Welcome to Adrians Weekly Parsha Thoughts. Each week I will be sending my thoughts on the Parsha (Torah Portion), the Haftarah (Extra Portion from Prophets or Writings) and a passage from the Apostolic Writings (New[er] Testament). I do not know everything! At times you will not agree with my views. In those instances, PLEASE e-mail me. If I am wrong, then I need to know so as to 1 Put it right, 2 Not do it again and 3 Apologise. Please e-mail me with comments, suggestions and thoughts. Or BLOG them . . .While I would encourage you to forward this on to friends, I would also ask that they ask to be put on the list, so that CMJ have some kind of record of who is receiving this
This weeks Parsha is titled Tetzaveh; You shall command.
The passage reads from Exodus 27:20 to 30:10
The Haftarah reading is 1st Samuel 15:2 to 34 and Ezekiel 43:10 to 27
As it is Purim on Sunday, Jewish people are commanded to hear the reading of Megillat Ester (Scroll of Esther)
Psalm 27 (in the BCP Lectionary)
From the Apostolic Writings / Newer Testament / Brit HaChadashah (in the BCP Lectionary), read Luke 13
As ever this will be posted at cmjparsha.wordpress.com for debate. . . .
Tetzaveh is the only Parsha since Moses' birth in which Moses' name does not appear (with the exception of the book of Deuteronomy, which consists wholly of a first-person narrative spoken by Moses). The reason for this is that, [when the people of Israel sinned with the Golden Calf] Moses said to G-d: "If You do not [forgive them,] erase me from the book that You have written" (Exodus 32:31). This was realized in the Parsha of Tetzaveh, since the censure of a righteous person, even if made conditional on an unfulfilled stipulation, always has some effect.
The word Tetzaveh means both command and connect. Here, Moshe Rabbenu not only commands the people of Israel, he also connects them to each other and to The Almighty by way of the commands given.
Much of the Mishkan / Beit HaMikdash was about symbolism and show. There was a vast amount of theatre in the dress and happenings, as we see with the ephod of the Kohen HaGado images on line and in WORD version.
This is the only (main) mention of Jewish men covering their heads in worship. In a conversation early this week, a Vicar friend asked me about the passage in 1st Corinthians, where we read about men and women covering or not covering their heads in worship. We agreed that the Corinthians passage was culturally specific to Corinth, so really couldnt be applied to the Messianic Jewish Movement in our time. Many Messianic Jewish men cover their heads when praying / eating for cultural / traditional reasons. I cover mine because it is what I have always done. There are more important things about which we need to be concerned; whether or not a man wears a yarmulke is not a big thing, is it?
At Purim, one of the main traditions is wearing fancy-dress. This is because one of the main elements of Purim is hidden-ness. Esther hid her Jewishness; the Names and titles of The Almighty are not in the immediate text of the Book. They are, however, hidden in the text of the Megillah. For example at Esther 5 verse 4. In the Hebrew we find that the characters Yod and Hey and Vav and Hey are the first characters of the words in the phrase.
In Esther there are no big miracles; no seas split, no thunder, no voices from mountains, no miraculous healings. It is a story about people. Yet the HUGE miracle in Esther is that, behind the scenes of history, The Almighty works, through the prayers of His people, to keep and protect the Jewish people.
It is a very physical feast. We eat too much and, in some traditions, drink a little too much because The Almighty saved our physical selves, not merely our souls.
The Almighty is not interested in saving souls; He wants to save people.
Shabbat Shalom