Ziv: Parashat Tetsave 2

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you

Last week’s parasha introduced us to the second part of the book of Exodus which deals entirely with the tabernacle (and with its antithesis, the golden calf): its structure, its utensils and the priests serving in it. While last week’s parasha dealt with the physical components of the tabernacle: the ark, the lamp, the veil, etc.; this week, the focus is on the priestly family: Aaron and his sons - their vestments and the seven days of preparations that are to precede their consecration - called the “seven days of filling”.

However, our parasha is bracketed in both ends by details that seem out of place and that properly belong in the previous parasha. At the beginning of our parasha we read: “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel” (Exodus 27:20–21). And at the end of our parasha, we find: “You shall make an altar on which to burn incense;” (Exodus 30:1a) followed by the commandments related to it. These two elements are closely related in the text. Regarding the altar of incense, Aaron is to “burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations” (Exodus 30:7–8). Therefore the incense and the light of the lamp are intimately connected. The incense, a sweet fragrance rising up to God, symbolizes the personal prayers of the people of Israel as the psalmist says: “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” (Psalm 141:2), and similarly we find regarding the lamp of God that “the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord” (Proverbs 20:27). In his book “Beni Issachar” (the sons of Issachar), rabbi Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech (Shapira) of Dinov comments that in the act of the sin in the garden all senses participated except for the sense of smell and this why the fragrance our sacrifices is so pleasing to God - who gave us our spirit. Thus the instructions regarding the priestly service for the sake of the people can be understood as having the ultimate objective of keeping the human spirit in a constant state of prayer repairing the broken relationship between man and God. Shabbat Shalom.