Parashat Tzav
By Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort
CARLSBAD, California — It’s another one of those weeks! You know, the ones where the Rabbi has any number of possible themes that he can address. Another way of expressing the situation is by calling it, “A target rich environment.” So many subjects, so little time.
Well, you get the idea.
Let’s see if we can somehow connect all of these different themes into one, coherent thought.
The Torah portion for Shabbos is Tzav, which means to command. The beginning of the portion talks about more sacrifices. This particular sacrifice, the burnt-offering, is conveyed to the priestly class (Kohanim), using stronger verbiage than what is typically used. Why, wonder the commentaries? They answer that because in this genre of sacrifice there is no material gain for the officiating priest, it is a monetary loss for him (time IS money, after all). When a monetary loss is involved a stronger expression of commandment is used to overcome any possible hesitation in fulfilling the command.
This portion coincides with Shabbat HaGadol, so called because it commemorates a great miracle that occurred, which led directly to the exodus from Egypt. The Jewish people had been commanded to set aside a Paschal Lamb that would be slaughtered and consumed on the Eve of Passover. This was not a simple request since the lamb was one of the gods of the Egyptians. Slaughtering the Egyptian god in service of the Hebrew G-d entailed a tremendous level of risk for the Jewish people. Nonetheless they fulfilled the commandment with great alacrity. In fact, when the Egyptians heard about the sacrifice and that its blood would be painted on the Jewish doorposts so that they could be differentiated from those households where the first-born would be killed, the Egyptian first-born rebelled against Pharaoh! They demanded the immediate release of the Children of Israel. They warred FOR the Jewish people! Because of this miracle, the Shabbat is called ‘Great’ and reminds us of this tremendous turn of events.
This year Shabbat HaGadol leads directly into Passover, which is viewed as the birth of our nation. This holiday marks the evolution of our people from lowly slaves to truly free people. For this reason it remains the most observed of the holidays, where Jewish families join together through the generations to celebrate our peoplehood.
A hodge-podge of heretofore lowly slaves triumphantly marching forth with their arms outstretched and their heads held high and they went on and changed history. Forever even the lowliest of us could legitimately hold out hope for better times and new beginnings. Tragedy was replaced by triumph.
Till this day we go to great lengths to properly observe this holiday. We clean our homes to an astonishing degree. We prepare festive feasts, shine the silver, and take out the best of our utensils and china. The whole house gleams and glitters, which are a direct and proportional result of good, old-fashioned elbow grease.
And then the real ‘payoff’ happens. We sit together in the glow of love and pride in our peoplehood, our families, our communities, and our homes. The direct result of our tremendous investment is our incredible Seder celebrations.
And so we have come full circle.
We follow the commandments, even though they sometimes may hard and expensive and time consuming, and then we literally bask in the radiance that we have created by following the decrees of our loving Father in Heaven! Even with all of the hard work involved, or maybe BECAUSE of all the hard work involved, we love and adore Passover!
Wishing everyone a good Shabbos and a Kosher and joyous Passover!
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Rabbi Eilfort is director of Chabad at La Costa and welcomes readers’ comments and questions via email to RabbiE@ChabadatLaCosta.com.