Shabbat Shalom.
(Watch Rabbi Cat’s musings here)
Last week, Moses was given instructions on how to build the holy sanctuary, the mishkan, for the Divine. This week, God instructs Moses on all the vestments and adornments needed for the priests, Aaron and his sons. He is told to make these vestments of dignity and beauty (kavod and tiferet).
In kabbalah, tiferet signifies a balance of the flow of chesed, loving-kindness, with the strength and clarity of gevurah, boundaries. These two together—chesed and gevurah in the form of tiferet—help ensure a proper measure of Divine light and life-force. It is a place of compassionate action, fierce love.
One of the vestments is the breastplate of mishpat. This breastplate sits on the chest, over the heart. It is translated in the parsha as “decision,” but mishpat means judgment. The root letters for mishpat are משפ (mem, shin, pey).
In the book of Genesis, God tells Abram that He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham, appalled that God would destroy an entire city if there are some righteous people living there, says to God, “Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?” The root for judge and justly is mishpat.
The priest goes before God seeking judgment or justice on behalf of the people. I read this as a reminder to the priest (and to each of us) that when they come before the Divine with the breastplate of judgment over their heart, they are to remember to balance in their heart the qualities of dignity and beauty. The priest (and each of us) needs to stand before God like Abram did—advocating for humanity with fierce love and compassion.
In this parsha, God also instructs Moses to command the Israelites to bring oil for kindling lamps eternally (ner tamid). The instructions continue: these lamps shall burn from evening to morning. In addition to the lamps, there shall also be a “perpetual offering” (korban tamid) two times a day, morning and evening.
Why? What might be the significance of lighting candles every night to burn until morning and making an offering twice a day?
One of the words for sacrifice or offering is korban, which means to draw close or near. Sacrifices are a way to draw close to the Divine.
Now that the people have experienced their physical liberation from Egypt, seen the miracles, and are wandering lost and scared in the desert, they need another way to connect with the Divine. Rather than God manifesting through amazing miracles, the people are being encouraged to keep faith.
God provides an embodied way for them to do so each and every day—draw close to God in the morning and evening through sacrifice (which we now do through prayer) and light the candles every night to burn through the morning, sustaining the people’s connection to God’s light and life-force through the night.
In these incredibly distressing times, when the indwelling presence of God, Shechinah, seems so absent, perhaps this is a time for us to step up and build a holy place for the Divine to dwell.
To stand before the Divine and seek justice with fierce love and compassion.
To find ways each and every day to draw close to the Divine, so we can manifest Divine holiness in our lives and in our world. One way we can do this is through daily acts of resistance and action.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Cat Zavis