Tzav: Orders

This parsha consists of instructions to the incipient Kohanim ( priests) and ends with their elaborate inauguration ceremony.

Tzav means command.  A command is an order given with an expectation of fulfillment. The command assumes a relationship of unquestioning obedience. The recipient of the demand is enthralled to the commander. The military is a common representation of this process. The order of the superior officer must be followed, regardless of the understanding of the lower ranking soldier or a penalty will ensue. We also see this in medicine. Nurses and technicians are duty bound to carry out doctor’s orders; patients are expected to follow doctor’s instructions.

In the contemporary world, these bonds of chain of command have been loosened.  There are human rights that soldiers may not violate, regardless of their orders. There are limits to what can be commanded. Nurses are expected to exercise their own knowledge and education to question doctor’s orders which may be in error.  How does this impact on Divine commands?

In this parsha, Aaron and his sons become insiders.  They are the actors in the Temple drama. The proper performance of the service takes precedence over how they feel or what they think. The director, and outside eye, arranges the scene so that the audience is enlightened, regardless of how the actors  feel. The show must go on and the audience must be moved. The contract implies that the director is the superior officer. Aaron and his sons are entering into that contract.

 

The parsha starts:

צַ֤ו אֶֽת־אַהֲרֹן֙ וְאֶת־בָּנָ֣יו לֵאמֹ֔ר זֹ֥את תּוֹרַ֖ת הָעֹלָ֑ה הִ֣וא הָעֹלָ֡ה עַל֩ מוֹקְדָ֨הֿ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֤חַ כׇּל־הַלַּ֙יְלָה֙ עַד־הַבֹּ֔קֶר וְאֵ֥שׁ הַמִּזְבֵּ֖חַ תּ֥וּקַד בּֽוֹ׃

 

Command Aaron and his sons thus: This is the ritual of the burnt offering: The burnt offering itself shall remain where it is burned upon the altar all night until morning, while the fire on the altar is kept going on it.

 

Ramban comments:

ולפי דעתי מה שאמר (ויקרא ו׳:ו׳) אש תמיד תוקד על המזבח לא תכבה מצוה לכהנים בקיום האש

In my opinion, that which He said, Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually; it shall not go out, is a commandment directed to the priests to keep fire burning continually upon the altar,

 

Ramban  (based on additional evidence) invests sanctity into the fire.  The continuity of the fire is a significant issue that the Kohen must attend to. We, who have matches and lighters, cannot appreciate how difficult it was for the ancients to start a fire. This difficulty probably imparted a greater appreciation for  the miracle that is fire and its control. This altar fire was special, and its continuity preserved a connection with the initiating fire.

The continuity of fire is a conceptual endurance. The materials – the fuels and the oxygen from air- that  create the fire are not the same from moment to moment, much less over days, weeks, years and centuries. Fire is intrinsically a thing of continuity, it is a self sustained chemical reaction that produces heat and light.  On the altar, it is ready to consume.  The logs and burnt offerings feed the fire and  keep it going – ready to consume the next sacrifice.

The next verses instruct the Kohen on the removal of the ashes – what is left after the fire has done its work on the fuel.  The Kohen, himself, in uniform, must remove the rubbish. Had this command not been issued to the Kohen, I imagine this job would have been delegated, perhaps to a Levite, perhaps to an immigrant. The sanctity of the altar is emphasized. Dignity is not the job of the Kohen. The job of the Kohen is obedience.  This is part of a set up for what is to follow ( the death of  Nadav and Avihu).

 

The end of the parsha describes the instillation rite. After donning the uniform and anointment with the spiced oil,three animal sacrifices are brought. A chatoth, and olah and a miluim. The ritual shares features with the rite that is performed at the end of a Nazirite term ( Chatoth, olah, shlomim) and it has features that are echoed in the purification  of the cleaned Tzoraath victim – the blood on the ear, thumb and toe of the  supplicant. The initiation ritual was a graduation, a  celebration of accomplishment like the successful Nazerite; and it was an elevation to a purer state  like the cured Tzoraath victim.

Businesses, hospitals, armies  and the theater cannot function without people following orders. This approach that allows and demands that orders be questioned is new ( as a widely accepted approach). Will it work out? How will it evolve?