke: A Transparent Message

Reading much of the Book of Leviticus (Vayikra, the third Book of the Torah), and its first parashah – also called Vayikra – can feel like searching for meaning through smoke as thick as that produced by the very sacrifices the book and our parashah describe. It is dense, repetitious, and seemingly relates little to our lives.

In this portion we learn about the various laws pertaining to the five types of sacrifices offered by Jewish worshippers for over a thousand years. These sacrifices took place in the portable sanctuary – the Tabernacle or "Tent of Meeting" in the wilderness – and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. They included:

• The olah, "burnt offering" (Leviticus 1:1-17): This voluntary korban ("sacrifice," coming from the root "to bring close") was the most common offering, bringing the donor closer to God. Always an animal, it was slaughtered and fully burned, that is, sent up to God. Hence the name olah, which means "goes up."
• The minchah, "meal offering" (Leviticus 2:1-16): Generally also a voluntary offering, the minchah consisted of flour and oil (unleavened), cooked or uncooked. A portion was to be burned on the altar together with the spice, frankincense. The rest was eaten by the priests. This offering was often given by those too poor to afford an animal for the olah (see Vayikra Rabbah 3:1)
• The zevach sh'lamim, "offering of well-being," sometimes called a "peace offering" (Leviticus 3:1-17): This offering of thanks or gratitude was not completely burned. A prescribed portion was burned on the altar, part was given to the "priests," kohanim, and the rest was eaten as a festive meal shared by the donor and guests.
• The chatat, "purgation or sin offering" (Leviticus 4:1-35; 5:1-13): This offering was given to atone for an unintentional sin (related to the word, chet – sin, denoting "missing the mark"). The sin involved could be individual or communal, and the offering was most often an animal (although a meal offering was acceptable). The sacrifice involved splashing the blood on the altar, then allowing the priests to eat the meat of the animal.
• The asham, "reparation or guilt offering" (Leviticus 5:14-26): The asham was handled in the same way as the chatat except that it was required that this sacrifice be a ram. It was most usually offered by someone who had stolen property. The offender had to restore what was taken plus twenty percent, and then bring the asham to be forgiven by God.

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Shabbat Shekalim-P'kudei

Exodus 38:21-40:38; Exodus 30:11-16

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Jonathan E. Blake for Reform Judaism Magazine

What Is the Purpose of the Synagogue?

The Hebrew term for synagogue is beit k'neset. It means "house of assembly" and thus approximates the Greek word 'synagoge' which also means "assembly." For centuries, the synagogue functioned primarily as the ancient world's idea of a "JCC," a place for Jews to assemble. These institutions dotted the Jewish landscape even while the Second Temple-shrine of our ancient worship-stood. The synagogue of antiquity might have struck us as surprisingly "secular" in orientation. Originally, people may not have come to the synagogue primarily to pray or study. They conducted local business in the synagogue, promoting the general welfare of the Jewish community. Accelerated by the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, synagogues evolved to absorb many of the ritual and religious observances of an emergent Rabbinic Judaism. Over time the beit k'neset also became a beit t'filah, a "house of worship," and often a beit midrash, a "house of study," too.

The archetype of the synagogue, the Tabernacle that constitutes the focal point of the wandering wilderness community, completes construction in Parashat P'kudei. "In the first month of the second year, on the first of the month, the Tabernacle was set up" (Exodus 40:17). The text credits Moses with erecting the completed structure and arranging all of its fixtures, beginning with its planks and posts, and concluding with the screen covering the outermost gate. "When Moses had finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Eternal filled the Tabernacle" (Exodus 40:33-34). The Tabernacle, spiritual antecedent of the synagogue, is complete. The text signals God's satisfaction with the work when God's Presence enters the structure. Over the Tabernacle a cloud rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, as a constant, visible reminder of God's nearness and as a guiding presence for the Israelites' journeys (Exodus 40:36-38).

That human beings have successfully brought God into their midst through the construction of a sacred sanctuary marks a dramatic shift in ancient Near Eastern mythology. The Mesopotamian Epic of Creation is typical in its depiction of the gods creating their own dwelling place on earth, here to be named Babylon:

The Anunnaki [Babylonian deities] began shoveling. For a whole year they made bricks for it.When the second year arrived,. . . they had built a high ziggurat for the Apsu [other deities]. (Tablet VI, from Myths from Mesopotamia, trans. Stephanie Dalley [New York: Oxford University Press, 1989], p. 262)

The Torah, in contrast, imagines human beings teaming up to fashion earthly materials (precious woods, metals, fabrics) into a place where God's Presence will abide. The inversion is poetic and brings God's work of creation full circle. In the first chapter of Genesis, God creates a home for human beings to inhabit. In the last chapter of Exodus, human beings, Israelites charged with a holy purpose, create a home for God to inhabit.

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Vayakhel

Exodus 35:1–38:20

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Peter S. Knobel; Reprinted from ReformJudaism.org

Sanctifying Time and Space, Shabbat, and the Building of the Mishkan

At the beginning of Parashat Vayak'heil Moses convokes the entire community and reiterates the commandment on Shabbat observance:

These are the things that the Eternal has commanded you to do: On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you have a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Eternal, whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire throughout your settlements on the sabbath day." (Exodus 35:1-3)

Then Moses instructs them regarding the building of the Mishkan (the Tabernacle or portable sanctuary), which would accompany them through the wilderness and which presaged the building of the Temple. The Creation of the world and the building of the Mishkan are parallel activities. Through them we see how time and space are both the locus of potential sanctification.

In The Sabbath1, Abraham Joshua Heschel writes:

Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time. . . . Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year. The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn; a shrine that even apostasy cannot easily obliterate."

The sanctification of time makes Judaism portable and turns us away from an overemphasis on the building of edifices that honor the builders more than the Creator of the Universe. However, our parashah describes the building of the Mishkan as a divinely ordained project that requires crafts people of great skill and a project supervisor, Bezalel, who is endowed with "a divine spirit (ruach Elohim) of skill (chochmah), ability (t'vunah), and knowledge (daat) in every kind of craft" (Exodus 35:31; 31:3). The work follows an architectural blueprint provided by God. So inspiring is the project that the community volunteers to provide more resources than are required and Moses has to instruct them to stop making donations. The people are inspired by the building of sacred space, which is meant to draw them to the Presence of the Divine.

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Ki Tisa

Exodus 30:11−34:35

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Peter S. Knobel; Reprinted from ReformJudaism.org

When Moses Is with God for 40 Days and 40 Nights, It’s Back to the Idols

Parashat Ki Tisa recounts the incident of the Golden Calf in a multilayered narrative about faith and leadership. In Exodus, chapter 32, we read that Moses remained on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights. In his absence, the Israelites demanded that Aaron fashion an idol so God would be present with them. Aaron created a Golden Calf, probably modeling it on statues of the Canaanite god El1, who is depicted in the form of a bull.

The irony of this incident is that the people already had experienced the invisible God who led them out of Egypt. When the Golden Calf story takes place, they are waiting for Moses to return from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, which explicitly prohibit depicting God in a physical form. One might argue this story is out of place because the Ten Commandments were given in a prior text, in Exodus, Chapter 20. Or we can resort to the Rabbinic interpretive dictum, ein mukdam um'uchar batorah, "there is no earlier or later in the Torah" (see Rashi on Exodus 31:18). While this teaching solves the chronology problem, it tells us little about the meaning of the story.

For a better understanding, let's take a closer look at the text. When the people insist that Aaron make a god who will go before them, they give this reason: "for that man Moses, who brought us out from the land of Egypt – we do not know what happened to him" (Exodus 32:1). Why are Moses's whereabouts so important to them? Why are they so dependent upon Moses?

Perhaps the people depend heavily on Moses because it is just recently that they have been freed from slavery and they still feel a need for the kind of dictatorial rule they had experienced under Pharaoh. Since Pharaoh was considered a god in Egypt, perhaps they considered Moses a god. When Moses is not available they feel God is absent: they become frightened and disoriented, and need a physical representation of a deity. As we know, Moses was not good at delegating, so he may have encouraged the people's dependency. Leaders often are tempted to make their organizations overly dependent upon them. For Moses, it took the wisdom of his father-in-law Yitro to help him delegate and develop a governing structure (see Exodus 18:13-26).

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Tetzaveh

Exodus 27:20−30:10

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Peter S. Knobel; Reprinted from ReformJudaism.org

Finding Satisfaction in Others’ Success

Parashat T'tzaveh opens with the following words. "You shall further instruct (V'atah t'tzaveh) the Israelites to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly" (Exodus 27:20). Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, in her commentary, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus, points out the unusual use of the pronoun V'atah, which she translates as, "And as for you," as we read in this excerpt:

With unusual emphasis, God turns to Moses: Ve-atta tetzaveh – "And as for you, you shall instruct . . . " The redundant pronoun in ve-atta, "and as for you," substitutes for the more usual imperative form, tzav – "Instruct . . ." or the simple future form, tetzaveh – "You shall instruct . . . " Such an insistent, abrupt focus on Moses has aroused much discussion among the traditional commentators on the Torah. . . . What shift in focus requires the sudden use of ve-atta, in a context where Moses is everywhere the subject of God's address?1
Zornberg's commentary continues with an important discussion about the relationship between Moses and Aaron that appears in Midrash Tanchuma. 2 The midrash relates how in seven days at the Burning Bush, Moses repeatedly declined God's instruction to go before Pharaoh as the people's representative, saying "Please send by the hand of another." Finally, God had enough. He told Moses "I will pay you back, when the Mishkan is built and you expect to serve as High Priest, and I say to you, 'Call Aaron that he will serve.' " Therefore, Moses called Aaron and his sons (Leviticus 9:1). The midrash continues:

Moses said to Aaron, "Thus said the Eternal to anoint you High Priest." Aaron said to him, "You have labored on the Mishkan and I am to become the High Priest!" [Moses] said to him, "By your life, even though you become High Priest, it is as if I have become [High Priest]. Just the same as you rejoiced when I rose to greatness, so I am happy at your rising."

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Terumah

Exodus 25:1−27:19

The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: "Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved." - Exodus 25:1-2

D'var Torah By: Rabbi Peter S. Knobel; Reprinted from ReformJudaism.org

Sacred Space Is Where God Dwells and Hearts Are Moved

Parashat T'rumah begins, "The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved. . . . And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Exodus 25:1-8). And eleven chapters later we read, " 'The people are bringing more than is needed for the tasks entailed in the work that the Eternal has commanded to be done.' Moses thereupon had this proclamation made throughout the camp: 'Let no man or woman make further effort toward gifts for the sanctuary!' So the people stopped bringing: their efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done" (36:5-7). The standard joke is that this was the first and last Jewish building project that was oversubscribed.

Two themes are central to this Torah portion:

building of the Mikdash (the Holy Place), which is ultimately understood as the Temple in Jerusalem and a place where God will dwell among the people
contributions that come from people whose hearts have been moved to give, that is, voluntary gifts

As we read about the building of the Mikdash, we also consider our modern sanctuaries – our synagogues – and their relationship with our present-day Jewish communities. Today, our community is consumed with analyses of the recent Pew Research Center study on Jewish Americans and concerned about some of its findings, such as this:

The percentage of U.S. adults who say they are Jewish when asked about their religion has declined by about half since the late 1950s. Meanwhile, the number of Americans with direct Jewish ancestry or upbringing who consider themselves Jewish, yet describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or having no particular religion, appears to be rising.1

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