Tetzaveh 5785: Don’t Fight the Light!

GOOD MORNING!  It appears that society is becoming incredibly sensitive. When I have the temerity to include a current political example to illustrate a point about Jewish values, people take offense. When I discuss the evils of Hamas – a truly vile terrorist organization whom I cannot imagine anyone seriously defending –I receive emails such as this: “But murdering Palestinians is just fine by you. Hypocrite. You’re okay with genocide. Disgusting.” I said nothing about murdering Palestinians nor justified genocide of any kind. It’s amazing to me how people twist reality – including my writing – to conform with their own world view (or delusion). To be clear, if I’m criticizing Hamas, I am not pro-genocide (Palestinian or other).

Of course this is a function of the society in which we live. In general, people love echo chambers; they love hearing their long-held beliefs and views reiterated and reinforced. Both the right-wing media and the left-wing media exploit this tendency and manipulate the news to fit their narrative. In this way, they continually preach to their true believers and give them exactly what they want to hear – instead of the actual news, which may not conform or – God-forbid – provide insight into another perspective.

Because of this, people have become trained to see anything that is not exactlyin line with their personally held narrative and world views to be views from the opposite extreme, which they cannot tolerate. It’s a rather sorry commentary as to where we are as a civilization. At the end of the day, we have become a society that can be offended by almost anything (and nothing).

Consider the following joke. A priest, a minister, and a rabbi are trying to decide how much of what they’ve collected to give to their respective charities. The priest begins and says, “We’ll draw a circle on the ground, we’ll throw the money way up in the air, and whatever lands inside the circle we’ll give to charity.” The minister says, “No, we’ll draw a circle on the ground, throw the money way up in the air, and whatever lands outside the circle we’ll give to charity.” The rabbi says “No, no, no, we’ll throw the money way up in the air and whatever God wants, He can keep.”

Would anybody be surprised if I received emails decrying me portraying the rabbi as being interested in promoting some sort of fraud? Maybe I should substitute the name Vladimir Putin for the rabbi? Then I will have people complaining that I am idealizing the wisdom of Putin. People forget that sometimes a joke is just a joke. You can’t be offended by everything.

In truth, this sort of prejudice has been around for thousands of years. In the New Testament there is the allegorical story of the “good” Samaritan. Why? Because at the time Samaritans were considered the bad guys, the foreigners, the enemy. The fact that a person of such presumed low character could do a kindness for a stranger qualified him as being “good.” Of course, it still implies that the rest of the Samaritans were still “bad.”

The lesson here is that when a person comes to situations with an a priori axiom of what the truth is, it is nearly impossible to dissuade him; even evidence to the contrary will be ignored. Everything is about how someone is predisposed. So this begs the question, how are we to obtain the wisdom to be circumspect in all aspects of our life?

This week’s Torah portion opens with “You [Moses], must command the Israelites to bring you clear and pure olive oil for illumination, to keep the Menorah lit continuously” (Exodus 27:20). As we shall see, this illumination from the Menorah or “candelabra” was the source of all wisdom.

When King Solomon dedicated the First Temple, he already knew prophetically that one day the Jewish people would be exiled from the Land of Israel. Thus, as part of his dedication ceremony, he mandated that if/when the Israelites were ever taken captive and exiled, they should pray toward the city of Jerusalem, home of the Holy Temple, and God would hear their prayers:

“If they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies […] and pray to You toward their land, which You gave to their ancestors, toward the city You have chosen and the Temple I have built for Your Name […]” (1 Kings 8:44-48).

Jews face toward Jerusalem when praying because of the city’s central religious significance: the location of the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash). The prophet Daniel, while in Babylonian exile, prayed three times a day facing Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10). In the Talmud (Brachot 30a) the Mishnah states that Jews outside Israel should pray toward the Land of Israel, and those in Israel should pray toward Jerusalem. If in Jerusalem, they should face the Temple Mount; if in the Temple, they should turn toward the Holy of Holies. This is also codified in Jewish law (Orach Chayim 94:1).

In synagogues worldwide, the “Aron Kodesh – Holy Ark” containing Torah scrolls is placed on the wall facing Jerusalem, and the congregation faces that direction while praying. Likewise, Jews praying individually also try to orient themselves towards Jerusalem.

Regarding this we find a fascinating teaching in the Talmud (Baba Basra 25b), “Said Rabbi Yitzchak, a person that wishes to obtain wisdom should orient the focus of his prayers towards the south. If he wants wealth he should focus his prayers to the north.” The Talmud goes on to explain that wisdom can be found facing south because that’s where the Menorah was located in the Temple.

This means that although we, in the United States, always face east during prayers because that’s the direction of Jerusalem, if one specifically desires to pray for wisdom one should orient his prayers a little to the south on the synagogue’s eastern wall – and if desiring wealth one would orient them a little to the north on the synagogue’s eastern wall (where the Table of Shew Bread was kept).

But this is quite curious. One would imagine that if seeking wisdom one should turn his prayers directly toward Aron – the original Ark of the Covenant that was in the area of the Temple known as the Holy of Holies. After all, within it were the two tablets with the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, which represents the wisdom of the Torah. Why do the sages teach that wisdom may be obtained by turning one’s focus toward the Menorah?

In the book of Job – an epic work on philosophy – we find the following questions, “Wisdom, where can it be found? Where is the place of understanding?” (Job 28:12). The answer comes a few verses later, “[God] said to man, ‘Behold, awe of the Almighty is the source of wisdom, refraining from evil is understanding’” (28:28).

It seems rather strange to articulate the question of where can wisdom be found – the question should be, “how does one obtain wisdom?” Why is it a question of location (where)? Furthermore, how does the prophet answer this question of location by stating that fear of God is the source of wisdom?

It is interesting to note that King Solomon – “wisest of all men” – also came to the exact same conclusion: “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Likewise, he ends the book of Ecclesiastes with, “This is the sum of all matter, when all has been considered: Fear God and keep His commandments, for that is the entirety of man’s duty” (12:13).

What the prophets and sages are teaching us is that the only way to really achieve wisdom is to live in a theocentric universe. This is because a person left to his own devices will always conflate the right thing with his own desires, and a person cannot be trusted to make a decision if the “right thing” conflicts with his desires. A person will always find a way to make what he wants to do “the right thing.”

For example, I have been in the field of Jewish education for close to forty years. Over that time, I have found that while parents always claim (and actually believe!) that they place their children’s education at the top of their priorities – they rarely do. In my experience, the top three priorities for parents when choosing a school are 1) location/convenience for the parents 2) which families they want to associate (and carpool) with, and 3) cost.

Parents convince themselves that the place that they want to send their children to school is actually the best place for them, even though the actual education of that particular school is rarely the most important factor in school selection. Parents rarely look at each individual child and try to choose a school that best fit that child’s needs – especially if there are other children already in a particular school (who wants more carpools?).

This is why getting wisdom is about location. A person living in God’s universe is subject to the wisdom of the Almighty and following His path to wisdom. By doing this he eliminates his own personal desires and takes them out of the equation. This is what it means to have awe – we view ourselves as constantly being in His presence and adhering to the truths that the Almighty provides.

This is represented by the light of the Menorah. Throughout the Torah God’s presence is presented as the light of illumination. In fact, people who have near death experiences describe coming to the Almighty as moving closer to the light. The sages are teaching us that the light and illumination of the Menorah represents God’s immanence in this world. We just have to choose to bathe ourselves within it. This is why the ultimate wisdom comes to us through the illumination of the Menorah. We are making the decision to live in a theocentric universe and accept the truths of the Almighty; regardless of how we ourselves perceive them.

Tetzaveh, Exodus 27:20 – 30:10

The Torah continues this week with the command to make for use in the Mishkan – the Portable Sanctuary – oil for the Menorah and clothes for the Cohanim – the Priests. It then gives instruction for the consecration of the Cohanim and the Outer Altar. The portion concludes with instructions for constructing the Incense Altar

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