Tetzaveh 5767

Beginning with his birth in Parshat Shmot, Moshe's name is mentioned in every Parasha of the Torah. Yet in Parashat T'zaveh, it is nowhere to be found. Where is Moshe? Now, lest we dismiss Moshe's absence as a coincidental by-product of the haphazard manner in which history and custom have divided the Torah into weekly portions, consider this: our parasha opens with a series of Divine directives aimed at Moshe: V'atah t'zaveh; v'atah hakrev, v'atah t'daber: ­"you must command, you must bring close, you must speak". What could have been more natural than to set the context of the various commands by at least beginning with Vayomer Hashem el Moshe? Furthermore, the very first pasuk of the next Parasha begins: Vayomer Hashem el Moshe! Where, then, in Tetzaveh, is Moshe? Let's find him!

Parshat T'zaveh places us right in the middle of the extended section which relates the construction of the Mishkan_~ the portable desert sanctuary. Regarding this sizable chunk of Torah, literary analysis has "uncovered" what our interpretive traditional has always taught: far from being a clerical ledger of contributions received and outstanding, or an architect's blueprint, the record of the building of the Mishkan captures a creative process of intricate detail that mirrors G-d's setting in order the cosmos in Bereshit. And if the Mishkan is a cosmos-in_-miniature, then surely the priests and their activities in the Mishkan reflect the Divine vitality that makes the cosmos come alive. Parshat T'zaveh is about those priests. It opens with the injunction that the Kohen Gadol light the holy lamps each day, and closes with the directive to burn the sacred incense daily on the incense-alter - two of the most exalted of all priestly functions. Between these subl1me brackets, G-d instructs Moshe regarding the investiture of his brother, Aharon, as Kohen Gadol

An elaborate, seven-day ritual of preparation, purification, and atonement is prescribed. Moshe is to serve as priest, feeding, waving, and sprinkling blood upon Aharon and his sons. They, for their part, are treated almost as korbanot, as holy offerings - they are not to budge from the sacred precincts the whole seven days. This period is termed miluim, or filling in, for as gold and silver settings are filled with precious stones, so Aharon and his sons are installed in the Mishkan. To this end, they are garbed in the most exquisite apparel imaginable, and this brings us to the first half of the main body of our parasha. For the other meaning of investiture is enclothment. Before Moshe receives the details of the milu'im ceremony, he is instructed precisely how to fashion, from the rarest and most exotic materials, each of the eight vestments Aharon, as Kohen Gadol, must wear.

How are we to understand these garments? What lies behind them, what do they mean? On one level, straight-forward yet profound, these garments are Israel. The names of the twelve tribes are engraved on the twelve stones of the hoshen, the breastplate fastened over Aharon's heart. They appear again on the avnei shoham affixed to the ephod at his shoulders. Aharon literally stands for Israel as he offers their sacrifices before G-d.

Yet there is a deeper sense to the bigdei Kehuna, as is revealed in the following Midrash:

By what merit could Aharon enter the HoIy of Holies? R. Yehoshua of Sikhnin said in the name of R. Levi: ­[the answer can be under'stood by] a parable: A prince's tutor was to enter the king's court to give good report regarding his charge, the prince. Yet he feared the harm the royal ministers might do him [for they might see him as an intruder]. So what did the king do? He dressed the tutor in his own royal garments, so that the ministers would see and take heed. So, too, Aharon, in carrying out his duties, would have to enter holy places at any given moment. If not for the many merits he brought with him, he would not have been abIe to enter due to the envious wrath of the ministering angels. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He gave to Aharon a semblance of his own Holy Garments, as it is written, "He put on righteousness like armor, with a helmet of salvation on His head. He clothed Himself with garments of retribution, wrapped Himself in zeal as in a robe."

G-d's garments, then, are his attributes, his middot. Our mystical tradition explains: G-d is pure, unadulterated being, illimitably present. We cannot truly speak of His essence at all, and so when we nevertheless do so, we compare Him, however inadequately, to that most enigmatic of all substances, light. In order to shield His creatures from the intolerable presence of His blazing, blinding light, G-d has chosen to limit Himself, as it were. Operating much like filters and apertures in the lens of a camera, G-d allows only a scintilla of light here and there to pass through the many layers which cloak the ineffable. These little rays, due to G-d's self-limitation, are now manifest as definable qualities such as lovingkindness, justice, beauty and triumph. Thus, the very garments G-d cloaks Himself with become the vehicle of His revelation. Paradoxically, G-d's pouring out of Himself into the world necessitates self-concealment, and it is in that act of concealment that revelation takes place.

So too, our midrash tells us, with Aharon. Aharon is a Baal Middot - he possesses fine attributes of soul. And as the word middot means garments as well as attributes, it becomes obvious that the resplendent garments Aharon wears are a manifestation of his inner soul, the soul of a Kohen Gadol. Aharon is the symbol of peace. He constantly puts himself aside, seemingly limiting his self--fulfillment for the sake of others. Another Midrash tells us that the reason he himself engages in the making of the golden calf is to spare Israel the direct responsibility for that heinous sin.

All along, Aharon has accepted the hegemony of his younger brother, content to walk in his shadow. Aharon draped in sartorial splendor reveals an even greater splendor of soul. The soul whose unknowable depths generate such qualities as mercy, modesty, and generosity is he who is chosen to stand for all Israel before G-d.

And where is Moshe? Aharon on the highest heights for seven days, decked out in the finest attire ever beheld, reveling in the savor of sacred meat, reclining with all his sons in the tranquil shade of Divine favor, waited upon hand and foot by his holy brother ... a week- long spiritual repast, the Shabbat of Shabbatot. No wonder our parsha opens with the kindling of lights and ends with the burning of spices!

And where is Moshe? How does he respond to all this attention lavished upon brother? Again; we turn to the midrash for clues:

When G-d told Moshe, "bring close your brother, Aharon", Moshe was distraught. So G-d said to him, "I had Torah, the raison d'etre of the universe, and I gave it to you!"

Moshe's first reaction, our Midrash tells us, was all-too-human - he became jealous of his brother. As he understood it, Moshe was no longer to enjoy that special closeness of Avodah which now became Aharon's prerogative as Kohen Gadol. He knew, of course, of his brother's fine qualities, his beauty of soul. Now he was to witness his profound worship of the Infinite One. As if these were not enough, Aharon was even counted as the most learned of the elders. Such heights of Torah, Avodah and G'milut Hasadim in one man! Moshe saw Aharon's exalted stature, and he envied him his closeness to G-d.

What holy envy - we should all be plagued with it, leapfrogging our way to k'dusha like Aharon and Moshe. Yet, as our Midrash tells us, Moshe was mistaken in envying Aharon. Great as Aharon was, Moshe was even greater. G-d seeks to convince Moshe of this, reminding him of his primacy in Torah.

Aharon may know the Torah as well as Moshe, but Moshe is Torah. And though Aharon merits being drawn close in Avodah, Moshe, via his Torah, draws even closer. For Torah, in its deepest sense, is worship. When one unites one's mind and soul with the words of Torah, that is a state of prayer. The image of the Shehina speaking from Moshe's throat as the wellsprings of Torah overflow into commandment eloquently captures the worshipful communion with G-d that Torah implies. When Torah comes alive in us, it becomes the very speech of Mi she'amar v'hayah ha'olam: ­the One who spoke and all came to be. This is the reason that the Talmud exempts true Talmidei Hakham from statutory prayer - when they study, they are at prayer. Moshe, whose whole being was Torah, whose whole life served as a conduit between heaven and earth, need not envy Aharon. While Aharon took on Divine qualities, Moshe united wlth their source - Divine mind.

But Moshe was not reconciled. Sharing such closeness to G-d, Moshe thought, must mean separation from Him, and the very thought of that left Moshe broken. And it is this brokenness that G-d utilizes to bring Moshe one notch further. A Midrash that must have been almost as startling when originally told as it is to us today will illustrate:

It's like a wise man who marries his perfect match, and after ten years there are no offspring. He tells her, "Find me a second wife! I could take one myself, wlthout consulting you, but I desire that your great humility [be made known]. Likewise, G-d said to Moshe, "I could make your brother Kohen Gadol myself, but I desire that your greatness be known to him.

It is precisely at the point of Moshe's greatest pain - when, as he perceives it, he is most separate from G-d -- that G-d offers Moshe the opportunity to rise to the highest level. He commands him to attend in person to the investiture of Aharon as Kohen Gadol.

Moshe, most humble of men, is to grapple with that last flicker of envy, and simultaneously, to do good to his brother, Aharon. In investing Aharon as Kohen Gadol as commanded, Moshe steps through pain into a humility that is everywhere open to G-d as commanding presence. We can almost hear G-d cry out to Moshe, "Moshe, this is a moment of greater closeness that ever. Hear my voice - I command you, I address you. Do my will and you bind your profound Torah, your majestic Avodah, and your selfless G'milut Hasadim into a seamless eternity of fractured illusions that contains the greatest truth of all: G-d is One!"

We have found Moshe. In refusing to drive the wedge of ego into the desolate emotional crevices of his soul, Moshe transcends the limits of individual, self-oriented identity. He has discovered that the pintele Yid, the "Jew-point" within all of us, is the portal to the collective soul-memory of Klal Yisrael, which is our truest self. Moshe has reached into his deepest core and, in a twist reminiscent of a mobius strip, comes up with a vastly expanded soul-identity: elemental Jew. It is in this sense that we say, shakul Moshe k'neged kol Yisrael - Moshe is considered as equivalent to all Israel, because he is present to all that is Israel.

This is why Moshe's name does not appear in our parasha. While at this peak, he can no longer be referred to as an object, as third person ­nistar; hidden, in the language of Hebrew grammar. He is entirely nokhah, present, and thus the parsha opens by referring to Moshe three times in the second person, as atah - you!

Such presence, such transcendence, Moshe attained by commandedness. G-d shows Moshe that the highest form of becoming a tzelem elokim_~ an image of G-d, is in engaging that component of the human which is closest to the essence of divinity - will. Aligning one's will with G-d's opens the channels for a presence, a relationship of imperative that forges Torah, Avodah., and Gemilut Hasadim into a new entity - 'anavah -humility.

So far for the midrash, the theory - what about the ma'aseh, the practical? What does our parsha teach us regarding the details of our Iives? There is a Mishnah in Sanhedrin which reads, Kol Yisrael yesh lahem helek la'olam haba - all Israel has a portion in the word to come. In this parsha, Moshe has taught us to understand that Mishnah differently - ­it is only to the extent that one can muster the 'anavah to expand the definition of self to embrace Israel and thereby to unite all Israel, that one is guaranteed a piece of eternity.