Light

This week’s Torah Portion

Tetsavveh

Exodus 27:20- 30:10

Torah Commentary by Laura Weakley

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This Torah commentary is dedicated to my daughter, Marilyn with love, as today is her birthday!

Our parashah this week begins with the instructions for the “ner tamid”, or eternal light. The rest of the parashah is about the ceremony of inauguration of the kohanim, or priests, and ends with the instructions on how to sanctify the altars with blood. The spiritual level of understanding is what connects all of the elements of our portion.
I’ll start with the light. It is not just any light, it is the eternal light the Torah tells us; not only this, but curiously we are told the tending to it - the responsibility for it - shall be “from the generations”. Notice it says “from”, not for the generations. I had to stop short, figuratively speaking, because the directives given are usually written as “for all the generations to follow”, yet this time it is “from”.
In the beginning, when Adonai created the world, Adonai created light where there was only darkness, and then separated the darkness from the light. The light Adonai called day, and the darkness Adonai called night (Genesis 1:3 - 1:5, paraphrased). We all know this, and yet this was done before the creation of the sun, the moon, stars, etc. This was the eternal light - the light of Adonai. This light is love, wisdom, knowledge, peace, joy - all the wonderful things we associate with Adonai. This was the beginning of creation of the physical and metaphysical worlds. From this light, all we can see, touch, hear, smell, and taste was now able to have form and mass (“mass” in scientific terminology).
It was this light which begins Tetsavveh, which - not coincidentally - is a portion about the beginning of the human responsibility for co-creating, as it is taught to us when Adonai created the Jewish Nation, the Nation of Israel. Yes, at this point we have already received the Torah by way of Adonai’s teaching it to Moses, to teach to the children of Israel. As anyone who has gone to college knows, learning theory is wholly different from learning the application of the knowledge in the “real world”. Thus, it makes sense that first we were given the laws, then we needed to build the Mishkan to house it and to utilize the space to pray to and honor Adonai. Now, we are beginning to learn how to pray and honor Adonai, beginning with the ones who will lead us in doing so. Not only will the priests lead the people, but the people must also actively participate. It was the people who made the holy clothing and vestments for the priests to wear when officially leading the services.
It is only fitting then, before we can get started, Adonai tells us we need to be responsible for bearing the light of Adonai, and revealing it. Each generation will be handed the light, but each generation is also responsible for sharing the light, imparting the light to others, and for seeing to it the light of Adonai is always visible in our world.
All of the instructions in our parashah this week were written to be read not only as instructions for the inauguration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, and understood as the way all succeeding generations should conduct priestly inaugurations, but simultaneously connecting our past, present, and future responsibility to always actively participate in creation as partners with Adonai. We are told repeatedly all of the information in the Torah is to be remembered, especially that all existence is because Adonai allows it, wills it, and is forever a part of it. Adonai separated the darkness from the light, the good from evil, the sacred and the profane, and yet all is still a part of Adonai.
We are to learn while evil too is something created by Adonai, it is to be kept separate from good, and the mundane separate from the holy. I am referring here to the instructions for the sin offering, which includes burning all excrement still encased within the bull’s intestines. It is to be a part of the sin offering, but burned away from the holy space within the Mishkan.
This passage includes references to all we have and understand about what makes up our universe within ourselves, and the universe we are standing in. It was once thought all was created from four main elements, those of fire, air, earth, and water. Science then started classifying categories of life as animal, vegetable, or mineral. Adonai gave us the ability to learn about our world through all five senses, and by utilizing our hearts and minds, and our egos and souls. Genesis teaches us light was created first, and includes the poetic and simplified story of creation as what happened on each day of the week, thereby also creating the week itself. In the Garden of Eden, some say the fruit of the tree of knowledge was a pomegranate. The Kaballists tell us the Sephirot were created before the physical part of our world was created.
In the creation of the Nation of Israel, Adonai is recreating the world again; only this time, human beings have experience of the darkness (that of exile and subjugation through slavery), and we are to take with us this experience and knowledge and use it to continually work on recreating a better world, one which acknowledges Adonai’s existence - first and foremost - Adonai’s omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, and the understanding of the connectedness of everything, because Adonai is a part of everything, and everything is a part of Adonai.
As this is a commentary, and not meant to be a book, I have given you a general idea of what Tetsavveh is spiritually about. Everything I have written of, and more, is contained within and represented by this parashah. Now that you have an idea of what to look for, read the text of Tetsavveh looking for the representations of all which I have brought to your attention. Fire, air, earth, and water are most likely the easiest to find, as they are quite obvious, but I promise you if looked for, you will find all I’ve written of and more!
Adonai has let us know the Jewish people are to be the bearers of light, the teachers of the Torah to the world, while simultaneously making it known that while we have this ability, it is still up to us individually to choose to take on the responsibility of carrying the light of Adonai to the world. We are to forever be the ones to bring the “Or L'amim”, the light unto the nations. In the midst of darkness, look for the light, be the light, shine the light, and share the light. It is only through the light we can repair the world (tikkun olam)!
Shabbat Shalom,
I’d love to know what you think!

Light

Friday, February 11, 2011

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copyright© Laura Weakley February 11, 2011

Contributing Editor: Kevin A. Weakley