The portion of Tetzaveh begins with God instructing Moses to command the people to bring pure olive oil to light the lamps of the Menorah.[1] The numerical value of the opening words “And you shall command” (וְאַתָּה תְּצַוֶּה) is 913, the same as the numerical value of the Torah’s first word, “In the beginning” (בְּרֵאשִׁית). When the letters of the word “and you” (וְאַתָּה) are permuted they read “craving” (תַּאֲוָה).[2] Although initially it may be difficult to see any connection between the phrases “and you shall command” and “In the beginning” and “craving”; they seem to be linked by nothing more than letter permutations and numerical values. However, upon deeper reflection a profound idea is revealed.
The sages and subsequent Jewish thinkers have posited various reasons for why God created the world. The verse, “They will make for Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst,”[3] appearing in the previous portion, alludes to perhaps the deepest reason given for God creating the world: “God has a craving to make for Himself a dwelling place in the lower worlds.”[4]
Given this explanation, the Tabernacle clearly represents the fulfillment of God’s craving, or perhaps we might say, His passion to make Himself a dwelling place in the lower worlds, to be present within physical reality through the human soul. He commands the Children of Israel to build him a sanctuary where, on the one hand, He can be approached and experienced and on the other hand, in a deeply mysterious way, He could as it were reveal some of His essence to His creation. That was the function of the Tabernacle and the Temples in Jerusalem—to serve as a meeting place between God and man. Their physical structure and the service performed in them were ultimately meant to symbolize the sanctuary to be built within each human being’s body, heart, mind, and soul. When this is accomplished, the purpose of creation will be fulfilled.
Shining Light
Having linked God’s purpose for creating the world and the Tabernacle, the presence of light in both is instructive. Just as light was the first thing created, God’s first instruction to Moses in this parashah is to command the people to take “pure, pressed olive oil” to light the Menorah daily. The Menorah’s light symbolizes God’s light shining within the material and physical world. Just as God illuminates and sustains the mundane reality with His light, i.e., with His revelation, so too we should constantly spread light throughout the world.
The key ingredient to revealing light is passion. In the reason given above for God creating the world, the word for “craving” (תַּאֲוָה), denoting passion, often has negative connotations. Because it is usually associated with baser, physical desires; however, it also possesses positive connotations: enthusiasm, whole-hearted commitment, and love of life. Passion is a burning flame, which when directed properly creates spiritual light. God had a passion, as it were, to dwell in the lower worlds. Man must imitate this passion for life by pursuing goodness and creating a fitting place for God in the world, as well as within the deepest recesses of the soul.
The Anointed One
The olive oil used in the Menorah in the Tabernacle is described in the first verse of Tzetzaveh quoted above as “pure olive oil, beaten to give light.” Olive oil was not only used in the Menorah but also in consecrating the vessels of the Tabernacle. Olive oil was also used to sanctify the Kohanim as they were initiated into service in the Tabernacle. [5] Additionally, olive oil was used to anoint kings. It is from this ritualistic act that the title “Mashiach,” which means “the anointed one,” is derived.
Olive oil allegorically represents a profound secret: light emanates from physical matter. When physical matter is probed and beaten like an olive, it reveals a deeper dimension of energy and light. The Zohar teaches that all matter is simply different degrees of thickened light. What is true of olive oil is in effect true of all physical reality. Einstein’s theory of relativity and other modern scientific revelations about energy and light have confirmed that matter is quite literally pure energy.
Mashiach is charged with teaching the world this link between the physical and spiritual worlds. Mashiach’s primary mission is to educate the world, introducing a new level of consciousness to humanity.[6] Ultimately all the people of the world will come to recognize the Divine unity animating all existence and the consummate union between the physical and the spiritual realms. Humanity will then realize that all reality is the light, i.e., the revelation of Godliness. The Menorah symbolizes God’s infinite light and a Jew’s role in revealing that light in all places and at all times.
The Secret of Enclothement
Following Tetzaveh’s opening commandment regarding the Menorah’s lighting, the Torah continues with a detailed description of the unique garments worn by the ordinary Kohanim and the additional special garments worn only by the High Priest. These sanctified garments, the Torah informs us, were made for “glory and splendor.”[7] The Kohanim, who served simultaneously as the people’s representatives to God and as God’s representatives to the people, were commanded to dress in a manner worthy of their position and spiritual task.
The Torah spends so much time describing every detail of the sacred vestments because garments, in general, signify a much deeper level of meaning: they are a manifestation of the Kabbalistic and Chassidic concept known as enclothement (hitlabshut).This concept was one of the greatest revelations of the Arizal, the leading Kabbalist of the last millennium.[8] The ultimate example of enclothement is God enclothing His infinite light in finite reality. This phenomenon is alluded to in God’s Name Elokim (אֱ-לֹהִים), which has the same numerical value as the Hebrew word for “nature” (הַטֶּבַע). All further manifestations of enclothement, in a sense, follow from this Divine archetypal paradigm.
Every morning, before praying, a Jewish man wraps himself in a tallit (prayer shawl). Many recite the verses: “Bless Havayah, O my soul; Havayah, my God, You are very great. You are clothed in glory and majesty. Cloaked in light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a curtain.”[9] These inspiring poetic words describe the fundamental reality of God’s light being enclothed in His creation.
Paralleling God’s enclothement in the world, the soul descends from its heavenly abode and is invested in the human body.[10] According to Chasidic teaching, the Divine soul is “an actual part of God Above.”[11] Thus, its enclothement in a body mirrors the very dynamic by which God enclothes His light in creation. Since part of God’s revelation is the soul, it follows that in some sense, God’s light is enclothed within the human body.[12]
The concept of enclothement in fact manifests itself on literally every level of existence. For example, modern science has revealed that all matter enclothes energy. A world of frenetic energy and movement exists unseen just below the surface of all matter.
Judaism has always posited that physical reality enclothes a much deeper spiritual essence. One of the purposes of the mitzvot is to engage an individual in the ongoing process of uplifting and transforming physical objects, deeds, and speech into their spiritual essences. Each mitzvah is an opportunity to extract from physical reality the pure, holy spark of enclothed Divinity that animates it. Thus, the relationship between physical and spiritual parallels the relationship between matter and energy.
Concealment and Revelation
Upon deeper reflection we see that garments simultaneously conceal and reveal. The Hebrew root for “world” (olam) also means “to conceal.”[13] Paradoxically, the world, like garments, both reveals and conceals God. The world and the laws of nature conceal God so well that His presence is not at all obvious, yet to a spiritually attuned soul, the beauty and awesome precision of nature and its laws reveal the handiwork of the Divine.
Indeed, this explains what the verse means when it states that the Kohanim are to wear their garments for “glory and splendor.” These garments concealed the physical and reveal God’s glory destined to shine through the souls of those representing both God and His people. Just as every detail of the Tabernacle’s construction and of the sacred vessels used in it embody profound secrets of creation, so too every detail of the Kohanim’s holy garments sheds light on deep concepts relating to the emotions, intellect, and soul of man.
The concepts of concealment and revelation are deeply connected to the holiday of Purim which usually falls near Tetzaveh (this year parashat Tetzaveh is the Shabbat preceding Purim). Many commentators have pointed out that God’s Name does not appear in the Scroll of Esther read on Purim, symbolizing God’s Providence hidden in the historical narrative. Only after the miraculous salvation had come to pass did the people realize how involved God had been behind the scenes, leaving nothing to chance. In fact, when delving deeply into the text and the commentaries, one realizes that God’s providence was behind every detail of the unfolding story.
Significantly, mirroring God’s absence from the Scroll of Esther, Moses is not mentioned in parashat Tetzaveh.[14] The simple explanation is that when defending Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses told God that if he did not forgive the people, he should erase him from the Torah.[15] The sages teach that every word spoken by a tzaddik is realized in one form or another.[16] Therefore, Moses’ name was erased, as it were, from parashat Tetzaveh, the parashah preceding his demonstration of self-sacrifice, which is related in parashat Ki Tissa.
A deeper explanation offered in Chasidut is that Moses’ act of total self-sacrifice for the sake of the people reached such a lofty level of pure faith—associated with the highest level of the crown (keter)—that his soul root, which transcends his name was revealed.[17] As a consequence, his name, Moses, could not appear in the parashah before because it constitutes a preparation for his ultimate self-sacrifice. Thus, his name is absent from parashat Tetzaveh so that he could sacrifice himself in parashat Ki Tissa. That is why parashat Tetzaveh begins with God addressing Moses with a pronoun rather than with his name, “And you shall command”—a face to face revelation that transcends the enclothement of Moses’ soul in his body.
Image: BRBurto – I took this photo when the Me'il was on display., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13494733
[1]. Exodus 27:20.
[2]. Amudeha Shivah, Tetzaveh.
[3]. Exodus 25:8.
[4]. Midrash Tanchuma, Naso 16.
[5]. Exodus 29:1-37.
[6]. Hilchot Melachim 11:4
[7]. Exodus 28:2.
[8]. https://inner.org/stages/stages4.htm
[9]. Psalms 104:1-2.
[10]. Berachot 10a.
[11]. Tanya, ch. 2.
[12]. Body, Mind and Soul, p.11. See also https://inner.org/healing/healing02.htm
[13]. See Rashi on Exodus 3:15.
[14]. This is the only parashah after he is first mentioned in the Torah in which Moses’ name does not appear.
[15]. Exodus 32:32.
[16]. Makkot 11a.
[17]. Ma’ayan Ganim, Tetzaveh. Yain Yitzchak, Tetzaveh.
