Tetzaveh: Continuous Ascension

Parshas Tetzaveh has a number of components. It is a continuation of parshas Terumah in which Moshe receives the instructions from G-d, while he is on Mount Sinai for forty days, on how to build the mishkan. Tetzaveh starts with the oil used to light the menorah, then spends a significant amount of time on the garb for the cohanim, especially the cohen gadol. After that it gives the commandments concerning the investiture of the priesthood, and the mitzvah for the korbon tamid (the daily offering), and concludes with the instructions for the incense alter. The final details for the construction of the mishkan are in the beginning of the next parsha, Ki Tisa.



A remnant of the korbon tamid remains today in the form of the shacharis and mincha services. The Baal Haturim notes that the gematria of the word האחד is 18, the same number of the prayers that were originally incorporated into the amida. Perhaps when the temple is rebuilt, speedily and in our days, we will be bringing a yearling sheep, as an offering, twice a day, as was done in the distant past. Until then it is important that we should understand the meaning of the daily offering, and maybe that is its essential message from the Torah. The Ibn Ezra explains that the cohanim learned the procedure for the daily offering from the procedures Moshe followed when he inducted them into the priesthood. As a result our daily dovening is a commemoration of this seminal event.



The karbonos have multiple symbolisms. Bringing an animal onto the altar is reminiscent of a meal. Burning it entirely, as an olah, is a metaphor for total dedication. So to speak dovening represents a festive meal which is an act of devotion. This is how we are to start and end our day and through it we become sanctified in the glory of G-d. The Baal Haturim comments that the last letters in the phrase על המזבח כבסים בני spell out the word לחמי, my bread. This is a hint, if it is possible to say, that the daily devotions of the Jewish people are the bread of Hashem, and just like bread is the staff of life for a man, this is what gives Him life. The section ends that through the korbon tamid, we will recognize the Creator and see that He took us out of Egypt to dwell among the children of Israel.