Titzaveh: Costume 

Much of the parsha describes the vestments of the Kohen Gadol.  The high priest, the chief minister of the Temple service was dressed in a uniform. This costume is presented as a set of symbols that unified the 12 tribes of Israel  in gems on his epaulets  and jewels on his escutcheon. 

The description of the priestly vestments and the ritual of installation are bracketed by instructions for the Kohen Gadol ( High Priest). He lit the candelabra  and he burnt the incense.  He acted as the representative of the people in these, and presumably (almost) all of his duties.  He dressed the part. 

This year the parsha is read on the Shabbath following Purim, the holiday that is traditionally associated with costumes.  The season seems to lend itself to costuming in other cultures, as well.  Mardi Gras is a week earlier.  St Patrick's day ( with its requirement for green)  is 3 weeks later.   Perhaps the emergence of spring, as it bedecks the earth with flowers and reawakening grasses is related to this urge toward flamboyance. 

Hiding true identity behind a facade is central to the Purim story.  Esther is instructed to hide her Jewish ethnicity from the royal court... until the crucial moment. Mordechai, who flaunts his identity, brings pretentious  Haman to the idea of mass extermination for all the people of his ethnicity.  Mordechai denies Haman the  fealty that he craves, and Haman's grandiosity moves him to murderous hatred that goes beyond Mordechai the individual, to his entire nation. Globalizing the traits of a particular ethnic group leads to mass murder in the Purim story and much history  that follows it. 

For most of the High Priest's tasks, he wore these prescribed attire.  The regalia submerged the individual identity into a representative of the people. When the High Priest performed the epitome of the service, the Yom Kippur rituals,  he removed the  ornate uniform and dressed in  pure, simple  linen. The  self emerged from the symbolic.  The atonement of Yom Kippur worked at the level of the individual, the service had to be performed by a vulnerable person without  armor.  

This confluence of Purim and Titzaveh evokes the modern themes of identity and prejudice. The high priest replaced identity with a nationalistic appearance. He became the delegate of the  people as a whole.  Esther was able to hide her identity, in the most intimate of circumstances and from the most rabid antisemite.  There are people who cannot remove the outward signs of their identity: people of color, people who look Jewish. There are people for whom ethnic identity , and its demonstration  by haberdashery is a priority.  Some people wear skins. 

Every day, the candelabra must be lit and the incense offered. Ethnicity serves many purposes.  It is also a target. 

Terumah: interlocking pieces

Terumah: interlocking pieces 

There is an intrinsic pleasure in pieces that fit together. People do jigsaw puzzles, children build structures with legos for the pure pleasure of fitting. Mathematical proofs and puzzling through  the Talmud provide a similar sense of things fitting, turning the jagged into the smooth. Following directions and coming to a desired result is a related pleasure.  These feelings of accomplishment impart the satisfaction of order in the world, they evoke a sense of an ordering principle ( or Being). The tabernacle described in Terumah has many interlocking pieces. Considering their source, I presume they fit together quite well.  I also presume that the instructions were followed very closely. 

 Heaven is the paradigm of order.  The sun and moon and stars in their  (very rarely changing), seemingly eternal array are a fitting throne for the One Eternal. Great and beautiful earthly structures bring us a taste of heaven. 

The tablets, the Divine law engraved in stone, were the centerpiece of the Tabernacle complex.  The tablets were placed in and aron,  usually translated as ark, the word also means coffin.  What does it mean to put the tablets of the law in a coffin? It means that  they cannot be easily referenced, but should the need arise they can be disentombed. There is some security in knowing that something may be extraordinarily difficult, but not impossible.  Is this a message of Raiders of the Lost Ark?

The strangest, most elaborate object in the Temple was the kaporeth, the ark cover.  It was a slab of gold, sized to cover the coffin of the law, with the likeness of cherubim extruded from its substance.  In the Ten Commandments  the enclosed  tablets  state: 

לֹֽ֣א תַֽעֲשֶׂ֨ה־לְךָ֥֣ פֶ֣֙סֶל֙ ׀ וְכָל־תְּמוּנָ֡֔ה אֲשֶׁ֤֣ר בַּשָּׁמַ֣֙יִם֙ ׀ מִמַּ֡֔עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר֩ בָּאָ֖֨רֶץ מִתַָּ֑֜חַת וַאֲשֶׁ֥֣ר בַּמַּ֖֣יִם ׀ מִתַּ֥֣חַת לָאָֽ֗רֶץ

You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.

Those tablets are covered by a sculpture, by the command of Gd. Such an affront means that the simple interpretation  of the words is inadequate.  The true meaning of the stated commandment  is covered, presumably in its language.  Only with deep study is the true meaning revealed, and then, only  partially. 

An important achievement of art is the provocation of thought  devolving from its strangeness. The disquiet that emerges from (re)presentation confronts the viewer.  The two dimensional portrayal of a three dimensional world is a contradiction that invites the investigation of the significance of objects, now removed from their  natural, solid  world.  The choices that are made in architectural constructs  refocus the meaning of the people and the objects they contain; they create a relationship between the human and the artifact. 

It is in this spirit  of inconsistency that the ark cover, the kaporeth,  becomes an oracle, a place for communication from Heaven

וְנוֹעַדְתִּ֣י לְךָ֮ שָׁם֒ וְדִבַּרְתִּ֨י אִתְּךָ֜ מֵעַ֣ל הַכַּפֹּ֗רֶת מִבֵּין֙ שְׁנֵ֣י הַכְּרֻבִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־אֲרֹ֣ן הָעֵדֻ֑ת אֵ֣ת כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֧ר אֲצַוֶּ֛ה אוֹתְךָ֖ אֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (פ)

There I will meet with you, and I will impart to you—from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on top of the Ark of the Pact—all that I will command you concerning the Israelite people.

This was a function that was seldom used, almost never after the time of Moses. 

 The cover, was designated the kaporeth. In the liturgical world, the meaning is expiation.  It is the same as the pre-Yom Kippur ( Day of Atonement) ritual done with chickens that are slaughtered as substitutes for their purchasers. This often filmed ritual ( considered pagan and anathema by Joseph Caro, the author of the standard Code of Jewish Law ( Shulchan Aruch) captures the replacement  and cover-up aspect of expiation from sin. The knowledge of the law, on the tablets contained under the kaporeth, is part of the sin of its violation. Hence, covering the law decreases the burden of guilt.  "Hareni kaporath mishkavo,"" Behold I am the expiation of his bier,"  is the phrase one uses in the first days after the death of a parent.  It is the statement of  an attempt at sharing the responsibility for any transgressions the parent may have done.  Perhaps kaporeth is always incomplete and smacks of the pagan 

The statuary on the kaporeth was in the form of  כְּרוּב, cherubs.  The cherubic form is also found on the tapestry that separates the inner sanctum, home of the ark and its cover, from the remainder of the  Tabernacle.  This curtain is named: perokheth which is an obvious rearrangement of the letters  kaporeth ( in Hebrew) .  The single earlier appearance of the cherub in the Torah  is in the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden.  The cherub is the guardian of the Tree of Life ( and knowledge?) , barring human access.  When the Torah is replaced in the  synagogue ark, we sing : עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ  It is a Tree of Life for those that hold fast to it.  The ark, covered with its perocheth,  guards the Torah from us and us from the (wrath?) of  Gd for our neglect of the Torah. Innocence extrudes beauty. 

 John Keats wrote :“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”. 

I have always had doubts about this statement.  Perhaps, I do not understand it well enough; perhaps  it comes from a different, competing culture.  There are aspects of beauty in truth; and beauty can encompass a truth that merits work to attain.  Certainly, beauty can cover the truth and what people call beauty  is false in some dimensions. 

Mr Rogers sings to the (cherubic) children: It's ( always) a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  Really?

 

 Mishpatim

The parsha opens with a punch.  

וְאֵ֙לֶּה֙ הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר תָּשִׂ֖ים לִפְנֵיהֶֽם׃

These are the rules that you shall set before them:

כִּ֤י תִקְנֶה֙ עֶ֣בֶד עִבְרִ֔י שֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים יַעֲבֹ֑ד וּבַ֨שְּׁבִעִ֔ת יֵצֵ֥א לַֽחָפְשִׁ֖י חִנָּֽם׃

When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment.

The first issue to be dealt with is  slavery.  Clearly, from the  predicate, it is clear that there is a translation problem.  This   eved Ivri  is not the same as the Africans that were brought to North America  for eternal, multigenerational servitude.  The eved Ivri had  a discrete term of service, six years,  after which he was to be released, without further ransom. The associations with the word eved, slave are not what we expect.  The root of the word, evd,  connotes   labor, work.  I suppose that it is not translated laborer because of the long term relationship.  The defined term of release tells me that I do not really understand this relationship.  Since the same word is used to describe the status of the Hebrews in Egypt, I am forced to question my understanding of that situation.  Perhaps the conditions portrayed by Cecil B DeMille, teams of scantily clothed men pulling huge, pyramid-bound cut stones, whipped by Egyptian taskmasters, is not exact. 

The principle of one person dominating another is certainly an issue that the law must address.  The first rule allows for the legality of such a relationship.  The acquisition (or purchase - another possible translation for thikneh) of one person by another is a legal transaction.  The purchaser and the purchased each have rights.  They are both under the jurisdiction  of The Law.  The acquisition of services is for a limited time and includes a limited scope, but the buyer has a right to the work and its products. 

There is a spectrum from volunteer to slave. The place along that spectrum is in the consciousness of the participants, and it is often out of sync.  The boss exaggerates expectations, the worker feels underpaid.  A perfect resolution is not possible.  The law feels arbitrary to both. ( Note that the etymology of arbitrary is not considered to  be from the German arbeit). 

I feel unease throughout this outpouring of laws,. Some deal with questions that have many possible answers.  A thief who sells or slaughters the stolen sheep, repays fourfold, for a ox, fivefold. I have no idea of how to calculate the opportunity loss of the shepherd . 

In the end, the Israelites volunteer for servitude to Gd. 

וַיִּקַּח֙ סֵ֣פֶר הַבְּרִ֔ית וַיִּקְרָ֖א בְּאָזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר יְ   נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע׃

Then he took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will faithfully do!”

The people have surrendered  to the spectacle and the promise of a better life and a greater justice  There is no demand for understanding.  Where does our illusion of understanding come from, anyway? The law has become what can be interpreted from the text

Yithro: The short of it

Yithro is the parsha of the Ten Commandments. These are understood to be the core principles of Judaism and Christianity.  The tablets, their icon, are a symbol of  law on many courthouses in the US. They are assumed universally accepted - at least ,by the empires that claim to live by them. 

The parsha puts these 10 commandments in context.  They are the lasting relic of the great Divine revelation, they are what is taken away from the great phantasmagoria at Sinai. In the Jewish tradition, they are a menu of the law.  The law itself is much more complex. They convey the illusion of knowledge with the practicum reserved for the cognoscenti. 

The Sinai experience was intended to bring the Israelites under a unified hierarchical system of law.  The people would see the frighteningly inaccessible source of the rules and come to respect the chain of command.

 הִנֵּ֨ה אָנֹכִ֜י בָּ֣א אֵלֶיךָ֮ בְּעַ֣ב הֶֽעָנָן֒ בַּעֲב֞וּר יִשְׁמַ֤ע הָעָם֙ בְּדַבְּרִ֣י עִמָּ֔ךְ וְגַם־בְּךָ֖ יַאֲמִ֣ינוּ לְעוֹלָ֑ם

And the LRD said to Moses, “I will come to you in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.” 

and

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֣ה אֶל־הָעָם֮ אַל־תִּירָאוּ֒ כִּ֗י לְבַֽעֲבוּר֙ נַסּ֣וֹת אֶתְכֶ֔ם בָּ֖א הָאֱ   וּבַעֲב֗וּר תִּהְיֶ֧ה יִרְאָת֛וֹ עַל־פְּנֵיכֶ֖ם לְבִלְתִּ֥י תֶחֱטָֽאוּ

Moses answered the people, “Be not afraid; for Gd has come only in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may be ever with you, so that you do not go astray.”

  They would see the simplicity of pronouncement and come to respect the complexity of the practice. 

Sinai revealed that the Gd of power is the Gd of law.  Sinai was an act of unifying the Israelite perception of Gd.  This J was both the master of war and the enforcer of justice.  There would be reckoning for a person's action before the entity that split the sea, provides the manna, and overthrew Egypt.  Moses could approach, but the power was too great for other to survive.  Only the most select could approach Moses.  hence, the hierarchy of justice. 

The hierarchy was Yithro's idea.  Yithro was a special man.  When his daughters returned from the well early, because they had been aided by a stranger, the first thing Yithro does is assure that  the stranger is invited to his home.  He gives the stranger a home, he demonstrates a  quality that  Moshe, the great beneficiary of the kindness of strangers (he was rescued from a box in the Nile) finds most appealing.  He can assume that the daughter of such a man will have that quality.  He marries her.  When the situation in Egypt heats up, he sends his wife and children back to her father.   Now we have the great reunion. 

Yithro's recognition of J,  the Gd revealed to Moses, includes a consciousness of the union of power and justice.  

עַתָּ֣ה יָדַ֔עְתִּי כִּֽי־גָד֥וֹל יְ   מִכָּל־הָאֱ    כִּ֣י בַדָּבָ֔ר אֲשֶׁ֥ר זָד֖וּ עֲלֵיהֶֽם׃

Now I know that the LRD is greater than all gods, yes, by the result of their very schemes against [the people].”

Yithro does not commit to  our monotheism, but he recognizes the superiority of  the powerful Gd of Justice. He finds the ironic reciprocity of drowning the people who participated in drowning the Hebrew babies an appealing  quality; what he would expect from Divine authority. 

Yithro was the Cohain of Midyan.  He was familiar with wielding authority.  He understood the advantages of bureaucracy, the buy-in of the participants, the army of enforcers  of the rules, the added perception of esteem it conveyed on the upper echelon.  It was such a good innovation, Gd commanded it. 

The Ten Commandments were an outline of the rules of behavior for the people. There is a need for  a small set of principles that can be carried in easily accessible memory.   Saadia Gaon and others saw them containing the 613 mitzvoth that are ascribe to to the Torah ( numerical value 611 + the two commandments heard directly by all the people at Sinai = 613).  The world is simple.  The world is complex.  Sometimes a perplexing system simplifies.