Filling Our Hands: Parashat Tzav/Shabbat Ha-gadol/Passover (5780 – 2020)

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Parashat Tzav/Shabbat Ha-gadol/Passover (5780 – 2020)
Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36

Quarantine is a theme found in our Torah portion and in the Passover celebration that we will observe next week. Self-seclusion is mentioned as part of the story of the first Passover and also in the story of the first Tabernacle made for Israel. (See, also, Sparks for 2012 and 2013)

On the night of the first Passover, when the Children of Israel were still officially slaves in Egypt, God instructed the Hebrews to seclude themselves in their homes. They were even told to mark their doorways with the blood of the Passover sacrifice as a symbolic protective seal against the plague raging outside their door.

In our Torah portion we read of the installation of the first priests who would be in charge of the Tabernacle service. They are taught how to perform all the sacrificial rituals and are initiated and anointed into their sacred status. Our Torah portion ends: “You shall not exit the entrance of the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the day arrives that your days of hallowing will be completed, for it will take seven days to load/fill your hands [with this commission]….You shall dwell at the opening of the Tent of Meeting day and night for these seven days. Be careful to guard – ush’martem – this commission from the Ever Present One so that you will not die. And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Ever Present  One had commanded at the hand of Moses.” (Lev. 8:33, 35-36)

The priests are commanded to seclude themselves in the Tent of Meeting for an extended period of time – not for an evening, but for a full week. And they, too, must beware of leaving their quarters at the risk of death. But their seclusion is not really about securing protection from danger. It is for a different purpose than the Passover quarantine. The priests are commanded to self-quarantine so as to “fill their hands” with holiness. They are isolated from the rest of the world so as to saturate themselves with a sense of a different dimension, a dimension of pure service. This seclusion will be transformative rather than protective.

But the difference is not as stark as it first appears. The word “carefully guard – ush’martem – is a word used repeatedly in the Passover narrative, as well (- see Ex. 12:17, 24, 25) The night itself is called “a night of guarding – leil shimurim.” (Ex. 12:42) What is being protected and guarded is not only the physical bodies of the people of Israel. They are called upon to protect the sanctity of their young tradition, just being born. They are to guard the matzahs and the Passover rituals – for all time, throughout all generations.

Because holiness is fragile and vulnerable. So, it must be guarded and shielded like a baby, like a defenseless mortal.

Our time in seclusion must be carefully undertaken as a necessary protective act, literally a life-saving act. So, of course, our approach to our seclusion will be suffused with anxiety and a sense of urgency. We intuit that, after the plague outside finally passes, the world, itself, will be changed. Will we also be changed? Will the change be imposed upon us or will we choose how we shall change?

May we also hope to allow our seclusion – each in our own space – to be a time of “filling our hands” and loading up our consciousness and our sense of purpose with sacred goals? How blessed we are to have the sacred spaces of our homes to give us opportunities both to be safe and also to become fulfilled.

Shabbat Shalom – Hag Same`ah!
Rabbi David Greenstein

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image – “Islands in the stream. Be careful because the sky is too deep.” by kanelstrand, used via license

Thank you to John Lasiter for suggesting the title and selecting an image for this Torah Sparks – Rabbi Greenstein

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