Tale Two Daily
INTRODUCTION
TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
PARASHAT
TETZAVEH
TAKE
TWO DAILY
By
Rabbi Yaakov Beasley
Our
parasha concludes (apparently) the listing of the vessels and garments
necessary for the Mishkan's (the Tabernacle) functioning. Chapter 29 concludes this list
unexpectedly with the commandment to offer a daily sacrifice The korban
tamid, twice daily:
38
Now this is that which you shall offer upon the altar: two lambs of the first
year day by day continually. 39 The one lamb you shall
offer in the morning; and the other lamb you shall offer at dusk. 40 And with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of
fine flour mingled with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil; and the fourth
part of a hin of wine for a drink-offering. 41 And the
other lamb you shall offer at dusk, and shall do thereto according to the
meal-offering of the morning, and according to the drink-offering thereof, for a
sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto Hashem. 42 It
shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the door of
the tent of meeting before Hashem, where I will meet with you, to speak there
unto thee. 43 And there I will meet with the children of
Israel; and [the Tent] shall be sanctified by My glory. 44
And I will sanctify the tent of meeting, and the altar; Aaron also and his sons
will I sanctify, to minister to Me in the priest's office. 45 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be
their God. 46 And they shall know that I am Hashem their
God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among
them. I am Hashem their God.
Immediately,
the Abrabanel asks:
Why
of all the offerings Israel was going to present in the future did God give here
the instructions relating to the daily sacrifices and not to those referring to
the others commanded later in the first two weekly portions of Leviticus or to
the musaf (Additional) offerings stated in parashat Pinchas (Book
of Numbers)? They would be expected to be stated each in its place but why are
the laws of the daily offerings, which are repeated in their respective
passages, stated here?
He
answers this question by noting that these instructions are given before
Benei Yisrael's first, great failure the sin of the Golden Calf. This is no coincidence, suggests the
Abrabanel:
Fearing
that people will think that since our God has put it into our nature to sin, He
commanded us the laws relating to the altar and the offerings, as if He were
pleased that we sin and then repent. This is wrong since God gave us the
Commandments concerning the offerings only after the sin of the Golden Calf when
He saw that the people are inclined to evil and ready to sin. It was then that
He provided the cure through the offerings to be applied when necessary. Hence
He then gave the laws concerning the altar, the appointment of the priests to
perform the service and the sanctity of the altar and its consecration as it is
stated, And this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs of the first
year to teach that the desired goal of the altar and the service of the priests
is not the atonement for sins, for it is better that man not sin and not bring
an offering in expiation, but rather to offer daily sacrifices in the morning
and the evening, which are not for the atonement of sins, but as a token of
gratitude to God for all the kindnesses He has shown His
people.
Therefore,
according to the Abrabanel, unlike the other sacrifices whose role was to
provide atonement after the sin of the Golden Calf, the daily sacrifice comes to
thank Hashem for His kindnesses. The Abrabanel lists two acts of kindness
that Hashem performed, the Exodus from Egypt, which was their physical
redemption, and the Giving of the Torah at Har Sinai, which was their spiritual
redemption. Developing this idea
further, he suggests that the morning sacrifice symbolizes the giving of the
Torah, which occurred in the morning, and that the afternoon sacrifice reminds
us of the korban pesach, which is offered in the late afternoon as
well.
The
Abrabanel then quotes an unnamed contemporary, similar to the distinction
between the physical and spiritual gifts that he suggested. The two sheep represent our feeling of
gratitude for the gifts of life and livelihood. In the morning, upon waking up and
shaking off "sleep, death's counterfeit" (Macbeth 2:3), we bring the morning
offering to thank Hashem for the simple gift of life. In the afternoon, after we have worked
for our daily bread, we offer a second sacrifice to reflect our appreciation for
what we have received.
Why
did the Torah then need to repeat these laws again in parashat
Pinchas? According to Rashi,
the second description is the rule that applied for all time. The verses here, he suggests, only
applied to the seven days of the installation of the Mishkan. This approach is challenged immediately
by the Ibn Ezra and the Ramban, who argue that the reason that the daily
sacrifice is repeated is so that all of the communal offerings can be recorded
together. The Seforno (in
parashat Beshalach) suggests a different distinction, similar to the
words of the Abrabanel above. Prior
to the sin of the Golden Calf, the sacrifices only functioned to offer a "sweet
savor" before Hashem. Following the
sin, however, meal and wine offerings were added to the korban tamid and
other communal offerings as atonement.
Following the sin of the spies, meal and wine offerings were also added
to individual offerings.
Why
was the daily sacrifice selected to connect to the conclusion of the greater
command to construct the Mishkan? Rav Elchanan Samet writes (http://www.vbm-torah.org/parsha.63/20tetzave.htm):
We
find that the command concerning the construction of the Mishkan is
located in its entirety in between the parasha of the ark at its
beginning and the parasha of the daily sacrifices at its conclusion.
These bookends frame the encounter between God and man: on the one hand, the
covering of the Keruvim, which is in the most hidden part of the
Mishkan "and I SHALL MEET THERE with you and I SHALL SPEAK WITH YOU
"
(25:22), and on the other hand, the sacrificial altar that is external and
exposed: "a daily sacrifice
at the entrance to the Sanctuary
where I SHALL
MEET with you, TO SPEAK with you there" (29:42).
Both
the Aron Ha-kodesh and the korban tamid represent, according to
this approach, the ongoing communication between Hashem and His people. Through Torah, contained within the
Aron, and the Divine Voice that spoke from above the Keruvim,
Hashem communicated his will to Benei Yisrael. Through their consistent and daily
offerings, Benei Yisrael demonstrated their internalization of the
lessons and values of their Divine mission. We conclude with a quote from R. Ya'akov
Ibn Habibs Introduction to his work Ein Yaakov. Referencing a three-way Ta'anitic
disagreement as to which verse in the Torah was the most important, the Ein
Yaakov concludes that the most important verse was found in our section "The
one lamb you shall offer in the morning; and the other lamb you shall offer at
dusk":
"Ben
Zoma holds that the greatest principle in the Torah, the pivot around which all
revolves is the faith which the Torah indicates in the verse, Hear, O Israel,
the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Ben Nanas is of the opinion that as far as
the great masses are concerned the more important and more comprehensive
principle is to do justice and to love goodness in relations between man and
man. This is alluded to in love your neighbor as yourself as it happened to
Hillel when a pagan came before him asking to be converted on condition that he
teach him the Torah while standing on one leg, and Hillel told him: Love your
neighbor as yourself. Ben Pazi was more analytical dividing good deeds into two
categories, one among men and the other between man and God, e.g., the
sacrificial service. For the latter he drew on the verse, one lamb
which
represents the sacrificial service to serve God. The halakha follows Ben Pazi
because he joins genuine faith with the importance of good
deeds."