TorahParsha

Change is Spiritual

for Parshat Tzav

 

The priest must put on his priestly linen garment when he serves in the Temple and must remove his garments when he leaves. Then, he shall put other garments on. In such a flux of garments, of inside and out, of coming and of going, such a man must know that life can change. Perhaps it is precisely such a man who is most able to serve before God.

 

 

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

How we give to God

for Parshat Tzav

 

God’s Tent is complete and His Presence comes down into it.

*

Moses readies the priests to serve God there.

He dresses them in uniforms.

He sanctifies them with oil.

*

Before this,

Moses takes oil

and annoints the Tent.

Not a sanctification

to bring God there—

for God is already there.

Rather:

just as Moses makes the priests ready

to come to God’s home,

Moses readies God’s home

to receive the priests.

*

We ready ourselves for God.

We ready God for us.

 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

___

Although note that Moses annoints the Tent but sanctifies the priests, so perhaps something more is more happening here.

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www.TorahParsha.com

 

The Service at the Altar (for Parshat Tzav)

I wanted to use this week’s break in the Parsha cycle as an opportunity to cover ground that I missed last week. My belated piece on Parshat Tzav below. Shabbat shalom and moadim l’simcha, Abe

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The Service at the Altar

i
The priest must raise the ashes up from off of the Altar, and place the ashes down beside the Altar.

He wears the linen garments of his priesthood.

*
Then he removes his linen garments.

And he shall put on other garments.

And he shall carry the ashes away, outside the camp, to a pure place.

*
God commands all this.

 

ii
The world is holy at the Altar and beside it.

The priest lives in that world.

*
But even so, at times the priest removes his linen garments and puts on other garments.

He seeks out the pure place that is far away from the Altar.

This is also part of the service of the Altar.

 

 

Inspired by Rav Yair Kahn’s reading of Parshat Korach

 

Verses cited: Lev. 6:3-4

Please continue to pray for Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah, and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther

 

Changing (Parshat Tzav)

i
The priest who brings an offering upon the Altar, in the Temple, shall put on his priestly linen garment.

He shall remove his garments when he leaves the Temple.

He shall put other garments on.

ii
The priest puts his garments on, and he takes them off again.

He serves in the Temple, and he goes away.

He comes and he goes.

iii
Such a man must know that his life is in flux.

He must know that his life can change.

*
Perhaps it is precisely such a man who is called to serve in God’s Temple, at God’s Altar.

_

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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