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Parsha by Gura

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Parshat Tetzaveh, Shushan Purim
Exodus 27:20-30:10
15th of Adar, 5761

When we run into the biblical texts intricately detailing the Temple, its furniture and cultic vessels, the priestly garb and the sacrificial arrangements, we run into a great barrier of time, place and sensibilities. The aspects Biblical life and law to which we as moderns object-the treatment of women, elements of the purity cults, acceptance of hereditary social hierarchy-we can at least understand in the context of the social life of antiquity. An understanding of the absolute centrality of the Temple cult eludes us, if only because we are offended by our imagined abattoir in the Temple compound.

Our notion of worship too is quite different than what the priests were doing. Jewish synagogue worship can be more strenuous than other traditions, but it still is not an aerobic work out. The priest though need to keep themselves in good physical shape, as E. P. Sanders describes it in his Judaism: Practice and Belief: 63 BCE - 66 CE:

"...the priests were fit. When on duty, they were also well fed. Since only priests were allowing in the sacrificial area, they had to do all the menial tasks. While they did not themselves bring the altar wood into the temple area, they had to carry it to the room were it was sorted and inspected and then to the altar. An open fire large enough to consume part of animals requires a lot of wood. The priests dressed appropriately: in linen, not in wool, since the work was heavy..The sleeves of their tunics were tightly laced around their arms, and they wore breeches for greater modesty. While at work, they moved 'with unhampered rapidity', make the sacrifices, sprinkling blood, butchering the animals, burning the appropriate parts, and separating the remaining parts for their own use or that of those who brought the sacrifices."

So, in the midst of bleating sheep, slaughtered birds, burning flesh, poured blood, the priest "draw near" in some way to G-d. How can this flurry of bloody, sweaty activity unite Am Israel to G-d by means of the priestly agency?

In Parsha Tetzaveh, after elaborate descriptions of the priestly vestments, G-d discloses the rites of priestly investiture: "Then take the other ram, and let Aaron and his sons lay their hands upon the ram's head. Slaughter the ram and take some of its blood and put it on the ridge of Aaron's right ear and on the ridges of his son's right ears, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet; and dash the rest of the blood against every side of the altar round about. Take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle upon Aaron and his vestments, and also upon his sons and his son's vestments. Thus shall he and his vestments be holy, as well as his son's and his son's vestments." (Exodus 29:19-21)

Bear in mind that Aaron and his sons are not passive bystanders: they are slaughters, and the blood sprinklers. They need to do this to themselves.

Since the onset of AIDS, we have become much more blood aware. Our dentists wear latex gloves; we solicit blood donations for ourselves or our relatives when facing a serious operation; we've developed a sense of blood fragility. What kind of heroes are the paramedics, firemen, policemen so often exposed to the blood of strangers who have a high probability of carrying any number of infectious diseases?

Perhaps that might let us retrieve the concept of blood biblically and theologically. As Donald Potts puts in, "Blood is significant .in a theological sense to designate the life principle in humankind and animals. From the earliest of times blood has been associated with mystery because it was recognized as a symbol of life long before proved to be vital to the existence of life.In the OT blood is regarded as sacred, expressing three major concerns about the use of blood. The focus is on the prohibition of murder.A second concern is the dietary prohibition of blood.Third, the OT is concerned with the use of blood in the expression of worship. The covenant between Yahweh and his people was sealed by a blood rite (Exod. 24:3-8). In all animal sacrifices blood was the essential element, poured on the altar (Lev. 1:5). With the Passover observance, the blood was placed on the lintel and the doorposts (Exod. 12:7). On the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the holy of holies, and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat (Lev. 16:15). Sacrificial blood also had a consecratory value in the consecration of priests (Exod. 29:20). The rite of circumcision was also a for of blood ceremony (Gen. 17:10-11)." (Eerdman's Dictionary of the Bible)

What does this catalogue tell us? These chapter of Exodus houses an interesting contradiction. After the elaborate description of an almost fantastical ceremonial costume, we are told that these men have to grunt and heave and slaughter a ram, and then filthy themselves with the blood of the animal, on their thumb, big toe, ear and vestments.

In other words, the priests have to get dirty. Maybe this all is, in a phrase, to bring the priests down a notch.

The priestly task was the draw the people near to G-d: but the priest couldn't do that if he was drawing nearer to G-d by himself and for himself. He had to bring the two, G-d and the people, together. The priests had to have his hands dirty, at least metaphorically, with the everyday lives of the people. Otherwise the priest would just be "other", distant, unapproachable and unavailable to the living concerns of the people.

G-d vested the priesthood with a mediating function, and concretely symbolized it by splashing blood on the robes of the priest. We don't know precisely what it means, or how sacrifice functioned (or could function, if, as our tradition would have it, the Temple and its cult will be restored in the end of days).

But we know that the Temple lived on this world, and the priest got themselves dirty. Perhaps that was to remind them that they should not aspire to a plane that the rest of Am Israel cannot live on. As much as the priesthood served G-d, it was also here to serve us.

Or perhaps we're allowed an analogy: Our lifes are messy and dirty, and even there and then, messy and dirty, G-d is present.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dennis