Exodus Cycle Four Tetzaveh

Tetzaveh

Could it be that when Abraham left his homeland that there just wasn’t enough water for his olive trees?

It could be.

Research has shown that olives were around as early as 5,000 BC.

But what does this have to do with this week’s parasha, we might wonder? A lot. And I will get to that soon.

Tetzaveh poses a question that arises over and over again in our ancient teachings, in Mishnah and Talmud. In short, how do we blend individual and community prayer? How do we gather the finest oil of our innermost treasures and offer it to God…and help others to do the same…. without it getting…well…distorted… on the way there? Yes, we can go to that intimacy of Abraham but even then we need to deal with our own stuff, our layers, our emotions and pain, our past, our regrets, our fears, even happy feelings. The oil of the soul…even as it propels itself from our heart to God…is not impervious to the human world in which it travels. In the mishkan…in the temple…the question is even more extreme. How do we balance our personal mishkan…the sanctum of our individual body…with that of the community at large… the temple? And more….how do we even balance it with one other human being?

Today, alone in the sanctuary, I was reading from the sefer Torah. I figured I would get a big lecture on clothing…because literally Tetzaveh is about clothing. …. about what the priests are to wear…the decorative and holy things we put them in and make for them when they do the daily offerings. Today though I also received an exquisitely woven series of letters, the clothing of prayer.

Because prayer is holy clothing. It’s something we put on and do to move closer to God. It’s our inner-most selves experiencing a true make-over (yes like in the TV shows or the ads) in the moment, without words, with them, with blessings or without, improvised or planned, in book or out of book, ancient or modern, in community or alone. Prayer is the make-over we need for our soul to know God better, to say hi and to listen to the big announcements from Mt Sinai. It’s the only way we can bring our soul from inner light to holy radiance. Prayer, you might say, is clothing because it helps God to see us in His perspective, though His eyes. And this is necessary if in the long run, our goal is to bring our spark to God, all sparks, for that gratifying merge in olam habah.

And just like anything, clothing has a process. At home, we don’t see half of it. After all, that polyester in my yoga pants has to come from some factory. People had to work there. Someone had to pack it and send it overseas to Oregon so that it could land in Ross. Someone had to pick the cotton in my favorite summer shirt. Someone had to process the cotton, turn it into fibers.

Then, I not only needed to buy the shirt, I needed to know how to put it on, hang it up. And here’s an important detail. I need to know what to wear when. In other words, I’m not going to wear my hiking clothes to schul or my low cut gown to teach at the college. And then…not to complicate things too much, I need to know how to clean all of this and then re-think what to wear and when. What piece of clothing for example will bring forth my ability to teach…and will cause people to be more liable to learn (or at least won’t get in the way)? What will help me to relax? And help others to relax around me?

Finally, when all is said and done though the best feeling is when I wear something because it feels like me. It feels like the true moment, not because of expectations but because it is genuine. A friend of mine said this really well. Wear what reflects your soul (he said). Make all clothing holy. People will look at you and think they know you in a split second. Make that second count.

Now, to get back to olives. In Tetzaveh (we are told) we are to beat them for their purest oil. Olives, in ancient times, were personal. You could know who owned an olive by the olive itself, what tree it fell from. That’s because each tree had its own way-of-being and produced a unique fruit. This, by the way, is Talmud commentary, Rashi. In Tetzaveh we are to take this olive oil and use it to light the ner tamid, the eternal light. This ner tamid therefore is being fed by our most unique crafted oil, the strongest personal essence, the hard work done to know that essence, to know ourselves, and to make the idea of soul solid so we can actually pull it out from our sweat and use it to light the wick.

We begin prayer therefore in silent and deep meditation. This is individual. We chant the Birchot HaShachar, the morning blessings.

Immediately then we are to create the clothing for our Kohanim. Some of our creative oil…our creative juices….must go into the weaving of a more public type of prayer. What this means is that as leaders…of just one person (ourselves) or a whole community….we can later pull our most sanctified oil from the texture of our prayer-clothing. We pray from the heart but also become mindful of that which God can see. Not all of us can see the ner tamid. But we (and God) can see the clothing if we make it holy. This is a joyous moment, the making of community prayer. We chant the Pesukey d’Zimrah, verses of song.

We continue focusing on the prayer-oil from our heart that is so well blended into our community, our humanity. We use the definitions and the delineations to protect ourselves and raise ourselves up. We do the Bar’chu. We stand as one at Mt Sinai. We do the Sh’ma and its blessings.

Then, we bring it forward so we can all offer our joined-souls together to God. We make the offerings. We do the standing Amidah. What’s important here is remembering the blood that we touch on our right ear lobe, our right thumb and our right big toe. We can’t forget the heart- oil in its original form, how we got here, the most primal individual prayer that brought us to this place of community, the connection at its purest source.

Finally, once the communal prayer is finished with all its force, we return to the ner tamid and light the incense on the incense- alter. No wonder nothing else must touch it. Nothing strange or different. It is to remain the pure letting-go of the deepest soul-gold. Like how we started. This is what happens after the service, when we continue our meditation in private.

Without the olives though there isn’t the olive oil. And without the water there aren’t any olive trees. And without our work there isn’t anything. We need it all to be in relationship with anyone, with God, with a friend, with a lover. Any and all relationships, no doubt, are about prayer. Lose the prayer and God is suddenly close to lost as well. That’s why Abraham left his homeland. Without olives there couldn't be that valuable oil. Or…as I like to see things...produce baskets and baskets of oil….share it with everyone and not just on Shabbat…pray as you speak…pray as you act…pray in necessary conversation…pray with tears streaming down your face and laughter bubbling from your lips and a light…you can actually see it… of gold brocade and the twelve tribes of Israel engraved upon it…. and God will be unable to resist. No reason to fake it. No reason to run from it. Just be it and you are not only in your prayer-clothing…your tallit and your tzitzit…you are in Love.