Tetzaveh

Tetzaveh is probably an unfortunate choice of parsha to restart this blog with…but I am having a momentary lapse of nostalgia and wanted to see this thing up and running again. Six months is a long enough break. I will TRY and not wait six more months until the next one. Key word=try. Quitting things seems to be my main hobby. Anyways, I’ll attempt to make this parsha semi interesting.

We get to hear all about the kohanim and their special clothes. That’s literally the entire parsha. Actually that’s not true. We also get told about special Kohen jobs and Hashem commands all of Israel to keep the menorah light burning. Presumably the commands are being told to Moshe although Moshe’s name is missing throughout.

I could make something up about the importance of clothing or something. While perusing the usual commentaries that seemed to be the only thing people could come up. Instead I’ll just broaden the perspective. Broaden my perspective to the entire first two books of Tanach. I know…that’s cheating but I don’t care. It’s my blog.

A few days ago, I heard a shiur on Yaakov’s final “blessings” to his sons. We had a conversation about the role of brotherhood throughout all of breishit and each story is a small bit of rectification of the first brother story we read: Cain and Abel. We read about Isaac and Ishmael. Doesn’t end so well. Jacob and Esau…rocky, at best. Joseph and his many siblings; his siblings do sell him to slavery and ignore his pleas for help. But in the end they do teshuva and things are mostly okay.

Moshe and Aaron are the completion of that story. Two brothers that work in tandem with one another. Moshe receives the prophecies from Hashem and Aaron carries out the priestly duties. Without a prophet; there’s no instruction. Without the priest; there’s no functioning mishkan/temple/anything. And that’s exactly what Moshe’s instructed to do this week. Share responsibility with his brother. Spoiler alert: they end up working pretty well together. Aaron’s sons can’t say the same. But at least his sons go up in flames…together. On that morbid note: until next time.