7 March 2025
Week of 02-08 March 2025
Torah Portion : Exodus 27 :20-30 :10 Haftarah : I Samuel 15:2-34
Theme: Symbols of Light and Fire
On this date in 2025 Shabbat Tetzaveh, with emphasis on priestly vestments and the Ner Tamid, the parasha is combined with Shabbat Zachor, which recalls the attack of Amalek on the Israelites during their escape from Egypt. I am grateful to Ellen Frankel who in her book “The Five Books of Miriam” reminds us of a connecting theme by quoting Psalm 119:105, “Your words are a candle at my feet and a light for my path”. Psalm 119 is an alphabet of cries to Adonai, an alphabet of yearnings and promises.
The “Ner Tamid”, the lighted oil and consequent fire, is instituted based on Tetzaveh ch 27:20-21. Both light and fire are symbols of God since neither can be seen by itself. Light is visible only when it reflects on something, and fire is the liberating of energy. Through light we become aware of all of God’s creation and fire represents human energy to bring God’s reality into the world. (Etz Chayim p.503) Although Tetzaveh describes the lighted oil as used for priests at the Mishkan, today on Shabbat Eve, “the hearts and hands of women are every bit as pure as those of the priests, and our candles shine just as brightly” (Frankel, p.133). The Words of Torah continue to enlighten and enliven us.
The priestly vestments are described in the greatest of detail as skillfully designed items of beauty and treasure. (Ex 28:3-42). One footnote in Etz Chayim struck me as an important awareness. Verse 3 states …all who are skillful, whom I have endowed with the gift of skill.”. The foot note adds, the literal meaning of skillful, (hakhmei lev), is “wise of heart”. There is a wisdom of the heart, an emotional maturity born of age and experience, that is different from intellectual knowledge and is especially suited to fashioning holiness (Etz Chayim p.505). It seems to me that our own “skill” is useful in interpreting the descriptions of the vestments.
Leibowitz gives as an additional point of view. She reminds of Genesis 3:21 “the Lord made for Adam and his wife garments of skin ’and he clothed them’”. (page 528) She quotes author Benno Jacob, “Clothing is not merely protection … In the moral consciousness of man it serves to set him higher than the beast.” She continues the quote …” the high priest … is then clothed in white as a symbol of purity and light that he may be compared to with the man ‘clothed in linen’ i.e. the angel of the Lord (Ezekiel 9,3). In describing clothing as an extension of creation, the Hebrew word for skin can be changed into “light” by altering the first letter ayin to aleph, since The Holy One, Blessed be He, is described as “girding himself with light” (p. 529). In addition, the distinctive clothing adds to the distinction between the sacred and the profane (p.530)
My closing quote is from Haftarah commentary in Etz Hayim (p.520) It does connect the discussion about the altar in Parashat Tetzaveh to the discussion of the altar In Ezekiel: “Noting the same conjunction of altar and table in Ez 41:22, Simeon taught that when three people sit at a table and discuss Torah, it is ‘as if they ate from the table of the Presence (of God)’ “ (M Avot 3:3)
Finally, it is unimaginable to read the text of Shabbat Zachor and the attack by Amalek on the Israelites without thinking of the attack by Hamas on the Israeli Kibbutzim on October 7, 2023. The evil, as well as the suffering, burn in our consciousness. The hope is that, as I am writing and hear the news of cease fire and release of hostages agreement, this agreement leads to relief for all people involved and a step closer to freedom and justice, to light and fire.
For Reflection and Discussion: 1. How am I aware of “wisdom of the heart” as I endeavor to be aware of the “light and fire of God”
Bibliography: Frankel, Ellen, The Five Books of Miriam, (New York, 1996); Klein, Joyce, The Shabbat Book, (Israel, 1997); Liebowitz, Nehama, New Studies in Shemot Exodus, (Jerusalem, 1995); Lieber, David, Etz Hayim (New York 2001); Sachs, Jonathan; Daniel, Sara, The Koren Illustrated Tehillim, (Jerusalem 2022);
This week’s Parasha Commentary was prepared by
Marjan Saenen, B.A. M.A.Education, Michigan State University USA, Ratisbonne Alumna: 1999-2000, Bat Kol Alumna, 2002, 2010,2015, 2016, 2018
[Copyright © 2025]
Comments are closed