Tzav and Purim

In the first six verses of this week’s parshah, two things seem out of the ordinary. Firstly, when God tells Moshe to relay the upcoming laws to Aaron and his sons (the priests in the Temple) the verse says: “Command Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the law…” [Leviticus: 6: 2] Up until now, God tells Moshe to merely “speak” or “say” to Aaron and his sons concerning certain laws. What is it about this particular law that warrants a harsher term of “command”?

As mentioned, there are two things that stick out. The second part of the paragraph that seems strange may answer our question.
It is well known that the Torah will keep away from repetition; if a law is to be spoken of it should only be mentioned once. However, in the six opening verses of our parshah, it says three times that a fire should be constantly kept burning upon the altar in the Temple, and that it may never be extinguished (see Leviticus: 6: 2, 5, and 6). So it seems that the expression of “command” is needed to ensure the establishment of this special law, that a fire be kept aflame upon the alter permanently.
But now we may ask, what is it about this constant flame that the Torah felt the need to repeat it three times and that it be told over as a “command”!?

In the book of proverbs it says “It is the honour of God to conceal a matter…” [25: 2] The idea behind this verse is the following: It is true that everything on earth exists under divine supervision. Every passing cloud, every grain of sand is only in this world because God wills it to be. However, if everybody was able to see the hand of God in every particle of existence, there would be no realm of choice; we would have no alternative but to accept His Kingship. Instead of believing that there’s a God, we would merely be knowing that there’s a God.
To serve God when He’s right in front of us requires no effort and our commitment to Him would lack meaning. It is only through our Emunah (“faith”) that we gain regard in our divine service. Therefore, God so to speak conceals Himself in this world, and through this His honour can truly be brought forth.

The Talmud (a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history) states that if no fire were to be upon the Temple altar, a fire would descend from the heavens and re-ignite the flames. The Talmud says further that even though a fire comes down from the skies anyways, we nevertheless are obliged to “save” God some fuel and light it on our own [Tractate Yoma, 21b]. The reason for this obligation relates to what we have just explained. In order to bring honour to God, His miraculous ways should be covered up. This concept is so important that the Torah chooses to relate it as a “command” and repeat it three times. So we light the fire ourselves and hide the miracle, signifying that our service to God relies not upon us waiting for God to “show His Face“, but upon us taking a leap of faith and showing Him that we truly believe in Him.

However, there are certain instances where God feels the need to break the rule and reveal the “Fire from heaven”. One example is in next week’s parshah: There was a special celebration on the 8th and final day of the Temple’s inauguration. It was an intensely spiritual experience, so much that God revealed Himself and even instructed that the Temple altar be lit not by man, but by the heavenly fire. The Torah relates that two of Aaron’s (the high priest) sons were consumed by a heavenly fire because they “…brought before God an alien fire that He had not commanded them” [Leviticus: 10: 1]
The Sefer Hachinuch (literally “book of training“, written by Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet in the 13th century) explains that their sin was that, through good intention, they wanted to preserve the “honour of God” by “concealing the matter” and lighting the Altar themselves. Their mistake was that there are certain times where God’s glory is necessary to remain out in the open.

Purim is the holiday of hiddennes and ambiguity, where we read a megillah lacking the name of God and with no over miracles. It is a holiday for us to strrengthen our Emunah (faith) in God although we can not detect his presence. In a month from now, Pesach (Passover) is coming up. If one were to read the story of the Exodus from Egypt it is hard to miss the great miracles displayed before us by God. Between the 10 plagues, the splitting of the sea, and the revelation at Sinai (which, although belongs to the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, marks the completion of the Exodus), it is clear that God was laying His cards out on the table for all to see.
One can even say that the holidays of Purim and Pesach are juxtaposed just for this reason. Purim, the holiday of masks, signifies God concealing himself in nature; Pesach, where all these miracles took place, represents God taking off His “mask” and exposing Himself before us.


Good Shabbos,
Happy Purim
NZL