Parshas Tzav
God's Commandments: The Key to a Healthier Jewish Society
As we all know, the word “tzav” implies command, mandated instruction. The
word and its inherent concept is the foundation of Jewish law and ritual
observance. In our blessing over the performance of an act of our ritual we
state that we have been commanded – v’tizvanu – regarding its performance.
The Hebrew word that is commonly and popularly used for the performance of a
good deed is mitzvah – again from the root of the Hebrew word that implies
command.
Of course each and every one of us has the power of free choice to perform
mitzvoth or not. But when performing a mitzvah, we should be aware that its
performance is in accordance with God’s commandment to us and not purely out
of the goodness of one’s heart and/or the logic of one’s mind. Though there
is much emotional feeling present in Judaism, it is not an emotionally-based
faith.
The commandment aspect of Judaism helps us operate correctly in life even
when the proper emotion and/or logic is temporarily absent at the moment of
decision - whether to do the good deed or refrain from acting wrongly. The
nature of human beings from infancy onwards is to resent and even reject
authority.
Yet the Torah describes Jews as being God’s servants, subject to His
commands and value system. It states clearly that though we are free people
and have the options of all choices in life, we are not to abuse that
freedom of choice. God has the right to command us and His commandments form
the basis of Jewish life and behavior. We are a religion of behavior and
actions as much as one of knowledge, study and intellect.
The parsha teaches us that our public servants are also subject to Heavenly
command and instruction. Aharon and his sons forever after him perform their
public service in the Mishkan/Temple according to God’s command and not
necessarily in consonance with their own understanding of current fashion or
correctness.
We will be witness in the coming parsha of the tragic consequences that
befell two of Aharon’s sons when they substituted their personal judgments
regarding proper and meaningful ritual for the commandments they were
ordered to fulfill.
Jewish history is replete with the ruins of those individuals and groups who
ignored the idea of command and substituted their own definitions of Judaism
for that of the Almighty. An even cursory view of Jewish life and society
today certainly bears witness to the tragedies of a Jewish society that has
abandoned this core idea, of being a people commanded by Heaven to live a
certain life style and to remain steadfast in its divinely derived value system.
The past centuries have shown much of the Jewish world to behave like the
rebellious adolescent – contemptuous of its elders and convinced of its
omniscience and omnipotence. The way back to a healthier Jewish society is
through the restoration of the value of authority and command in our
personal and national lives. It is the old that is really relevant and new
and can revive and inspire us all.
Shabat shalom,
Rabbi Berel Wein
