Parashat Tzav - 5762 - OU Torah Insights Project

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer. A publication of the Orthodox Union in cooperation with the Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center

Parshat Tzav
March 22, 2002

The Torah teaches about the daily sacrifices in the Mishkan. Every day before dawn, we are told, (3) And the kohen shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and he shall raise up the ashes of the burnt-offering that the fire consumed on the altar, and lay them at the side of the altar. (4) Then he shall put off his garments and put on other garments and carry forth the ashes outside the camp to a pure place (Vayikra 6).

The ashes were removed even before the first daily sacrifice (tamid shel shachar), and before arranging the wood for the fire (ma'arachah). A kohen, selected by lot, would enter the Sanctuary that was lit only by the still-glowing fire on the altar. First, he immersed himself in a mikveh, and sanctified his hands and feet - as before every divine service (Avodah) - to perform the terumat ha'deshen, offering some of the ashes of the sacrifices brought the day before and which had burned throughout the night.

Although this was a messy job - and thus the kohen wore simple clothes, albeit of the four priestly garments (Yoma 24a) - many kohanim would flock to the Sanctuary to be chosen by lot for this task. Terumat ha'deshen is an Avodah, and it was an honor to be selected. (Clearly, it was not beneath the kohen's dignity to get a bit dirty in the service of Hashem!)

Moreover, the services of the Mishkan could not proceed without terumat ha'deshen: If the ma'arachah had been mistakenly set up beforehand, the wood pile would have to be disassembled so that the terumat ha'deshen could be done first (Yer. Yoma 2:1). Only afterwards would the other kohanim begin the services of the new day.

The mitzvah of clearing the ashes, however, is more than merely cleaning up the altar. Actually, our Sages identify two activities in these verses:

Terumat ha'deshen - offering the ashes (verse 3).
Hotza'at ha'deshen - removal of the ashes (verse 4).
Hotza'at ha'deshen (removal of the ashes), according to Rashi, was not necessary every day, but only when the altar required clearing from the accumulated ashes, such as after a festival when there had been many sacrifices. Even though they were totally removed from the precincts of the Sanctuary, the ashes were brought to a pure place, where the wind would not scatter them (Rambam, Laws of Daily and Additional Sacrifices 2:14).
Terumat ha'deshen (offering the ashes), on the other hand, is a positive mitzvah, performed daily at dawn. It involved removing a portion - an offering - of the ashes. The selected kohen took a special silver ash-shovel from its place between the ramp and the southern side of the altar, dug out a scoop of ashes from the heart of the embers, brought it down the ramp and deposited it in an open pit in the floor of the Sanctuary on the eastern side of the ramp, where, from day to day, as Rashi explains, "all of the [ashes] are absorbed there in their place."

The Talmud compares terumat ha'deshen to the offering of a handful of the meal-offerings, of which it is said: And he shall raise up of it his handful (6:8). Just as in meal-offerings, a portion of ashes is raised up as a special offering. Thus, the terumat ha'deshen is not merely the remainder of the last day's sacrifices; if it were, then it would have lost its sanctity (Zevachim 86; Yoma 20a). Rather, it is prohibited to derive private use from it (Me'ilah 9a; Pesachim 26a), meaning that, as ashes, it is part of an Avodah. But, what is the nature of this offering of terumat ha'deshen? Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), observes that terumat ha'deshen is the final conclusion of the service of the preceding day, which extends into the night. Although usually done before dawn, on Yom Kippur it was done at midnight, and on other festivals even earlier. But, the new day's services could not begin without it. Hirsch says further that in starting the new day's services, we do not discard the past; rather, we carry over part of the previous day into the new:

The Jewish "Today" has to take its mission from the hand of its "Yesterday." Actually, the most perplexing part of the terumat ha'deshen is where it is placed - in the earth. The general principle is that we always elevate levels of sanctity rather than descend (ma'alin b'kodesh v'lo moridin; Berachot 28a). One would expect therefore, that we should raise the sanctity of the ashes, in keeping with the verse itself: and he shall raise up the ashes. Instead, we lower it to the earth, to be absorbed into the ground! However, we are commanded, lay them at the side of the altar.

In fact, this placing in the earth is its elevation. Rather than being a step downward, placing the terumat ha'deshen in the earth is actually a step up. Reb Meir of Przemyslany (died, 1773) owned a cow. Every week he would sell the milk and distribute the money to the poor. However, one Wednesday, the poor were particularly in need, so he had the cow slaughtered and distributed the meat. When his wife came home and could not find the cow, she exclaimed "Our cow is lost!" "No, dear wife," answered Reb Meir, "it has gone to heaven!" There is no higher sanctity than when the values of the Sanctuary permeate our daily life. The goal of the sacrifices - indeed, the goal of all acts of holiness - is for the ideals of sanctity to be absorbed into our everyday existence. Rather than withdrawing into the Sanctuary, our task as Jews is to make this world into a sanctuary.