Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the Parsha Review Podcast. This week's Parsha is Parshas Tzav, also my Bar Mitzvah Parsha, also Shabbos HaGadol, which is the Shabbos that precedes Pesach, and the reason it's called Shabbos HaGadol are many reasons. We talked about it. We did a whole episode on the Jewish Inspiration Podcast discussing why this Shabbos is called Shabbos HaGadol, but the most important part is that the Shabbos right before Pesach, people would need to learn the laws of Pesach, as we will see soon in our upcoming episode about the Haggadah, that there's many, many laws involved in Pesach, and this would be an opportunity for the congregation to get together and hear the Rabbi speak and share words of inspiration for the holiday, but also laws regarding the performance of this great, great, great festival of closeness and connection with Hashem.
So this week's Parsha is Parshas Tzav deals with more of the offerings, but something very, very unique is discussed in this Torah portion, aside of course for it being my Bar Mitzvah Parsha, and my Bar Mitzvah Parsha also being Tzav, which is Tzadik Vav, which is 96. There are 96 verses in this Parsha. It also has some unique tropes as part of the cantillations that are read. It has a shel-sheles, which is one of very few in the entire Torah, and it's basically
a beautiful Parsha, like every Parsha is, but something very, very unique in this week's Parsha is the inauguration of the priests, the Kohanim. We see something which is really remarkable, so they had to get, first is Moshe gathers all the people, and this is in Chapter 8 in this week's Parsha, Moshe, Hashem says to Moshe, Take Aaron, and his sons, and his garments, and the oil of anointment, and the bowl of the sin offering, and the two rams,
and bring the entire congregation, the entire assembly of the Jewish people, bring them to the Tent of Meeting. And then what happens? Moshe did exactly the way Hashem commanded him. Then the entire assembly of the Jewish people gathered at the Tent of Meeting. And Moshe says to the people, This is the command that Hashem commanded us to do. And Moshe brings Aaron, Aaron, the high priest, and his sons, close, and he washes them down, and he puts the garments on them, and he puts the eifod,
and he ties the belt, and he puts everything, gets them all dressed up. And he puts on Aaron the breastplate, All of the incredible aspects, all of the incredible garments of the priest, the high priest, are done. Okay, then what happens? Then Moshe puts the oil of anointment, and he anoints the tabernacle, and he sanctifies them, and then he takes seven sprinkles and anoints the altar, and he anoints the utensils, and he anoints the laver, and sanctifies the base, all of it.
And he puts the anointing oil on top of the head of Aaron, and he anoints him to sanctify him. Now further, Moshe now gets the children of Aaron dressed, and he gets them, and then what happens? He brings offerings, and he takes the blood, and he sprinkles the blood on the altar, and he sanctifies them. And he takes the fat, and he takes the innards, and he takes the liver, and the kidneys, and the fats, and he brings them as an offering to Hashem.
And then we go a little bit further into verse number, this is chapter 8 in Leviticus, and we go to verse number 24. Verse number 23. And he slaughters it, he slaughters the animal. And Moshe takes of its blood. And he places some blood on the middle part of the ear of Aaron, on his right ear. And he puts the blood on his right thumb. And on his big toe, on his right foot. And then Aaron does the same for the children of Aaron.
On their right ear, on their right hand, on their right thumb, and on their right big toe. Now, I know that we do a lot of interesting things as Jews. I know we do a lot of interesting things, you know, we wear tefillin, you can see someone wearing tefillin, if not a Gentile sees a Jew wearing tefillin in the airport, like, it's interesting, it's weird, I don't know, it's like you have this box on your head, a box on your arm, opposite your heart.
It looks a little odd. We're used to doing odd things. We have four species that we bring together on Sukkot. We blow a shofar, right, that's taken from... I mean, we do a lot of interesting things. We eat matzo, which is weird. We have a lot of interesting things that are not understandable so easily. But you're putting blood on the ear of the Kohen? You're putting on his thumb blood? You're putting on his big toe blood? What in the world is going on here?
And our sages ask this question. What in the world is going on here? So we have to know a very, very fundamental principle that we have a tendency, when we are in a place of leadership, that we start thinking about ourselves. Look at me, look at what I've accomplished. I am a senator, not you. I got elected by millions of votes. I'm the president, I'm the prime minister, I am the member of Knesset, whatever it may be. And it gets to your head.
God recognizes that, and God instructs Moshe, place the blood from the offering on their ear, on their thumb, on their big toe. What are these things? These are the things that are the least essential for your life, for your existence. We know our core, our core is very important, but the edge of your ear, you can live without it. The tip of your thumb, you can live without it. The tip of your big toe, you can live without it. You know what those extremities are?
Those are the people that are distant from you. The core, you, your family, oh, that I'll take care of. But how about the people that are at the extremities? The people that are further away from you, them you might neglect. Hashem says, particularly at a moment where you're going to be inaugurated, to be elevated, you have to always remember, your job is to be there for everyone, even those that are far away from you.
Your job is not to be a taker, your job is to be a giver. Your job is not only to be responsible for those who are close to you, but to be responsible for those who are far from you. You know, one of the things that we, we mentioned this previously, and I think we need to repeat it. We say about a baby, when a baby is having his bris, so we say, Just like he enters into the circumcision,
into the bond between him and God, this baby and God, so he should go to Torah, to the study of Torah, and to canopy, and to good deeds. And then we say, This little one will be great. What does that even mean? This little one will be great. So we mentioned previously, what does it mean to be great? What it means to be great means that you go beyond yourself. To be great means to be great. You're greater than yourself.
When you're just yourself, you're small. What does this baby know about life? This baby knows only one thing. Me, me, me, me, me. I'm hungry, I cry. I don't care about people sleeping. Total indifference to anyone else. I'm thirsty, I cry, make noise. I'm uncomfortable, I cry, make noise. It's all about me. That's a katon. That's a child. That's someone who's small. You know what someone big is? Someone who thinks beyond themselves.
Someone who opens up the world to become so much bigger than just me. And that's why we bless this little child. He's small. He's crying, he's in pain. He doesn't care that he's going to wake up his mom and dad. He doesn't care about anything, except for himself. That's a katon. That's someone who's small. You know someone who's big? Someone who takes on responsibility for other people. And what do we see about someone who takes responsibility of other people?
We see regarding someone who gets married. The day a bride and groom get married is considered like Yom Kippur. Why? Because they're forgiven of all their sins. The day that someone is inaugurated to office, to become mayor, to become governor, to become a member of the parliament, a member of congress, to become a president, it's also like Yom Kippur that day. And you're forgiven of all your sins, says the Talmud. Why? Because you've now graduated from being just me
to being a we. It's all of us. It's not just me. Till now I was a private citizen. I take care of myself. I worry about myself. But now my responsibility is not only for me. Now I open up my world to being responsible for many more people. When a person is single, I need to worry about my own laundry. I need to worry about my own dinner. I know what I like to drink and I know what I like to eat.
Do I know what my spouse likes to eat? Do I know what my spouse likes to drink? Do I know when they're tired? Do I know when they need something special or unique? We need to be in tune beyond ourselves. So now you're opening up your world far beyond just being you. You know what happens? Hashem says you're forgiven of all your sins because now you're a different person. Till now you were just in it for yourself. Now you're way beyond yourself.
You're a new person. You get a new beginning. We see this responsibility of going beyond ourselves. The problem is how many times, and I see the cynicism in your eyes, Gary. You're looking and you're saying, Members of Congress? They're the most selfish people on earth. They don't care about anybody. You're right because that's what happens when you get into leadership. When you get into leadership, it's very easy to forget about your constituents until you're going to lose the election
and then, oh, whatever you want. You're listening so carefully. After that, once you're elected, don't know you, don't care about you, you need something, sorry, call the office, leave a voicemail, nobody's going to return it. It's very tempting and very challenging when someone is already in that leadership role for them to keep the extremities close. You know what the king of the Jewish people needed to do? The Torah tells us in Deuteronomy that any king of the Jewish people
needs to walk with a safe for Torah in his hands at all time. At all times. The king holds a Torah scroll. What? Doesn't hold a scepter, a sword, a knife, a gun? No, he holds a Torah scroll. You know why? Because the first thing that's going to happen when you become a king is going to be like, Ah, what's in it for me now? What do I eat? What do I drink? How do I tax the people?
How do I build a bigger castle? It's about me. No, it's not about you. Remember that you're here on a task, on a mission to serve Hashem, to be there for the people. The Torah scroll that you're holding is going to be a constant reminder of your responsibility. And this is the same thing that the Kohen was reminded with the blood that was placed on his ear, placed on his thumb, placed on his toe. It seems odd.
But it was a public reminder for these people who are taking in a new role of responsibility for others. You are obligated to be beyond yourself. Don't forget your extremities. Don't keep it to yourself. Don't keep it to yourself. Your responsibility, when you become a public servant, is to never forget the people you're there to serve. To go beyond. It's not about taking. It's about giving. A child takes. An adult gives. That's our responsibility. That's our role.
And that's why the Torah so beautifully describes the process of anointing the leader of the Jewish people. You have the whole procedure, and then this weird thing shows up. Got to put some blood on the ear, some blood on the thumb, some blood on the big toe. Those are the extremities. Those are the people you don't realize they're living on the outskirts of your district. Eh, it's not a big deal. No, no, no. Those are the people you're responsible.
Keep them close. It's interesting that in medicine, one of the ways you can tell if the perfusion of oxygen in the body is proper is you go to the extremities and you see what the capillary refill is. You see that when you press it, it turns white, and then it turns red again. It has to be within a certain amount of time that you see that the circulation is proper to the furthest place of the body.
When you go to the furthest person away from you in your district, in your region, in your country, and you see how connected they feel, if they feel disconnected, you're not doing a good job. They need to be part of the circulation. They need to be part of it. Not that I'm exclusive, untouchable. I'm here for you. I'm your servant. And that's what it means to have real greatness. That was the job of the Kohen.
The Kohen was there to represent the Jewish people. When he brought offerings, he brought it in the name of every single Jew that he was representing. It's not, oh, me, I have the privilege of going into the Holy of Holies. No, I'm representing an entire people, not just being there for ourselves. And in a practical way, for each and every one of us, if you're not a Kohen, who am I responsible for? Who do I need to take care of?
What are my obligations? If it's to my spouse, if it's to my children, if it's to my parents, if it's to my neighbors, to my friends, what am I doing to keep them connected? What am I doing to help them feel loved? What am I doing to ensure that they are part of the circulation in our life? To make sure that no one feels left behind. That no one falls off the extremities and into the abyss. That's our responsibility.
That's our task. Hashem should bless us all that we should learn a lesson from this week's Torah portion. Particularly, when we're going into the holiday of Pesach. When we're going to the holiday of Pesach, when we experience the exodus from Egypt, together with an entire nation. And then we went to Mount Sinai, one man, one soul. It's one long holiday, our sages tell us. From Pesach to Shavuot. It's one beautiful long holiday. We have 48 steps
that we're going to be learning together. That connect between, and we're going to count the Omer, that connect between Pesach and Shavuot. So it's not just some random idea that they're connected. We're going to connect them by learning the 48 ways. By seeing, by attaining tools of perfection. Being ready to receive the Torah as one nation, one soul. My dear friends, each and every one of us, we have our own exodus from Egypt that we can experience today
when we observe the Pesach Seder. It's not only back then that they were taken out of Egypt. We here today are taken out of Egypt. Our own little Egypt, our own Mezar, our own bondage, we're able to be freed from that as well. The greatest way to do that is to be responsible for others. Take the responsibility, wear it as a badge of honor that you can go beyond yourself and be there for somebody else. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos.

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