TorahParsha

The Holy Man Lets Meetings Happen

i
This is the Law of the elevation-offering: The priests are to take the ashes away, after the elevation-offering has been burnt up from the fire that the priests set, continually, on the altar in the House of God.

*
The Law does not mention, here, that it is the priests who conduct the service of the elevation-offering.

This Law only mentions how the priests make the altar fit: cleaning it and making its fire permanent.

*
This Law introduces those Laws of sacrifice addressed specifically to the priests.

ii
The priest is a holy man.

Here, then, is what this Law says about the holy man:

The holy man is simply the one who brings constancy and who offers cleanliness to the meeting-spot between the people and God.

The holy man is a facilitator for the closeness between God and the people.

The holy man is not crucial in his own right.

The closeness between the people and God is what is crucial.

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The Hidden Things are for God

 i
God explains how the Children of Israel may bring sacrifices to Him in His dwelling-place. So He brings the Children of Israel in to His hidden realm.

*
Soon God describes atonement-sacrifices for sins of unlawful hiding. Like the case of the man who keeps his neighbor's lost object, denying that he holds it. And like the case of the man who, hiding what he knows, does not stand witness in court.

*
The hidden things are for God, a later verse says.

If we are to enter into God's house, into His realm, then we join Him in His burden over hidden things.

ii
Cain killed his brother, Abel, and hid him in the ground.

God asked Cain: Where is Abel, your brother? and Cain answered Him: Am I my brother's keeper?

*
But now we share the hidden realm with God.

Cain's answer is not possible any more.

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The Time of God

i
It is not until all the parts are finished that God sets a date for the erecting of His house. The building is to happen [o]n the first day of the first month.

*
Typically, in building projects, a date is set first. Then the building begins.

Here, the deadline comes close to last.

ii
We are human. The only thing we know for certain of our future is that time will pass. Everything else is a question.

And so of course time must be the framework around which we lay our plans.

*
And so human projects begin with a deadline.

And so also: history from the human view looks like just so many accidents that fill time up.

iii
Time is different for God. For God, time is simply a vessel in which to place the story that He wishes to tell.

Because there is no uncertainty for Him. Everything God wants to happen, happens.

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So God's deadlines do not have a human meaning. Time is not a framework for God. What God wishes to happen is the framework for God.

iv
Building the House of God, we enter the time-view of God.

We make God's projects before the deadline enters into the picture.

We fill time up with His crafts.

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