Tezaveh
Parashat Tetzaveh sets Aaron and his sons up as the priests and goes into great detail regarding their vestments and their consecration as priests. We are also given very detailed instructions as to how to build the altar.
Tezaveh – Chaim Weiner
Chaim Weiner is Director of the European Masorti Bet Din
The Torah teaches us about the nature of God. The picture of God that rises from the Torah narrative is complex. God is transcendent - far and remote, yet imminent – close, caring and compassionate.
The transcendent God is the God of the philosophers – an abstract idea, a force beyond our understanding and experience. While this picture of God exists in the Bible, the Torah is more concerned with the imminent God – with the God that is close to us and cares about His people Israel. This God is much harder to understand.
The Mishkan, the tabernacle that the Children of Israel built in the wilderness of Sinai, is about God's closeness. Our reading this week describes the purpose of the Mishkan. "I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will be their God. And they shall know that I the Lord am their God, who brought them out from the Land of Egypt that I might abide among them, I the Lord their God."
How is it possible for God to dwell among us? Some understand it literally. The Sforno (16th century commentator) explains that God commanded the building of the Mishkan so that He would be able to accept your sacrifices willingly, and to hear your prayers.
Many commentators find it hard to understand God's closeness in such a literal way. The medieval Portuguese commentator (15th century) Abravenel says that the Mishkan is a symbol. We were commanded to build the Mishkan "so that the people would not think that the Lord has forsaken the earth, and say that He resides in the heavens and is distanced from human beings." We require concrete symbols to teach us abstract ideas.
Benno Jacob (19th century commentator) says that Mishkan brings about a change in us, which in turn brings us closer to God. He writes that the Mishkan and God's closeness are not 'a cause and an effect', but rather – 'a preparation and end result'. We need to prepare ourselves to bring ourselves closer to God. R. Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, wrote poetry about the Mishkan each of us builds in our heart.
Each of these commentators has turned the idea of God's closeness into something more abstract that is easier for us to grasp. It is hard to accept that God is imminent. Abraham Joshua Heschel (20th century theologian) writes that religious life is about 'Living in the Neighbourhood of God'. It is difficult for us to conceive of a God who is so close and so caring. That is the whole idea. The Mishkan stands in our midst to help us realise how close God really is.
Another Voice
Among the most obscure subjects connected with the High Priesthood are the Urim and Thummim (literally translated as the Lights and the Perfections) which were used for ascertaining God's judgment on difficult communal questions, and which are alternatively interpreted as being the High Priest's breastplate with its twelve brilliant stones or sacred lots carried in the breastplate.
Jewish visitors to the famous Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, are amazed to see everywhere the Yale seal at the centre of which are the Hebrew words "Urim veThummim" in equal prominence with the Latin "Lux et Veritas". The motto was adopted by Yale's fifth President, Rev Ezra Stiles who became a great friend of a Rabbi Carigal. They first met on Purim in March 1773 at Newport Synagogue in Rhode Island where they both lived. The friendship lasted until Carigal's death in 1777, by which time he had taught Stiles sufficient Hebrew for them to be exchanging lengthy Hebrew letters. Stiles was appointed President of Yale in that same year and Hebrew became an important part of the Yale curriculum.