"And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue"

(Ex. 28:31)

 

The robe of the ephod - upon which the High Priest wore the ephod. All of blue. It seems to me that this means the way it appeared beneath the ephod and the breastplate, which are meant for memory, and also the blue of the sky, which is also for memory, as our rabbis wrote regarding the blue of the fringes, that blue is similar to the sea, and the sea is similar to the sky, and the sky is similar to the Throne of Honor, and therefore it is all of blue, and not purple, and not crimson.

(RASHBAM on that verse)

 

And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. Since the robe atones for slander, for that reason it was all of blue, because blue is like the sea, and by means of the blue, one will look at the sea, and one will be in awe of it, and thus will one do, for of the sea it is said (Job. 38:10-11): "And I will break it as my decreed place and place a bolt and doors," and He says, "unto here you shall come and no farther." And thus the Holy One, blessed be He, placed a bulwark and a bolt against the tongue, as our rabbis of blessed memory wrote (Arakhin 15b), and not only that, I surrounded it with two walls, one of bone and one of flesh; and what can do more to keep you from deceitful speech, lest it go outside and speak and send the murderous arrow of the tongue in all four directions of the world, and it will pass through the bolt and the doors? So it was fitting that He should teach people from the example of the sea, which does not pass through doors and a bolt and does not burst through its wall; and this is the reason for the blue, which is like the sea, for upon looking at the blue one will remember the sea, which is like it, and thereby one will look at the actions of the sea and from it one will be in awe and thus will one act.

(Kli Yakar, on that verse)

 

 

Lighting Lamps as the Essence of the Tabernacle

Ronen Akhitov

The Tabernacle of Testimony had two functions: the first was to testify to the inspiration of the Shekhina [the Divine Presence] among the Israelites, "and I shall dwell within them" (Ex. 25:8), and the second was to serve as a place of worship of the Holy One, blessed be He, by human beings, "His habitation shall you seek, and there shall you come" (Deut. 12:5). According to its first purpose, the focus of the Tabernacle was in the ark cover in the Holy of Holies, and according to its second function, the focus of the Tabernacle was in the altar in its courtyard.

Tetsave, the second portion dealing with the Tabernacle, begins with the commandment to light the lamps in the Menorah (Ex. 27:20-21). This commandment already appeared in Terumah (Ex. 25:37). The present discussion will be devoted to the special place of the commandment to light lamps, in the perspective of the different contexts in which it appears.

In Parashat Teruma, the commandment is connected to the Menorah. Hence, it appears alongside the other commandments connected to the vessels of the Tabernacle: placing the Tablets of the Covenant in the Ark and the Shewbread on the Table. After finishing the description of the Tabernacle and its vessels, the Torah returns to the commandment of lighting the lamps, which it had already mentioned, and with which the present portion begins.

At the end of our portion, two more constant services appear: the continual burnt offering and the burning of incense. Here, too, uniformity is lacking: the incense is connected with the altar and unique to it, whereas the continual burnt offering appears separately from the altar that is described in Parashat Teruma.

These three commandments are different from one another: lighting the lamps appears twice in two portions, the continual burnt offering appears separately from the altar, the description of which is given at the end of Parashat Teruma, and the incense appears together with the altar and is particular to it.

This is how matters must be explained: the continual burnt offering appears only as an independent commandment, so it is not connected with the construction of the altar (see Mishnah Eduyot 8:6: "Rabbi Yehoshua said: I have heard that we make sacrifices even though there is no Temple"). The incense, by contrast, is the justification for its altar. Hence the commandment regarding the incense altar appears together with the commandment to burn incense. However, the commandment to light lamps appears both as an extension of the commandment regarding the Menorah (in Parashat Teruma) and also as an independent commandment (here in this portion).

As noted above, several other explanations of the vessels of the Tabernacle appeared in Parashat Teruma: after the description of the Ark, the commandment to place the Tablets of the Covenant appears; after the description of the cover of the Ark, the promise made to Moses, that the Holy One will reveal Himself to him, appears; and after the description of the Table, the commandment to place the shewbread on it appears. However, our portion does not repeat the description of these three vessels but mentions only the lighting of the lamps.

The explanation for this is that unlike Parashat Teruma, the focus of which was the Tabernacle and its function as testimony to the inspiration of the Divine Presence among the Israelites, the focus of this portion is the service of the Priests in the Tabernacle. Lighting the lamps, making the continual burnt offering, and burning the incense are the daily, routine tasks incumbent upon the Priests. Indeed, the Priests are central to the present Portion, in which one chapter is devoted to their garb and another to the ceremony of their inauguration.

These distinctions also explain why the commandment of lighting the lamps appears before the description of the Priests' garments and not after it, like the other two matters. The lamps are both testimony to the inspiration of the Divine Presence and a positive commandment for the Priests. Therein the Menorah alone represents both the functions of the Tabernacle, as the place both of the Divine Presence and of worship of God.

But how is all of this connected with us, since we possess neither the Tabernacle nor the Temple, neither the Altar nor the Ark?

We do still have a Menorah! A candelabrum burns in two places in our lives:

The first is the symbol of the State of Israel, where it symbolizes our continuity as a nation and the historical continuity from the days of the Second Temple, where the Menorah was given its final form, and after its destruction it was immortalized in the Arch of Titus - to this day a Menorah stands on Givat Ram opposite the Knesset.

The second Menorah stands in our private homes, where we light it on Hanuccah, and we are not permitted to use the candles, for their status is that of a sacrifice.

Can we regard these two uses of the Menorah in our lives today as a continuation of its ancient functions in the Temple, and of the connections between us and the Holy One, blessed be He?

Ronen Akhitov, from Mitspeh Natufa, is a teacher and commentator on the Bible.

 

Moses said: My Lord, of the seventy nations, the only one you command me about is Israel? "For you shall raise the head of Israel," "And to the Children of Israel say," "And to the Children of Israel, speak," "Command the Children of Israel," "Speak to the Children of Israel," "And you shall command the Children of Israel, and say," - Everything you command me is about the Children of Israel!

He said to him: Because I am fonder of them than of all the nations, and they are my precious thing, and I desired them, and I chose them, as it is said, "and the Lord God chose you to be a precious nation for him" (Tanhuma, Ki Tisa, ch. 8).

Midrash Tanhuma conjoins the opening words, "and you shall command the Children of Israel," with the beginning of Parashat Ki-Tisa," which follows it and begins, "When you raise the head [=count] of the Children of Israel."

The matter of being a "precious nation" is a profound one, and like all profound matters, it can also be a trap and an obstacle; however in this Midrash the preciousness of the Jewish people is explained, and it is not a special characteristic, intrinsic only to the Jewish people, because of which they have a preferential status among the nations of the world.

The preference for the Jewish people does not derive from their nature, but because of the task incumbent upon them, and their preciousness lies in their being commanded to serve God. That is to say, if they do not perform that mission and commandment, with which they have been charged, their precious status is voided, and this was not stated only regarding one time, in the Portions of Tetsave and Ki-Tisa, but it applies in every generation, at all times.

(Y. Leibovitz, Seven Years of Conversations about the Portion of the Week, p. 189).

 

To raise up an eternal lamp

This terminology for the lighting of the lamp appears in the Bible only in reference to the service of the menorah. The language is precise, for the mitzva is to light the wick "until the fire burns on its own" (Shabbat 21), meaning: The task of the Torah teacher is to make himself superfluous! The priest should not place the laity in a status of perpetual dependency upon him. From this we hear a warning to teachers and student to practice mutual patience and forbearance.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch on Shemot 27:21)

 

Regarding that which is written in Psalms 18, "For You shall light my lamp," it was said by the Israelites before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, you tell us to light a light before You, You who are the light of the world and the light dwells with You, as it is written (Daniel 2): "the light dwells with Him." And you say, "before the face of the Menorah," Oh! "For you shall light my lamp."

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: "It is not because I need you, but that you should light for me the way I lit for you. Why? To elevate you before the nations, who will say: "See how Israel lights for Him, who lights for the whole world."

What is this like? Like a sighted man and a blind person man were walking along the road. The sighted man said to the blind one, when he entered the house: go and light this lamp for me and give me light."

The blind man said to him: "In your benevolence, when we were on the road, you supported me, until we entered the house, you accompanied me, and now you tell me to light the lamp, so it will be light for me?"

The sighted man said to him: "So that you will not owe me a favor because I accompanied you on the road, therefore I said to you, 'light for me.'" That sighted man is like the Holy One, blessed be He, of whom it is said (Zechariah 4): "they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth." And the blind man is Israel, of whom it is said (Isaiah 59): "We grope for the wall like the blind." And the Holy One, blessed be He, guided them and gave them light, as it is written (Ex. 13): "And the Lord went before them during the day." Because the Tabernacle was standing, the Holy One, blessed be He, called Moses and said to him: "Light for me," as it is written, "when you raise the lamps" - to elevate you.

The intention of this parable reiterates the relation between the believing person and his or her God. The sighted man of course symbolizes the Holy One, blessed be He, and the blind man symbolizes the Jews, and the believing person is commanded to serve God, as it were, and to light a light before Him, in order to educate himself in the awareness that he is not ungrateful for all the goodness and all the grace and all the good things that he has received.

A person who does a favor for his fellow should do so in a way that his fellow thinks that he deserves it by right and not as a favor, because it is a human trait that it is difficult to be beholden to others.

(Y. Leibovitz: Seven Years of Conversations on the Weekly Portion, p. 387)

 

And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, for my dwelling among them (Ex. 29:46).

"For my dwelling among them." Rashi explains: in order to dwell among them. And Nachmanides and the Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra interpreted it: "so as to dwell among them." And similarly the verse in the passage about the ritual fringes, "I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt to be God for you." There is a difficulty for both of these explanations, for if they were correct, the text should have said, "to dwell among them." But the expression "my dwelling" implies that "my dwelling among them" was in Egypt. As it says in Sifri at the end of the Parashah of Masa'ei and in several other places, they were exiled to Egypt and the Divine Presence was with them. And this caused Him to take them out of Egypt. And this expression is written so that people will understand: For I am the Lord your God who etc. for my dwelling [leshokhni] among them. So that my Tabernacle [mishkani] will be among them.

(He'emeq Davar, there).

 

The intention of the Natsiv [Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin of Volozhin] is extremely clear, and it is to remove from the minds of everyone who thinks that the making of the Tabernacle, in its material sense, itself is what places the Divine Presence among the Jewish people.

Unlike the other commentators, who believe that the Jewish people has the duty to bring the Divine Presence among them by creating the Tabernacle, which is, as noted, the symbol of the worship of God, the Natsiv presents an entirely different approach. His words imply that the Divine Presence among the Jews is not at all dependent upon place nor even upon the Tabernacle or the Temple, but because the people, in their exile in Egypt, retained their faith, as the Sages stated: "They did not change their name, nor did they change their language, nor did they change their costume, nor did they divulge their secrets." That is to say, they preserved the tradition they had inherited from their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the meaning of the dwelling of the Divine Presence among the Jews, which they merited when they left Egypt. Similarly, the Israelites were privileged to erect the Tabernacle not in order to have God dwell among them, but because the Blessed Name dwelt among the Israelites in their exile, and they were intended to be the dwelling place of the Divine Presence.

(Y. Leibovitz, Seven Conversations on the Weekly Portion, p. 185)

 

The Sacred Vestments - for Honor and Glory or to Sanctify him to be my Priest?

"And you shall speak to the wise of heart": For this reason Moses himself was commanded to speak to all the wise of heart, and not Bezalel, for this detail does not touch upon the wisdom of craftsmanship but on the wisdom of morality.

(He'emeq Davar on Ex. 28:3)

 

It is written (Ex. 28:2): "And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother for honor and glory," and "And you shall speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom." "I filled them" is what it should have said! However, this is the interpretation: Speak to those who are becoming wise. Aaron's heart might wish to wear the vestments for his pleasure, because they are for honor and glory. Therefore, inform them that I have filled him, Aaron, with the spirit of wisdom, so make holy vestments for Aaron, for my intention is to sanctify him to be my Priest, not for his pleasure, and not for his sake. The example of this is what Scripture says of him (when Aaron came to meet Moses) (Ex. 4:14): "when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart." Aaron did not envy Moses, which is a sign that he did not want honor for himself, and he was privileged to wear the breastplate on his heart (Ex. 28:29), which he did not wear for his pleasure or for honor and glory, but only to keep the commandment of God. This is what was said, "How good and how pleasant is it for brothers to dwell together," and Aaron did not envy Moses.

(Rav Tov fol. 68a)

 

For honor - "Honor" is none other but "weight" in the spiritual sense (both words come from the same Hebrew root), in which is expressed the spiritual and moral content of the essential qualities. The meaning of the priesthood is thus expressed in priestly vestments. "Honor" emphasizes the essential quality of the vestments.

For glory - At the same time the vestments must be made in such a way as to add to the priest's glory. The Hebrew word for glory (peër) is similar to the words for well (beër), on the mountain (bahar), and he chose (baḥar) - and the foundation of all of them is: to glow.

For glory - hence the stipulation that the vestments must not only symbolize the spiritual content of the priesthood (to honor) but that they must also be outstanding in their splendor and be an ornament to the priest. The concept expressed by "honor" receives the appreciation due to it by means of "glory."

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch on Shemot 27:21)

 

Midrashei Tsafon by Ronen Akhitov

Now this is that which you shall do upon the altar; two lambs of the first year (Ex. 29:38)

And elsewhere it says, "This is the offering made by fire which you shall sacrifice unto the Lord; two lambs of the first year without spot" (Num. 28:3). Here it says "do," and there it says "sacrifice." How can these two verses be reconciled?

The Sadducees said: an individual sacrifice is always voluntary, which is why it says "do," but if he does not make the offering voluntarily, an animal owned by the public is offered, which is why it says "sacrifice."

The Pharisees replied: No, for these are not the continual offerings but offerings made from the treasury, to which the public contributes every year, and on the altar the priest performs the offering. Thus it is sacrificed by the public but done by an individual. And the Holy One, blessed be He, wants only the sacrifice and the prayer of the public.

 

 

 

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