Parshiot for February / March


10 / 11 March – 12 / 13 Adar (TETZAVEH) Exodus 27: 20 to 30: 10


Our Torah portion recounts God’s instructions to Moses regarding the consecration of the priestly class, an incredibly long and elaborate procedure of which not even the smallest detail is to be neglected. Yet for all the complexity involved it is striking that nothing concrete is actually accomplished, and none of the ritual actions to be taken suggests any sort of purification or sanctification in the way we generally think of these terms. This indicates one of two things: either the Jewish religion is meant to be much more earthy, materialistic and ferocious than we generally like to imagine (given the extensive involvement of blood and sacrifice), or the entire procedure serves primarily as a symbolic representation of divine authority invested in the priests and meant mainly for impressing the people. In the modern era both these points of view remain represented within Rabbinic Judaism, with notably the Chasidic stream leaning towards belief in the actual effect of Jewish religious practice on reality – albeit in a more spiritual sense than presented in the Torah – whereas the Reform movement has moved more towards viewing ritualistic practices as purely symbolic in nature. In all cases the sacrificial aspects of the religion have ceded to a more cerebral approach, with it bringing a much more moderated view of God as well. To what extent this softer, intellectualised Judaism represents reality however, remains to be seen. (The haftarah for the special SHABBAT ZACHOR is Esther 7: 1 to 10 and 8: 15 to 17, recounting the death of Haman, descendant of the cursed Amalekites. It contains the fascinating verse: “And many of the people of the land professed to be Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.”).


6


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17