Chidushei Shaarei
under the spiritual leadership of the Bostoner Rebbe
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Back to this week's Parsha | Previous Issues
Why was it that Parshas Tetzaveh was the chosen parsha to delete Moshe's name from the Torah? One answer given is that the yahrtzeit of Moshe always falls out the week that Tetzaveh is leined. Thus, it teaches us that although Moshe was the greatest leader and navi ever, nevertheless, he was not turned into an avoda zoroh.
In all other religions, the birthday and the anniversary of death are the two greatest holidays in the religion, yet this is not true of Judaism. Indeed, why this is so is no mystery. For in the other religions, by focusing their worship on another human being, they are stating their belief that the world was created in his honor, and only he can bring them everlasting life.
This belief in "human worship," is the antithesis of Judaism. We preach worshipping God, not man, and that no human being can be God. And Moshe realize this. He cursed himself that his name should be deleted from the Torah, and indeed it was. And by having the parsha of his yahrtzeit be the parsha from which his name was deleted teaches us a lesson. That the Torah was truly God-given and not man-made.
In Perek 25, Possuk 37, it says "He shall kindle its lamps" Rashi says that when the Kohen prepares the wicks for lighting, he should point all the wicks toward the shammes, so that all the flames point towards the center flame. The S'forno says that the three flames on the right symbolize a persons intellectual ideas, and the left hand ones symbolize the livelihood of a person.
The reason for the flames pointing to the center, is that everything should be directed towards the Torah's light. And the Torah is represented he re by the center flame, to teach us that the Torah and its ideals should be the thing that our life's goals center upon.
EVAN SALTZMAN
The keruvim, one had the face of a male child, and the other the face of a female child, and their wings pointed upwards to teach us that a person must aspire to raise himself towards the understanding of Hashem's wisdom, and excel in his Torah.
The keruvim's faces pointed towards the aron, and also towards each other. This symbolizes that the only true source of wisdom is the Torah, and that a person must use his wisdom to interact with his fellow man.
ELI FREIDEN
It says in Maseches Megillah, that the removal of Achashveirosh's ring, had greater effect in causing B'nei Yisroel to do teshuvah, than the forty-eight prophets and the seven prophetesses who prophesied to Israel. For they were all unable to return the B'nei Yisroel to the path of good, whereas the removal of the ring did return the Jews to the path of good. It also says in the Torah "Kedoshim Tehiyu," -"You will be holy!" We learn from this that whether it is of our own volition to do teshuvah or not, Hashem will see to it that circumstances decree that we remain holy. If we do teshuvah of our own volition, like we did by yetzi'as Mitzrayim, then Hashem makes us holy, as he did then by giving us the Torah. However, in a time where we are doing things that we should not, like when the Jews attended the feast of Achashveirosh, then circumstances are created where the Jews are forced to be holy through their teshuvah.
In this particular scenario, Hashem put us in a situation, where the whole Jewish people would have been destroyed if we had not done teshuvah and made ourselves holy. We learn from this, that the path to holiness, without hardship, can only be found by doing teshuvah on our own initiative, We thereby bring about this holiness ourselves.
BEN GRANAT
Why was it that it was Aharon and not Moshe who, became Kohen Gadol? Because of their status. It was the job of the Kohen to intervene with Hashem on behalf of the Jews on Yom Kippur, and ask Hashem for forgiveness. A person could only do that if he himself was on a level that was not so much higher then the people that he could not relate to them. Thus Moshe, whose level was so great that he distanced his tent from the Machane Yisroel could not fulfill this job of the Kohen. It was Aharon, who although on a very high level of kedusha, was nevertheless lower then Moshe, and thus able to relate to the people with more efficiency then his brother, and was thus more suited for the task of defense lawyer.
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