From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 2:29 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort: parshas Tetzaveh, 5765




                                          The Bells Are Ringing
             
                  By Rabbi Joshua (noisily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


This week's parsha describes the priestly garments to be worn by Aharon and his sons while performing the divine service in the mishkan. Ordinary priests were to wear four garments, while Aharon, the high priest, was to wear eight garments. Among the four garments that Aharon wore in addition to those worn by the other kohanim was the me'il, or robe. On the hem of the me'il, all around, there were placed cloth bells and golden pomegranates. The Torah tells us that the robe must be on Aharon in order to perform the divine service, and continues, "Its sound shall be heard when he enters the sanctuary before God and when he leaves, so that he not die" (Shemos 28:35). While Rashi explains that the statement 'and will not die' refers to the requirement of wearing all eight of the priestly garments in order to enter and do the divine service, Ramban writes that it refers specifically to the attachments on the me'il, whose noise announces the approach of the kohein gadol in order for all others to leave and avoid any harm that may befall them.

Rabbi Ya'akov ben Asher, in his commentary Ba'al HaTurim, notes that the word 'venishma' - translated in our verse and ' it shall be heard' - in the passive voice - occurs a total of three times in Scripture. The other two places are in Shemos, 24:7, when the nation told Moshe that whatever God would say, 'na'aseh venishma' - we will do and we will listen - where venishma is in the active voice - and in Megillas Esther, 1:20, where it says," Venishma pisgam hamelech' - and the king's decree shall be heard,' where venishma is, again, in the passive voice. The Ba'al HaTurim tries to show that there is a halachic connection that exists among all three instances of the appearance of this word. Thus, if one is faced with a choice between either reading the Megillah and doing the divine service, or between reading the Megillah and learning Torah, in both instances, he should read the Megillah, since, in regard to the Megillah, the verse says, in relation to the word 'venishma,' for it is great. This is the halachic teaching of Rabbah, as recorded in the Talmud (Megillah, 3b).


Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, in his LaTorah VeLaMoadim, finds a different connection among the three occurrences of the word 'vanishma' in Tanach. He writes that they hint to three different types of hearing that we find in life : listening with the ear, listening with the heart, and listening with one's limbs, or actions. The instance of listening referred to in regard to the me'il is listening of the ear, that referred to in connection with the events at Mt. Sinai is listening of the heart, and that referred to in connection with the statement of the king as mentioned in Megillas Esther refers to listening with one's limbs. All three kinds of listening, says the Ba'al HaTurim, must be dedicated to Torah and the performance of good deeds. While the Ba'al HaTurim's explanation shows a connection among all three verses in Tanach, it is a rather technical one, and does not shed much light on any inner connection that may exist. Rabbi Zevin's explanation, on the other hand, does give more of a sense of the inner meaning of the verses, but does not really show a relationship among them beyond the fact that they all deal with listening. Rabbi Avrohom Aharon Yudelevitch, rabbi of the Eldridge Street shul in Manhattan in the 1920s and early 1930s, in his Darash  Av, does try to show an inner connection among all three verses.


Rabbi Yudelevitch writes that the idea of hearing a sound when entering a holy place refers to the need for a person to arouse himself from his spiritual lethargy before praying to God. He writes that just as a human king is more amenable to pleas for mercy at certain times of the day, so, too, there are certain times of the day when God more readily accepts people's prayers. A person must be sensitive to those moments, and, when they come, give utmost concentration to what he says in his prayers. This is the meaning of the verse, 'its sound shall be heard when he enters the sanctuary," which can also be translated as 'and his voice shall be heard when he comes to the holy,' meaning that when a person approaches God in prayer, the sound of his voice will arouse his heart. Rabbi Yudelevitch cites the words of Rav Aharon of Karlin, who said that the reason the nation said 'we will do' first, and then said 'we will listen,' is because it is very difficult for a person to dedicate his thoughts and aspirations to God. Only if he first does some kind of outer action with his limbs will his thoughts become pure. Thus, the nation first said 'we will do', meaning that they will act, using their body, and then they said 'we will do,' meaning that they will thereby arouse their thoughts and heed the message of what they are doing.


 The third verse mentioned by the Ba'al HaTurim, "and the kings decree shall be heard," is, according to Rabbi Yudelevitch, a commentary on the second part of the first verse, "and its sound shall be heard when he enters the sanctuary and when he leaves." When a person arouses himself through his speech and aligns his thoughts with God during prayer, explains Rabbi Yudelevitch, then, even after he leaves the synagogue, he will hear God's words, and be inspired by them. Thus according to Rabbi Yudelevitch's approach, all three verses are interconnected, and this interconnection teaches us how to approach prayer, in general. However, even this interpretation does not explain how the three verses, seen as a unit, impact specifically upon the service of the kohein gadol in the mishkan, more than on any Jew who approaches God in prayer. I would like to offer an explanation that places the message of this three-part unit within the context in which it appears - the mishkan.


Ramban, as we noted, writes that the purpose of sound made by the attachments to the me'il was to let the people know that the kohein was about to perform his service, so that no one would be in that area when he did so. The midrash derives, from this practice, the necessity for a person to avoid entering a house, even his own, suddenly. The Talmud (Pesochim 112a) tells us that it is forbidden for a person to do so, and this is codified in the Shulchan Aruch as normative halacha. The idea here is that a person must always be sensitive to the honor of another person, and even if he is about to embark on an important spiritual mission, he needs to recognize the other person's space, and inform him of what he is about to do (see Netvort to parshas Vayikra, 5763, available at Torahheights.com). This was, in fact, one of the messages behind the statement of 'na'asheh venishma.' The midrash relates that when God heard the people say this, he asked, "Who revealed this secret of the ministering angels to my children?" We have mentioned, in the past (see Netvort to parshas Yisro, 5761), one interpretation that the secret of the angels that the people had adapted was that when the angels praise God, they give each other the opportunity to express that praise in their own, unique way. The kedusha prayer, which we say every day during the reader's repetition of the Shemoneh Esreh, in describing the way in which the angels praise God, relates that they call to each other and say, "Holy! Holy! Holy! is the Lord." Each angel, then, calls to the other before praising God, and thus gives recognition to his fellow angel and his unique spiritual mission. This was the secret that the nation adapted from the ministering angels when they accepted the yoke of the mitzvos upon themselves. They gave space to their fellow Jew, recognizing that each one had his unique relationship with God, and thus they said, 'we will do and we will listen,' using the plural, in recognition of each person's unique relationship with God, even though all would be united in their commitment to follow his commandments. We still need to understand, however, how all of this relates to the verse in Megillas Esther cited by the Ba'al HaTurim.

Rabbi Eliezer Rokeach, in his commentary to Megillas Esther, writes that the first letters of the four-word phrase in that verse, ' vechol hanoshim yitnu yekar' - and all of the women shall give honor (to their husbands) spell out the four-letter name of God, alluding to the divine providence involved in the episode being described.

Achashveirosh, after having Vashti beheaded for refusing to appear before him when he called for her, was advised by his counselors to issue a decree requiring all women to honor their husbands (Esther 1:20) and decreeing that every man should rule in his own home (Esther 1:22). The Talmud (Megillah 12b) says that had it not been for the the absurd nature of this first letter, there would not have remained any remnant of the Jewish people. The populace of Shushan said in response to the letter, "What does he mean that every man should rule in his home? Of course he should ! Even a weaver in his own home should be a commander !" As a result of the first letter, the populace did not pay much heed to the second letter, calling for the massacre of the Jews in the following year, since they assumed that both letters came from someone who was not completely lucid. Looking at this entire incident from its beginning, we will recall that it began when the king did not respect his wife's dignity as a person, and demanded that she appear before his guests in a humiliating way. The common denominator in all three verses, then, is the need to show sensitivity to the dignity of the other. This was the secret of the angels that the nation adapted at Mt. Sinai, and that was then transferred over to the mishkan, where the experience of Sinai was to be continued on a permanent basis, as the Ramban writes in the beginning of parshas Terumah. The king's failure to respect Vashti's human dignity, when he called for her to appear before his guests, generated the process by which the Jews in Shushan were saved from destruction, and re-accepted the Torah, as our rabbis tell us. As part of our celebration of those events, on Purim, we perform the mitzvos of mishloach manos - giving gifts of food to our fellow Jews - and matonos laevyonim - giving charity to the poor. These mitzvos reinforce our sense of regard for each of our fellow Jews, an element that, as we have seen, played a prominent role at Mt. Sinai, and later in the mishkan, all as alluded to in the word ' venishma.'      



Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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