Spirit
torah portion
O
ur congregation recent-
ly hosted a group of
seventh-grade public
school students as part of the
Religious Diversity Journeys,
a program sponsored by the
Interfaith Leadership Council of
Metropolitan Detroit.
The students asked
many questions about
our synagogue and Jewish
tradition. Whenever I
explain the aspects of
our sanctuary, I have the
opportunity to talk about
the ner tamid, the eternal
light above our ark. Our
sanctuary also has two
golden, seven-branched
menorahs reminiscent of
the menorah that stood
in the Tabernacle, as
discussed in this week’
s
Torah reading.
At the outset of this
week’
s portion, we read
that God spoke to Moses saying,
“You shall further instruct the
Israelites to bring you clear oil of
beaten olives for lighting.
”
Commenting on this verse,
the Talmud says that God is
making a point about who
needs the light of the menorah.
God is telling Moses that the oil
is requested “for you,
” not “for
Me.
” God doesn’
t need the light;
we, the Jewish people do.
That makes sense, of course.
The menorah served as a sym-
bol of God’
s presence for the
children of Israel when it stood
in the Tabernacle and later in
the Temple in Jerusalem.
The ner tamid we find in our
synagogues today also serves as
a symbol of God’
s presence and
as a reminder of the fact that the
synagogue of today is an echo of
the ancient Temple.
One commentator extrapo-
lates from the Talmud’
s point
that the mitzvah of the oil
applies much more broadly. It
isn’
t only that God doesn’
t need
the oil; God doesn’
t need any of
the mitzvot. Even as we do the
mitzvot “for God,
” they are for
us. Even as we are shedding the
light of our actions on the
world, we derive the ben-
efit of these actions.
There is a tricky but
meaningful cycle here:
God gives us the mitzvot;
we do them as part of our
service to God; doing the
mitzvot helps us shed
light within and beyond
our own lives. So, the
mitzvot are a gift twice
over — they are meaning-
ful opportunities to act in
beautiful ways and, once
enacted, they improve
our lives and the world
around us.
There is a difficulty here.
There are moments when it
is hard to see how the perfor-
mance of a mitzvah sheds light.
There are moments when it is
difficult to gather the motiva-
tion to do a challenging mitzvah
or to gather our own convic-
tion and concentration to do
a mitzvah well. I believe these
moments are a natural part of
life. Sometimes we can’
t see the
forest for the trees.
The beauty of the explanation
of the oil is that it can help us
focus on the broad meaning
of a life of mitzvot (the forest)
even during moments when a
challenging mitzvah (one tree)
seems to be standing in our
way.
Rabbi Steven Rubenstein is rabbi of
Congregation Beth Ahm in West
Bloomfield.
Parshat
Tetzaveh:
Exodus
27:20-30:10;
Deuteronomy
25:17-19;
I Samuel
15:2-34.
(Shabbat
Zachor)
Rabbi Steven
Rubenstein
28 | MARCH 5 • 2020
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