Parashat Hashavua: Tzav
This Shabbat is Parashat Tzav and also Shabbat HaGadol, when we look forward to Pesach with added anticipation. But even as our anticipation of the holiday grows, we are also mindful of Israel’s struggle to achieve peace and security, and of an unsettled world. What if our mood doesn’t match the celebratory moment of Pesach next week?
One of the lessons we can learn from Parashat Tzav is that, at times like this, we need not pretend how we feel. The Midrash connects this week’s discussion of korbanot, offerings, with a pasuk in Tehillim that says, “Offerings to God are a broken spirit, a broken and crushed heart, which God will not decline / זִ֥בְחֵ֣י אֱלֹהִים֮ ר֤וּחַ נִשְׁבָּ֫רָ֥ה לֵב־נִשְׁבָּ֥ר וְנִדְכֶּ֑ה אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים לֹ֣א תִבְזֶֽה.” (Ps. 51:19, VaYikra Rabbah 7:2) According to the Midrash, we can take to heart that “God is close to the brokenhearted, and those crushed in spirit are delivered / קָר֣וֹב יְ֭הֹוָה לְנִשְׁבְּרֵי־לֵ֑ב וְאֶת־דַּכְּאֵי־ר֥וּחַ יוֹשִֽׁיעַ,” (Ps. 34:19); that God is the One “who heals the brokenhearted / הָ֭רֹפֵא לִשְׁב֣וּרֵי לֵ֑ב,” (Ps. 147:3); and, finally, when we feel down, God lifts us up to “dwell with us above in holiness / מָר֥וֹם וְקָד֖וֹשׁ אֶשְׁכּ֑וֹן.” (Is. 57:15)
In other words, when we are in a troubled state, our mood does not cause us to forfeit feelings of closeness with God, nor hopefully with each other either. To the contrary; we can feel closest when we are humble and humbled.
Tzav also offers us not only comfort but reasons to be hopeful as well. This week and last, notes the Midrash, there are innumerable references to Aharon’s children. According to the Midrash, Moshe protests to God that Aharon is not given the respect he deserves because his children are mentioned so many times without him. This is why the parsha begins with “command Aharon and his sons / צַ֤ו אֶֽת־אַהֲרֹן֙ וְאֶת־בָּנָ֣יו.” (Lev. 6:2) Either way, regardless of whether Aharon is mentioned, what we see emphasized time and again in the parsha is the children. This emphasis on the next generation obviously echoes the centrality of children in the Seder, so much so that sometimes it seems like they are leading the Seder more than the adults, which – though Moshe might object – is the ultimate beracha for us today and into the future.
There is one more passage in Tzav to consider in the context of Pesach this year in particular. When Moshe is told to “gather the entire community at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting / וְאֵ֥ת כׇּל־הָעֵדָ֖ה הַקְהֵ֑ל אֶל־פֶּ֖תַח אֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵֽד,” (Lev. 8:3) the Midrash asks: how can the entire community fit there? Because “this is one of the places where the lesser contained the greater / זֶה אֶחָד מִן הַמְּקוֹמוֹת שֶׁהֶחֱזִיק מוּעָט אֶת הַמְרֻבֶּה.” (VaYikra Rabbah 10:9) More examples of this phenomenon are provided, mostly of them about Bnei Yisrael: for the dimensions of the courtyard in the Mishkan (Ex. 27:18), when Moshe and Aharon gather them at the rock for water (Nu. 20:10), and when Yehoshua beckons to Bnei Yisrael to gather. (Joshua 3:9) This image of the expanding space, it seems to me, provides an opportunity to reframe our experience in the world: to not let small spaces limit us. While the Jewish people are obviously not so multitudinous as to be too big for the world, somehow we find ourselves hemmed in by the world, whether in Israel or in other places, sometimes forced to reckon with an outsized impact, other times even just our mere presence.
This Pesach, may we as much as possible overcome the small spaces – whether actual physical constraints or small mindedness – to stretch the possibilities of the places we live and the ideas we hold and share, to again make the world “one of the places where the lesser can contain the greater / אֶחָד מִן הַמְּקוֹמוֹת שֶׁהֶחֱזִיק מוּעָט אֶת הַמְרֻבֶּה.”
Shabbat shalom and Pesach sameach,
Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head (Ivrit/Limudei Kodesh/Tefillah)
