Not many jumped at the opportunity to write about Parshat "Tetzaveh", as the description of the slaughtering of the bull and the sacrificed of rams in the ceremony of introducing the priests to their work arouses disgust in any normal person, the description of the priests' clothing is far from interesting, and the matters of incense? In Christian worship it still has a place, but not for us, at least not for the last two thousand years.
I was in a similar situation 43 years ago, in my last year of study at the Beit Midrash for the Rabbis, where every graduate had to give a senior sermon about the weekly parsha, in front of the audience of teachers and students, and even then, all the other parshot were taken except for this one, which was left orphaned and abandoned, and I struggled hard to find meaning in it. Already in those early years, I saw myself as belonging more to the sons of the prophets than to the sons of the priests, something that grew stronger as the years went by. In this spirit I turned to the Haftarah of "Tetzaveh" and found that it, too, deals with the worship at the Temple. But the Haftarah starts with words, that in my humble opinion are the most suitable for our time.
"[Now] you, O mortal, describe the temple to the House of Israel, and let them measure its design. But let them be ashamed of their iniquities: When they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the plan of the temple and its layout, its exits and entrances—its entire plan, and all the laws and instructions pertaining to its entire plan. Write it down before their eyes, that they may faithfully follow its entire plan and all its laws."
(Ezekiel 43:10-11)
The Prophet conditions the building of the Temple with soul searching, with awareness and control and repentance from their sins, which he does not list here, because he had already listed them ten chapters earlier, in one of the most severe rebukes recorded and preserved in the Bible, a passage whose relevance to our day is very clear (and for those of you who didn't get to hear it in the voice of our prophet Isaiah Leibovitz, you can hear it here in Hebrew).
"The word of GOD came to me: O mortal, those who live in these ruins in the land of Israel argue, “Abraham was but one man, yet he was granted possession of the land. We are many; surely, the land has been given as a possession to us.” Therefore say to them: Thus said the Sovereign GOD: You eat with the blood, you raise your eyes to your fetishes, and you shed blood—yet you expect to possess the land! You men have relied on your sword, you have committed abominations, you have defiled one another’s wives—yet you expect to possess the land! Thus shall you speak to them: Thus said the Sovereign GOD: As I live, those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and those who are in the open I have allotted as food to the beasts, and those who are in the strongholds and caves shall die by pestilence. I will make the land a desolate waste, and its proud glory shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, with none passing through. And they shall know that I am GOD, when I make the land a desolate waste on account of all the abominations that they have committed."
(Ezekiel 33:23-29)
It is easy for us to blame everyone, at home and outside of us, for the disaster that befell us: the army, the intelligence, the leftists, at home; And the evil outside - Hamas, the Palestinians, the Gentiles. Even in Ezekiel's time, there were cruel enemies and unfaithful allies, but he does not allow his listeners to look away, but at their own actions: "You men have relied on your sword […] yet you expect to possess the land?"
As large as my yearning for our government to immediately stop persecuting the Palestinian people and start pursuing peace, even before these things I am writing at the beginning of the week reach you towards its end, is the depth of my despair that it is not going to happen now, and I assume that there is no one among the readers here who thinks otherwise. But in the spirit of the prophet Ezekiel's demand to reckon with one's soul instead of blaming others, I appeal to all of us – who did not conquer them and did not abuse them, but perhaps here and there we ignored their plight - to think about how we can make room, if not with all our hearts, souls and minds, then at least in large part of it, to bring the beginning of redemption closer.
Translation: Rabbi Tamara Shifrin
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Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom comes from a line of Conservative rabbis, he arrived in Israel on the waves of the beginning of redemption in 1967. He went through/survived a rich, varied and challenging Israeli absorption path: high school yeshiva, secular high school, Nahal (core of Bnei Akiva!), B.A. in the thought of Israel in Hebrew -- and returned to the USA for two years for rabbinical studies at the Beit Midrash for Rabbis in America (JTSA) where he was ordained. The focus of his rabbinic work is on interfaith understanding with Christians and Muslims, which led to the establishment of the Jewish-Palestinian project "Clergy for Peace", and he is one of About the founders of "Rabbis for Human Rights".
I was in a similar situation 43 years ago, in my last year of study at the Beit Midrash for the Rabbis, where every graduate had to give a senior sermon about the weekly parsha, in front of the audience of teachers and students, and even then, all the other parshot were taken except for this one, which was left orphaned and abandoned, and I struggled hard to find meaning in it. Already in those early years, I saw myself as belonging more to the sons of the prophets than to the sons of the priests, something that grew stronger as the years went by. In this spirit I turned to the Haftarah of "Tetzaveh" and found that it, too, deals with the worship at the Temple. But the Haftarah starts with words, that in my humble opinion are the most suitable for our time.
"[Now] you, O mortal, describe the temple to the House of Israel, and let them measure its design. But let them be ashamed of their iniquities: When they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the plan of the temple and its layout, its exits and entrances—its entire plan, and all the laws and instructions pertaining to its entire plan. Write it down before their eyes, that they may faithfully follow its entire plan and all its laws."
(Ezekiel 43:10-11)
The Prophet conditions the building of the Temple with soul searching, with awareness and control and repentance from their sins, which he does not list here, because he had already listed them ten chapters earlier, in one of the most severe rebukes recorded and preserved in the Bible, a passage whose relevance to our day is very clear (and for those of you who didn't get to hear it in the voice of our prophet Isaiah Leibovitz, you can hear it here in Hebrew).
"The word of GOD came to me: O mortal, those who live in these ruins in the land of Israel argue, “Abraham was but one man, yet he was granted possession of the land. We are many; surely, the land has been given as a possession to us.” Therefore say to them: Thus said the Sovereign GOD: You eat with the blood, you raise your eyes to your fetishes, and you shed blood—yet you expect to possess the land! You men have relied on your sword, you have committed abominations, you have defiled one another’s wives—yet you expect to possess the land! Thus shall you speak to them: Thus said the Sovereign GOD: As I live, those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and those who are in the open I have allotted as food to the beasts, and those who are in the strongholds and caves shall die by pestilence. I will make the land a desolate waste, and its proud glory shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, with none passing through. And they shall know that I am GOD, when I make the land a desolate waste on account of all the abominations that they have committed."
(Ezekiel 33:23-29)
It is easy for us to blame everyone, at home and outside of us, for the disaster that befell us: the army, the intelligence, the leftists, at home; And the evil outside - Hamas, the Palestinians, the Gentiles. Even in Ezekiel's time, there were cruel enemies and unfaithful allies, but he does not allow his listeners to look away, but at their own actions: "You men have relied on your sword […] yet you expect to possess the land?"
As large as my yearning for our government to immediately stop persecuting the Palestinian people and start pursuing peace, even before these things I am writing at the beginning of the week reach you towards its end, is the depth of my despair that it is not going to happen now, and I assume that there is no one among the readers here who thinks otherwise. But in the spirit of the prophet Ezekiel's demand to reckon with one's soul instead of blaming others, I appeal to all of us – who did not conquer them and did not abuse them, but perhaps here and there we ignored their plight - to think about how we can make room, if not with all our hearts, souls and minds, then at least in large part of it, to bring the beginning of redemption closer.
Translation: Rabbi Tamara Shifrin
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom comes from a line of Conservative rabbis, he arrived in Israel on the waves of the beginning of redemption in 1967. He went through/survived a rich, varied and challenging Israeli absorption path: high school yeshiva, secular high school, Nahal (core of Bnei Akiva!), B.A. in the thought of Israel in Hebrew -- and returned to the USA for two years for rabbinical studies at the Beit Midrash for Rabbis in America (JTSA) where he was ordained. The focus of his rabbinic work is on interfaith understanding with Christians and Muslims, which led to the establishment of the Jewish-Palestinian project "Clergy for Peace", and he is one of About the founders of "Rabbis for Human Rights".