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Unfortunately, I wasn't able to send a thought for Parshat Titzaveh on Friday, so I'm belatedly sending it today. ~abe

 

 

i

When the man and the woman

sin in the Garden

God sends them out.

They are naked,

and God sewed them coats.

*

Offering coats, God covers them from shame

and from the dangers ahead.

Because the man and the woman

need God to protect them spiritually

the man and the woman need God

to protect them physically.

They need God so much

there is no difference

between  the way they need Him physically

and the way they need Him spiritually:

life without His help

is all one nakedness;

the help He offers

is all one garment.

 

ii

In God’s Temple

the priests wear coats.

In God’s Temple

the priests wear pants

to cover their nakedness.

So before they come to God,

they are naked,

they are coatless,

like the woman and the man

vulernable outside of Eden.

 

iii

Perhaps this is the awareness

we should always bring,

coming to God:

how we are wholly naked,

how it is through God we are covered.

 

__

Genesis chapter 3 (esp 3:21); Exodus 28: 40-43 

Shavuah tov,

Abe

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How the holiest people are different

for Parshat Titzaveh 

 

i

The high priest wears bells on his robe

so he will be heard

when he enters before God

and he will be heard

when he leaves.

 

ii

To merely announce his coming

and to merely announce his going

the high priest could simply ring bells.

He does not need to wear them.

*

And the bells are still on him

even after he has come in before God

and even after he has left.

 

iii

Not every moment is a revelation.

There are plateaus

and there are valleys

between the heights.

*

Yet the high priest carries the music

of the moment when he comes before God

and the music

of the moment he returns outside

the music of the supreme moments

wherever he walks.

*

He is the man of God.

 

____

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

____

The simple reading of the text may be that the robe will be heard, and not the high priest. However, ambiguity in the phrasing does allow that it may be referring to the high priest. See Exodus 28:35.

 

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Can we learn what God wants of us?

for Parshat Titzaveh

 

i

The Ark in God’s Tent

is full of words.

Within the Ark are the stone Tablets of the Testimony:

the stone Tablets with the writing of God.

And from above the Ark,

God speaks: He tells what He will command to the Children of Israel—

the speech of God.

*

The other words of God’s Tent

are the words on the High Priest’s uniform.

His breastplate and his shoulder pads bear the names of the Tribes.

The gold plate on his forehead reads: Holy to HaShem.

*

These are all the words of the objects of God’s Tent.

 

ii

The High Priest enters the Tent

bearing words that say:

here is my community (the Tribes);

and:

there are people, things, lives that are holy to HaShem.

*

God speaks from the tent, saying:

This is what I, God, command to the Children of Israel.

 

iii

Man comes to God, saying:

I know my community,

and I know that there is holiness.

*

When Man comes to God in this way,

God says to him:

Now here is what you must do.

 

____

With this talk of Rabbi Chanoch Waxman as a starting point.

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

____

Please pray for the premature infant  Baer Yakov ben Emunah. Please pray for Fievel ben Chaya, Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther.

 

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Justice (for Parshat Titzaveh)

i
Moses sets chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens who will judge the people at all times.

Until now, he has judged the people alone.

Now he spreads Justice throughout them.

*
God reveals Law on Mount Sinai.

God tells Moses: These are the Judgments that you shall set before the people.

God decrees Judgment from above.

*
The people accept the Judgments.

And God tells Moses: the people shall make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them.

The high priest who serves in that sanctuary shall wear a Breastplate of Judgment.

He shall wear the Breastplate of Judgment over his heart.

It shall bear the names of the Children of Israel, a remembrance before HaShem at all times.

ii
The people partner with God in Justice: the people from below, and God from above.

Then God lives among them.

The people meet God in Justice: on the people’s heart, in God’s remembrance.

*
To partner with God is to partner in Justice.

To meet with God is to meet in Justice.

In Justice we greet God.

Shabbat Shalom and Purim Sameach, Abe

With thanks to my wife Kathi for her editing, as always.

________
Verses cited: Exodus 19:21-22, 21:1, 25:8, 28:15, 29

Please continue to pray for the recovery of Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah

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The Schedule of God

God commands that the priests are to light the Menorah in the Mishkan, the place where God will dwell among the Children of Israel.

God says: The priests shall order the flames there, from evening to morning.

God says: the Menorah is to burn always; the priests are to light the Menorah in this way this forever.

*
That is God's introduction to the role of the priests in the Mishkan.

ii
The Mishkan is the dwelling-place of God among Israel.

The priests' first role there is the lighting of the Menorah lights, daily, from evening to morning and forever.

This is the beginnings of how the priests make God dwell among us.

*
God comes to us when we make a schedule out of Light.

[This may have been based on a lecture of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein.]

~~~~~

The Holiness of Law and the Holiness of Prayer

I believe this point is based on a concept I remember from elsewhere, perhaps of Rav Soloveitchik’s.

In the Mishkan, the Tent in which God’s presence dwells, the chamber called Holy of Holies is the resting-place of the Holy Ark. The Ark is the chest in which the tablets of the Ten Commandments go and from where God speaks to Moses, delivering Law.

The Altar of Brass in the Mishkan is also called holy of holies. And the Altar will be holy of holies, the verse says.

The Altar of Brass is the altar upon which the priests place the sacrifices of the Children of Israel. So the Altar of Brass is the place where the Children of Israel express themselves up to God.

That expression is often likened to prayer.

In one Holy of Holies, God gives commandments. In the other Holy of Holies, the people answer him. Both sides of this conversation are Holy of Holies.