11 April 2025 5785
Week of 06 -12 April 2025
Readings: Parasha: Leviticus 6:1-8:36; Haftarah: Malachi 3:4-24
This Parashah for this week Tzav (Lev. 6: 1-8:36) organises completely the world of sacrifice in the Temple, with its constituent elements, its time and the way of doing it and even deals with the way of dressing. God instructs Moses to teach Aaron and his sons their responsibilities and way of behaving before the sacred, as priests of the Lord in the Temple.
The sacrifices form an important part of the Temple liturgy, and the priestly function completes this sublime moment of encounter between God, the people and the Land of Israel. Jerusalem, having in its bosom the Temple, the dwelling place of God and being situated in the centre of the Land of Israel, radiates God to all creation. It is in one place in order to be everywhere. God acts from the particular to the universal: a people, a land, a city and a Temple and from this unique reality God makes himself present in all creation.
In contact with the Jewish people, we learned that in a very exemplary way the Jewish people knew how to preserve these sacred moments of encounter with God and these elements of supreme values even when the Temple ceased to exist. Much more than that, they knew how, over time, to incorporate the spiritual life of the Temple, with its rhythm, into their everyday life of faith. Therefore, there was no disappearance of the meaning of the Temple, but rather an assumption of its universe of spiritual values in an existential way in the people and in the community, through the festivals, celebrations, prayers, moments of prayer, as well as in the theological intensity of the texts that make up the world of prayers. Therefore, the Parashah of this week is not just a reading of texts that relate to the past when the Temple existed, but it also illuminates and enriches Jewish life today.
I would like to mention that this week the Jewish people begin the celebration of Pesach, which went from being a pilgrimage festival during the Temple period and its absence, became a celebration for the entire family, everywhere. In fact, the Temple was destroyed, but it came to exist in the real life of the Jewish people.
Rabban Gamaliel teaches: “In every generation, each individual a person is obligated to see themselves as if they themselves went free from slavery in Egypt” (Mishnah Pesachim 10, 5). Therefore, Pesach is not only a festive celebration, but it means remembering the past, bringing the past present today, being aware of where the people come from and at the same time assuming responsibility for the current moment in history and the world that must be liberated (redeemed) from its gods and serve only the One and Unique God who defeats the pharaohs.
My sincere wishes for a happy Pesach celebration to the Jewish people (Hag Sameah) and that this experience of liberation from the gods, and the movement to loyalty to the One and Unique God, celebrated by the Jewish people, may be a source of richness for us, sons and daughters, that we come from gentility, in the celebration of our Passover through the death and resurrection of Jesus, a Jewish man who was faithful in everything to the One and Unique God who revealed himself to his people.
This week’s Parashat Sukkot Period Commentary was prepared by
Elio Passeto,NDS, Jerusalem- Israel, Director
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