Parshat Tetzaveh - 5764

The “Miluim,” The “Consecration”

Parashat Tetzaveh begins as follows: “And you shall command the Children of Israel that they shall take for you pure, pressed olive for illumination, to kindle the lamp continually. In the Tent of Meeting,... Aharon and his sons shall arrange it from evening until morning, before HaShem, an eternal decree for their generations, from the Children of Israel.” (Shemot 27:20-21)

Here we have the four “players” that generate the spark of holiness within humanity for all time: HaShem, Moshe, Aharon and his sons, and the Children of Israel. HaShem, May He be Blessed, is the Creator of all the worlds. He is eternal and is in His essence, inconceivable by our finite minds. Yet He has chosen to come close to our world in two ways. The first is that He has planted within each human being a “chelek Eloka mima’al;” a “portion, so to speak, of the Divine, from Above,” an intimation of immortality, and created him “b’tzelem Elokim,” in the “image of G-d.” Second is that He was “Metzamtzem, He “Contracted,” as it were, His Holiness, to make Himself accessible to human beings. He did this in terms of place: the Holy Land and the Holy Temple, in terms of time: Shabbat and the Holidays, and He conferred His Holiness upon people: all of humanity, the Jewish People as a whole, the “Kohanim,” the Priests and the “Leviim,” the Levites, assistants to the Priests in the Temple, and the “Kohen Gadol,” the High Priest.

He conferred His Holiness and His Love upon humanity and the People of Israel, as described in Pirkei Avot 3:18 where we find, in the name of Rabbi Akiva, the following statement: “Beloved is Man, who was created in the Divine Image. An additional measure of love was conferred by his being granted the knowledge that he was created in that manner, as it says, ‘for in the image of G-d did He create Man.’ (Bereshit 9:6) Beloved is Israel, who are called ‘Children of the Omnipresent;’ an extra measure of love was granted them by their being told that they are considered ‘children of the Omnipresent,’ as it says, ‘You are children of HaShem, your G-d.’ (Devarim 14:1) Still more beloved is Israel, for they have been given a ‘vessel of delight.’ An additional measure of love was in that it was made known to them that they had been given a ‘vessel of delight,’ as it says, ‘For I have given you that which is good in its essence; therefore, do not reject My Torah.’ (Mishlei 4:2)”

Parashat Tetzaveh is where the instructions are given by HaShem for the sacrificial service of the “Miluim,” the Consecration of the “Mishkan,” the Tabernacle and the “Kohanim,” the Priests. This service was to be performed every day for seven days, beginning on the twenty-third of Adar, by Moshe Rabbeinu acting as “Kohen Gadol,” the High Priest. On the eighth day, the first of Nisan, he was to transfer that great office to his older brother, Aharon, in the same manner as Aharon had willingly served as Moshe’s assistant in all tasks of leadership from Egypt to the present. The transfer of this special holiness is made not only with Aharon, but with his descendants, forever. Moshe is commanded to perform the Consecration Service, “With them (the Priestly Garments) you shall dress Aharon your brother and his sons together with him, and you shall anoint them, inaugurate them, and sanctify them, and they shall minister to me.” (Shemot 28:41) At the end of the week, the process of Consecration of the “Mishkan” and of the “Kohanim” will be complete, “I shall set My meeting there with the Children of Israel, and it shall be sanctified with My Glory. I shall sanctify the Tent of Meeting and the Altar; and Aharon and his sons shall I sanctify to minister to Me. I shall rest My Presence among the Children of Israel, and I shall be their G-d...” (Shemot 29:43-45)

It is interesting to note the following excerpt concerning the “Golden Chain” of “Kehunah” from a publication of the American Society for Technion, Israel Institute of Technology: “Using a combination of molecular genetics and mathematical analysis, scientists arrived at an estimated date for the most recent common ancestor of contemporary ‘Kohanim.’ According to this analysis, the common ancestor lived between the Exodus (approx. 1,000 B.C.E) and the Destruction of the First Temple (586 B.C.E), consistent with the Biblical account......The Y-chromosome is uniquely useful in this analysis because the Y-chromosome of any individual can be traced back over many generations to only one male ancestor. This is not the case for the other chromosomes, each of which carries representation from many different ancestors on both the maternal and paternal lineages. Accordingly, since the Jewish Priesthood designation was passed from father to son, the DNA of the founding ancestor is reflected in the Y-chromosome markers of modern-day Jewish priests.”

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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