Thoughts
on The Parsha
Parshas
Tetzaveh
Passing
the Torch
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וְאַתָּה
תְּצַוֶּה
אֶת
בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִקְחוּ אֵלֶיךָ
שֶׁמֶן זַיִת זָךְ כָּתִית לַמָּאוֹר
לְהַעֲלֹת נֵר תָּמִיד
“And
you will command the Children of Israel that they shall take for you
clear olive oil, crushed, for illumination, to light a lamp
continually.”
-Tetzaveh
27:20
The
Torah tells us that Aharon Ha'Kohen
was commanded to light the menorah
every single night. The verb that the Torah chooses to describe this
task of Aharon is, “l'ha'alos”
(to light; literally – to cause to go up) as opposed to the more
common way of expressing the verb “to light” in hebrew, which is
“l'hadlik”
(to light). What is the reason for the Torah's usage of “l'ha'alos”
instead of “l'hadlik”?
Rashi1
is
seemingly bothered by this question and explains that the Torah is
teaching that Aharon's job was not merely to light the Menorah, but
rather to ensure that it would remain lit – that the lights of the
menorah
would be able to rise on their own.2
The
menorah
symbolizes
Torah shel
ba'al peh
(the Oral Torah). Torah shel
ba'al peh
gets transmitted from generation to generation, taught by rabbeim
(teachers)
to their talmidim
(students) since the time of receiving the Torah at Har
Sinai.
Indeed, the mesorah
of
our Torah shel
ba'al peh
has only been able to continue all this time because of the lessons
contained within the commandment “l'ha'alos
ner tamid.”
The
first thing we see from the lighting of the menorah
as a symbolism for passing on the Torah is that just like a fire
could create another fire without diminishing anything from itself,
so too, the Torah is a “lekach
tov”.
The Torah could be taught to others and passed on for generations
without diminishing from one's own knowledge of Torah. Therefore, one
must be willing to selflessly give over his Torah to share with
others. One should have no reservations when it comes to teaching
others that perhaps they will become greater than himself in Torah,
because Torah belongs to all and in fact if someone is the cause for
someone else's spark to learn more, then he gets a share in the
other's learning as well.
The
second aspect we see is that when a person commits to teach others
after realizing that there is an obligation to give over what you
know and that you will not lose anything by doing so, one must teach
with patience. It is not enough to just yell out everything you know,
but rather you must teach with a patience and hold the proverbial
torch until the new flame catches the light well enough to be able to
rise on its own.
Only
with this approach of l'ha'alos
ner tamid does
our mesorah
remain
in tact. Its continuity depends on the genuine care and effort put in
to each generation in order for the flame to continue.
One
of the most famous traditions of the Olympics is the Olympic Torch
Relay. The relay begins in Olympia, Greece where the torch is lit and
from there it begins its journey to wherever the host city happens to
be that year. The flame gets passed by many people and via many means
of transportation. This year for example, over its 39,000 mile route,
the Sochi Torch Relay found itself in the North Pole, on top of
mountains, in the depths of lakes, and was even taken into space for
the first time. The 14,000 total torch bearers were from all over the
world and ranged in age from teenagers to a 101 year-old man.
There
is no doubt that there is tremendous symbolism in continuing a
burning fire and passing it from hand-to-hand. On the 'loftiest' of
levels, it represents a potential unity of the world with a shared
interest to maintain peace. However, despite all the focused effort
put in and technology used in order for the flame to remain lit, it
went out multiple times along the trip. Additionally, in order to
accomplish the feat of bringing the torch into space, they had to put
it out because the limited oxygen brought to space is vitally needed
for the astronauts, and not to be wasted on keeping a flame burning.
So, the link was broken in order to modernize the route to include
space. After all, we must stay with the times: what is more
symbolically important – a mere consistent flame or the bringing
of the torch into space to show how great man is? It is surely well
worth it to put out the flame in order to modernize the route to
include space.
Additionally,
chances are that despite all the symbolism, if after the Olympic
torch went out, you were to ask one of the previous torch bearers if
they were upset that the light had gone out – effectively meaning
that their job was retroactively pointless because the torch was
re-lit – they would probably respond that they could not care less
and were just happy to have been in the spotlight for a little while
and glad that the flame did not go out on their watch. As long as
they were able to get their dream experience of being a part of the
relay they are happy with that alone.
In
great contrast to the Olympic torch, we as a nation and our torch
that we have carried for thousands of years is still lit with the
same flame. Despite being put into exile after exile, having to flee
cities and countries on short notice, and despite all the harassment
and troubles we have had to endure and all the crusades and
holocausts we had to experience, we remain with the same mesorah.
Our proverbial menorah
remained
continually lit over the years because of our attitude of l'ha'alos
ner tamid:
The mesorah
was
passed on with a love and care for the sake of continuing the
mesorah.
In contrast to the Olympic Torch, the torch bearers of the Torah do
not carry it for self glorification, nor to be in the spotlight.
Also, they are not willing to put out the flame in order to fit with
modern ideas. This is the uniqueness of our mesorah
and our secret as a nation.
Unfortunately,
we oftentimes find that we are fooling ourselves by superficially
teaching others when really we are doing so for our own greatness, or
when we are helping others only enough to make it seem that their
proverbial wick is lit while in reality as soon as you pull your
flame away it becomes obvious that theirs was still dependent.
Instead of this fake-ness, we must bear in mind the uniqueness of
Torah and chesed
(kindness)
that the more we give to others, the more we are in reality getting.
Also, we must keep in mind that teaching Torah and doing chesed
must be with patience and with a selflessness that ensures that the
new flame will be able to remain lit on its own with the capacity to
light future flames.
May
Hashem help us realize the importance of our mesorah
and help us treat it with care by wanting to learn in order to teach
others and make sure that it is properly transmitted by not removing
the flame until the next one has the ability to stay lit on its own.
1Rashi
Shemos 27:20
2See
also Sifsei Chochomim Shemos 27:20
Photo Credit: http://www.tobyperkins.org.uk/2012/06/chesterfield-to-welcome-olympic-torch/
No comments:
Post a Comment