Questions
and Commentary on Parashat
Tetzavveh & Shabbat Zachor
1. In this week's parasha
we receive a vivid description of Aaron's priestly garments. On the hem of his
garment were bells interspersed with pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson.
The instructions tell us that the garment will be upon Aaron "so that its sound
will be heard when he enters the holy place before the LORD and when he comes
out in order that he may not die" (Exodus 28:35). How does the sound of the bells
prevent Aaron's death?
Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan
The question of how the sound of Aaron's garments
(presumably the sound of the bells) prevents Aaron's death has puzzled
commentators throughout the ages. Rashbam offers an obvious answer based on the
strictures of the Yom Kippur service in Leviticus.
For the bells make a sound by knocking against one another
although the pomegranates are between them. For the blessed Holy One commanded,
"And no one else will be in the Tent of Meeting when he comes in to offer the
sacrifice of atonement in the holy place until he comes out" (Leviticus 16:17). Similarly, the blessed Holy
One commanded that its sound be heard, and those who hear would station
themselves far away from there.
The bells warn the people to stay away from the
Tent of Meeting when Aaron enters lest they inadvertently violate God's
explicit commandment in Leviticus and enter into the holy place during the
divine service when the Shekhina (Divine Presence) fills the Tent of
Meeting. Presumably both Aaron and the other people in the Tent of Meeting
might be at risk for violating or allowing God's commandment to be violated.
Ramban (Nachmanides) suggests that the bells are
not meant to keep people away but to warn God and the heavenly court of the entrance
of the High Priest. Ramban derives this interpretation from the practice of
royal courts as is described in the book of Esther.
All the king's courtiers and the people of the king's
provinces know that if any person, man or woman, enters the king's presence in
the inner court without having been summoned, there is but one law for him -
that he be put to death.
Esther 4:11
The garments, and particularly the bells, beckon
God to grant Aaron permission to enter the holy place and tell the heavenly
host that God's obedient servant is not to be harmed.
Ramban also suggests another answer based on Exodus
Rabba 38:8. The bells signal the Angels to leave the immediate presence of
God when Aaron enters and to return when they hear him departing. The suggestion
here is that the High Priest is in danger of encountering the angels of the
Divine Presence who might take his life for entering God's presence. Isaiah
faced this possibility when he was summoned to the celestial throne room in
Isaiah 6.
Regardless of which interpretation of this verse
one embraces, all three share a common conviction that entering the presence of
God is risky business. It requires preparation before the act and attention to
detail while performing the ritual. This preparation is not merely in terms of
readying garments but also in terms of preparing our entire being to enter the
presence of God. Yeshua, as our ultimate High Priest, models this unity of
thought and action for us. As the writer of Hebrews challenges us to imitate
Yeshua in our piety: "let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water" (10:22).
2. How were the Mishkan
and the kohanim consecrated? What was
the purpose of this consecration?
Leah
After a detailed
description in Exodus 28 of the vestments to be worn by the Kohen Gadol
(High Priest) and by the other kohanim in the Mishkan (Tabernacle),
Exodus 29 describes an intricate seven-day consecration ritual for the kohanim
and the outer Altar. This ritual is called milu'im (inauguration) from
the verb-phrase mileh yad (lit. "to fill the hand of" or inaugurate)
found in Exodus 29:9.
Each one of the seven
days, Moses, in the role of Kohen Gadol, must complete a many-stepped
process in order to induct Aaron and his sons into the office of priesthood.
The process involves Moses immersing Aaron and his sons in water for
purification, clothing them in the priestly vestments, and anointing Aaron with
the consecrating oil. It further involves sacrificing three animals, one for a
sin offering, one for a whole-burnt offering, and one for the milu'im
offering, as well as offering three types of unleavened bread on the Altar. One
striking feature of the ritual is Moses applying some of the blood of the milu'im
offering to the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe of Aaron and
his sons and then pouring the rest of the blood around the Altar; after this
Moses must mix the blood on the Altar with the consecrating oil and sprinkle
that on Aaron, his sons and their vestments, making them holy. This ritual
powerfully embodies the consecration of the entire physical bodies of the kohanim
to the service of the Altar and demonstrates the fact that their holiness is
derived directly from the holiness of the Altar.
In Parashat Tzav
(Leviticus 8), where Moses actually performs the milu'im ceremony, we
learn that the kohanim must not leave the Mishkan for the entire
duration of the seven-day period. From there we also learn that Moses anointed
the Mishkan, the Altar, and all the vessels with the consecration oil,
as commanded in Exodus 40:9-11. During the seven days of milu'im, Moses
also performed all the priestly duties in the Mishkan, including the
daily morning and afternoon whole-burnt offerings. Thus the consecration of the
kohanim was inextricably tied to the consecration of the Mishkan.
There are several
significant outcomes of the milu'im ceremony. It could properly be
described as a sacrament, since through its Aaron and his sons enter the
hereditary "order" of Aaronic priesthood (as made explicit in Exodus 40:15).
Some kind of milu'im ceremony was to be performed whenever a new Aaronic
Kohen Gadol was inaugurated into office (Exodus 29:29-30; Leviticus 6:12-15). However, the first milu'im
was unique because it consecrated not only an individual or a particular
building but also the entire institution of Kehuna, Jewish priesthood,
and Avoda in the Mishkan, the sacred cultic worship.
The ultimate purpose of
the consecration is made explicit by God at the end of the Parasha:
I will be met there [in the Tent of Meeting, (Ohel Mo'ed or Mishkan)] by the Children of Israel, and it shall become
consecrated by my Glory. I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the Altar;
also Aaron and his sons I will consecrate to minister as kohanim to me. I will dwell among the Children of Israel and will
be their God.
Exodus 29:43-45
The consecration made by
Moses in the milu'im ritual is a thus a preparation for the indwelling
of the Shekhina Glory in the Mishkan. It is this Glory which
makes the final consecration of the Mishkan and places the stamp of
approval on the whole ritual. This experience of God's Glory is described in
Exodus 40:34 as the descent of the cloud of God on the Mishkan and in
Leviticus 9:24 as the appearance of a fire that consumed the offerings on the
Altar. Both the cloud and the fire symbolize the transcendent God made
manifest.
God in his Essence is
unknowable and unapproachable. However, in his desire to be "met by" his people
Israel
and become known as their personal God, the Transcendent God commanded them to
dedicate a unique place and a unique group of people whose whole existence
would be to mediate the Divine Presence. Through the consecration of the Mishkan
and the kohanim, a channel was opened to Israel to behold the Glory of God
in a tangible and present way whenever we needed to "meet" with our God.
In the absence of a
physical Mishkan or Temple, we, as the Messianic Jewish community, must
look to the heavenly Temple, on which the earthly one was modeled, and to our
High Priest Yeshua, whose whole existence, physical and spiritual, is to
mediate for us the Divine Presence.
Sean Emslie
Matthew 11:20-30 - Taking Yeshua's Yoke
In the closing verses of
our Besora reading Yeshua says:
Come to me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30
In these concluding words
Yeshua offers rest from the burdens of life and our own striving to live life
our own way. He offers us a better way to live: Yeshua's way and his easy
yoke.
In Jewish life the taking
up of a yoke, specifically the "yoke of Heaven" is the active doing of Torah
that those who stood at Sinai accepted for themselves and their descendants. We
read about this two weeks ago in Parashat Mishpatim, when the
people said kol asher dibber Hashem na‘aseh venishma ("All that the LORD
has spoken, we will do and we will hear"). This taking up of a life of
following Torah is the duty of all Jewish people. Messiah Yeshua, the ultimate
interpreter and example of Torah living, lays out the path of walking in the
rest that he can provide and offers freely, an easy yoke.
In his Jewish New
Testament Commentary, Dr. David Stern comments on the easy yoke of Yeshua:
The easy yoke consists in a total commitment to godliness in
the power of the Holy Spirit. It at once requires both no effort and maximal
effort - no effort, in that the necessary moment-to-moment faith can not be
worked up from within but is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9); and maximal
effort, in that there is no predeterminable level of holiness and obedience
sufficient to satisfy God and let us
rest on our laurels.
JNTC, p. 44
According to Dr. Stern,
the easiness of the Yeshua's yoke is tied to the empowering of the Spirit of God
to aid in walking in God's way. In Yochanan 14:15-16, we see that Torah life
for Yeshua's disciples will include empowerment by God's Spirit:
If you love me, you will keep my commands; and I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit
of Truth, to be with you forever.
In these words we can see
that by observing Torah we are showing love for Yeshua. This then takes the "yoke of Heaven" from
being solely an act of obligation, which could seem to be a burden, and transforms
Torah life into an act which demonstrates our love for our Messiah.
Parashat
Parashat Tetzavveh & Shabbat Zachor
1. In this week's parasha
we receive a vivid description of Aaron's priestly garments. On the hem of his
garment were bells interspersed with pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson.
The instructions tell us that the garment will be upon Aaron "so that its sound
will be heard when he enters the holy place before the LORD and when he comes
out in order that he may not die" (Exodus 28:35). How does the sound of the
bells prevent Aaron's death?
2. How
were the Mishkan and the kohanim consecrated? What was the
purpose of this consecration?
NEXT WEEK'S READINGS
- PARASHAT KI TISA' - SHABBAT PARA
Exodus
30:11-34:35
Numbers
19:1-22
Ezekiel
36:16 - 36:38
Luke
10:25-42
UPCOMING YACHAD NETWORK EVENTS
3rd Annual Young Leaders Shabbaton
Beverly
Hills, CA ● June 8-9, 2007
6th Annual Young Messianic Jewish
Scholars Conference
Beverly
Hills, CA ● June 8-9, 2007
Learning 
