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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