If I can share with you a little bit of my life-view, from what I've seen, the most subtle and unexpected things are the deepest. And yet if you can't see them at all, then the subtlety is missed. As our tradition teaches - in the places where you find the most humility, there do you find the greatest things. Not a humility that completely obliterates greatness, but rather greatness that is hidden and yet revealing. "Mati velo mati," as the kabbalists tell us: "touching yet not touching."
And so is our parasha, Tetzave. On the surface, it describes in a very technical way the clothes and the sanctification of the priests and the altar and… "You command it" is the title. And yet. Let me share with you a midrash. After the story of the Golden Calf, Moshe our Teacher tells G-d: "If you forgive the Jewish people, good, and if ayin (not) - wipe me from your book." And though G-d forgave the Jewish people, still G-d wanted no word of Moshe's to pass unfulfilled, and so this parasha, Tetzaveh has no mention of Moshe's name. Rebbe Nachman says about this - if I'm not on the level of ayin (complete humility), so take away my name from the Torah, for I know that my humility is the only way to atone for Israel.
In a sense there is a depth to a person's name. Sometimes I say my daughter's name over and over, for this seems the best expression of my love for her. And yet when you can face someone and say only "You", this is sometimes so much deeper. And so the Degel Machane Efraim, the Ba'al Shem Tov's holy grandson, tells us the real meaning of Tetzave": "you connect" (from the word Tzvat - "connection"). This parasha is a fulfillment of Moshe's request: "Let me connect to the Jewish people in a deeper way than my name, in a way of humility." And so, though Moshe's name is nowhere in the parasha, Moshe himself is all over: "And you bring close…And you should make…"
In a real way, there is a deep connection between the two meanings of the word tetzave. A true leader, commander if you will, shines through his or her connection to those led. Our parasha tells of Aharon hacohen, Moshe's brother - and his children, his clothes. It tells of the altar and the frankincense, offerings on behalf of the people - which are to include even the evil ones, even the wicked. And throughout is Moshe's hidden, yet ever-present hand. A true leader is most powerful in his humility, in the shining of his followers. The Divine Presence itself is most glorified in this world, a world where G-d is hidden.
And so G-d hides this deep teaching in this seemingly tangential parasha, to tell us: the deepest can be found in the hidden, if we search. "You connect" speaks to Moshe, to our leaders, and to all of us who are connected to the soul of Moshe rabbeinu. Let us search for the hidden connection in things - those that lead us to find those who truly love us, to G-d, and to G-d's deepest messages for us. And let us be humble, and express our connections through the subtle so we can truly say - "Blessed are You, G-d."
Rav Raz Hartman
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Rav Raz Hartman, born to Israeli parents, grew up in Southern California. He was attending U.S.C., majoring in Music Peformance, when he met Rav Natan Greenberg. That meeting eventually result in Raz's coming to the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, where he studied for six years and was given Semichah in 2003. He is married to Leah, and they live, with their three children, in Nachla'ot, Jerusalem. Raz serves as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo, and founder of the v'Ani Tefillah minyan. He has produced several albums of Jewish music. |