Tetzaveh 5772

By Rabbi Mario Gurevich

Beth Israel Synagogue – Aruba

Our Parashah this week begins: “You shall further instruct the Israelites to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly… [to burn] from evening to morning… It shall be a due from the Israelites for all time, throughout the ages” (Ex. 27:20-21).

Since the next 43 verses are dedicated to describing the vestments of the priests, we can imagine them to be extraordinary, without leaving out details and evidently without concern to the price, given their splendor and luxury.   

First thought:  Were so much work, effort, art and cost justified for the priestly vestments?

And the answer that occurs to me is that yes, the value of the symbols, the respect that the uniforms have inspired in every age surely would produce, in a people newly freed from slavery, a feeling of respect and submission to the sacred, which would be difficult to obtain in less flashy ways.  

But centuries later, when the Temple was destroyed and the priesthood lost its duty, our sages determined that the whole people would become an am cohanim, “a people of priests”.  And thus, each one of the priestly functions found its replacement, symbolical and more abstract, in the precepts that each Jew should carry out in their daily life: prayers, blessings, food, their synagogues, and their Shabbat tables.   

However, it seems that nobody thought it was necessary to reproduce the vestments of the Cohen for all of us in our new duties.   

Maybe this is because with time and evolution we have become less dependent on outside demonstration of pomp and splendor, and more sensitive to finding the sacred and sublime in introspection and spirituality.   

The kings of old, as well as those of our time, require crowns and purple cloth.  The presidents of democratic states, who carry out the same position, are perfectly fine without them. 

Second thought: The verse that begins the Parashah states that, “It shall be a due from the Israelites for all time, throughout the ages.”  We understand that the order was to supply the necessary oil, since it would be the cohanim who would light it.

We also know that this permanent light is symbolized by the Ner Tamid that adorn our synagogues, today producing their light with electricity.

And so, what should we do to fulfill our part of what the Torah calls a “permanent statute”?  Maybe we should supply olive oil and modify the Ner Tamid of our synagogue, so that it functions with it?  

I dare to say that not only is this not necessary, but that the precept has stayed unchanged and unchangeable after all the alterations of history.  

The light of the Ner Tamid of that time depended on the oil provided by the children of Israel.  There was no Plan B.  If there were no contribution, there would be no light.  

The light of today’s Ner Tamid also depends on our contribution, more symbolic and abstract, but equally determining.  

Our presence, participation, involvement, commitment, and spirituality are the oil of our days.  The light that radiates from our synagogues (and of course not only that which works with electricity) depends on the individual support that each one of us gives.  

When these elements are lacking, the light goes out, the synagogues close, the communities die.   

We are a people of priests; may we be worthy of this honor with a behavior and conviction that assure. not only a bright future, but a future of the light.  

Shabbat Shalom.