Tetzaveh is the type of portion that can easily be overlooked. There is no great historical drama here. We find details, minute details on the construction of the Tabernacle and we include the vision of the elevation of the priesthood. This, if you follow classical literary criticism should come as no surprise as Torah is a priestly document and they made sure their power was underwritten. Rabbi Sacks (z’l) makes the point on this that in the portion we see the creation of an actual elite class, the priesthood.
This portion, as much of Torah, is also concerned with leadership. The efficacy of priestly leadership is noted here. It is surrounded by pomp and ceremony and spectacular dress. A key to the priestly dress code was the ephod, a sort of tunic fastened at the shoulders. Now this was not your ordinary piece of clothing (see 28:6ff). To add to the power of the dress, upon the ephod was to be placed a “breast piece of decision” (28:15) which will include stones representing the tribes and shall be worn over the ephod held by two gold rings. What is striking is that “Aaron shall carry the names of the sons of Israel on the breast piece of decision over his heart, when he enters the sanctuary, for remembrance before God at all times” (28:30)
In this scene, the leader shall carry over his heart, the representation of all the people. Leadership is not about self; it is about the sacred responsibility for the group. The leader carries symbolically the history of a people with them. This is a sacred and awesome responsibility. It is meant to be done with a true sense of humility. Indeed, for those of you who study Mussar, this should reflect that midah of anavah or humility. As Rabbi Leah Lewis wrote in her essay in “The Mussar Torah Commentary: “Power and prestige were given to the Kohen Gadol (“High Priest”) with the express purpose of serving God and others—and not to bolster the self” (p.126)
Lewis goes on to state that acting with humility does not mean that you relinquish your true self. Rather, I think, she reflects that true humility is a sense of self-assuredness that allows room for others to be their true self as well. I see this acceptance of self as part of who we become as we get older. Maybe it is that expression of “being comfortable in our own skin”? Whatever, it is a sense that we have no need to live as if to overwhelm, control or impress others. It is enough to try and “be” within my own soul, to be grateful for it and to celebrate it.
Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Richard F Address
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
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