CHOCHMAS NASHIM: TETZAVEH:
MIRROR, MIRROR
By: Suri Davis
Last week we discussed the connection between the minute details of the building of the Tabernacle by the Jews in the desert, and the Jews desire to show their dedication to G-d, which G-d appreciates and remembers forever.
Right before the pandemic, I received a blessing from a Rabbi. I was discussing with him my challenges, and he blessed me with a unique blessing: “samchenu k’ymot enetanu/G-d should gladden you in the same measure as He challenged us.” The pandemic came a month later, and for the year, I didn’t attend any simchas/happy occasions. Then as the first wave was easing, and restrictions were lifting, my father passed away, so there were back to back years, two years, of my attending no simchas.
Then just as my year of mourning was ending, I was blessed with two children who are now engaged to be married, just as there are two Adars this year. How fortunate we are to get a double dose of months of joy every few Jewish leap years. The rabbis tell us, that if we fill the days of these two Adars with joy, our joy will overflow to the rest of year. With all the weddings prep, I feel so fortunate to be filling these days with simcha, two years denied, and now double-fold.
What does this have to do with this week’s Torah portion. The parshah discusses the garments of the priests and high priests. In this week’s daf yomi, Moed Katan, daf 28, why is the death of Aaron juxtaposed to the discussion of the clothing of the priests? It is because just as the death of a righteous person is atonement for communal sin, so too each piece of clothing set forth by G-d in the Torah, is atonement for different communal sins. In Parshat Chukas, the Kli Yakar mentions that there are four things that are atonement for communal sins aside from Yom Kippur. The death of Aaron’s sons is juxtaposed to Yom Kippur, juxtaposition of Miriam’s death to the laws of the red heifer, the death of Aaron to the clothing of the priests, and the juxtaposition of Aaron’s death to the breaking of the first tablets Moses received from G-d on Mount Sinai.(Rabbi Sholom Rosner, Daf Yomi Moed Katan, daf 28, at minute 23). These juxtapositions reveal to us that each one is meant as atonement for communal sins.
The brachah of Samchenu K’ymot Enetanu is a brachah of faith, that just as G-d has given us challenges, He will bless us. Where do we see this great faith? In the midrash in the book of Lamentations, when the Rabbis returned to the holy temple after it was destroyed, they cried when they saw a fox rummaging through the rubble, but Rabbi Akiva laughed. The Rabbis asked Rabbi Akiva how he could laugh at the sight of the destruction, and he replied that just as the prophet prophesied the destruction, he knew that the prophet was correct that there would be redemption.
We spend time in this week’s parshah discussing what the priests wear, the rabbis tell us that G-d wears something as well [anthropomorphically, and as imagery not reality]. G-d wears tefillin/phylacteries. Men wear tefillin which has the Torah portion of G-d’s unity written inside, what is in G-d’s tefillin? Samuel II: 7:23: Mi K’amchah Yisrael, Goy Echad B’aretz/who is like you O Israel, a unique nation in the world.”
Every morning we wake up and say the prayer of Modeh Ani/I am grateful to you G-d, the last two words of which is Rabbah Emunatechah/great is Your faith in us, your people. Our relationship with G-d is based on mutual faith. G-d has faith in us that the challenges He provides us with, we will meet with love and understanding, as a means of spiritual growth, which is the purpose of challenges. The blessings He give us, He has faith that we will recognize they are blessings from G-d, which make us more grateful to Him.
We have faith in G-d that the challenges He gives us for the best, and the blessings He gives us is for our growth as well.
King David who was pursued for most of his life, asked of G-d that He gladden us in the same measure as He has challenged us, we have hope and faith that as we have held fast in our love and dedication to G-d through our long exile, that He will redeem us in the same measure.
This Tuesday and Wednesday are Purim Kattan, the small holiday of Purim whose custom is that we increase joy on these days.
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri