Parshas Tzav - Lifting Up Your Ashes

Parshas Tzav starts off by commanding Aaron the Kohen Godol concerning the daily Mishkan service of Terumas Hadeshen, “Uplifting of Ashes”, taking a handful of ashes remaining from the overnight burning of the sacrifices on the altar and placing it near the altar in a special pile. This service was the first done in the morning and the last at night. However the actual language of the mitzvah begins with Zos Toras Ha’Olah, this is the law concerning an Olah sacrifice, which was offered as an entirely burnt offering. And then goes on to command that the fire on the altar should always burn, day and night. The entire section concerning the Mishkan service of Terumas Hadeshen must be connected. And I would like to posit that the connection concerns how we should act and serve Hashem, especially since the services and rites of the Bais HaMikdosh are no longer with us.

Chazal tell us that the Olah korban was generally brought to atone for impure thoughts. We learn this from the military campaign that Pinchos fought against Midyan after the Jews had sinned with the Midianite women. After the battle Pinchos brought sacrifices on behalf of the men in the army and said to Moshe Rabbeinu that they were being offered as atonement for any impure thoughts the soldiers may have had during the battle. Therefore all Olah sacrifices were to be burnt entirely on the altar, to connote that the impure thoughts were entirely rooted out of our minds.

The Torah teaches us how to lead our lives in a pure and holy fashion. Hashem knows that we are human with the frailties of a corporeal creature and an animal spirit existing together with a holy G-d created soul. And that this corporeal part may cause impure thoughts and actions. However we were provided by Hashem with the means of atoning and purifying ourselves. And we’ve been given the means to protect ourselves from impure thoughts, if we follow the dictates and life style that the Torah offers us. Chazal say that a person’s heart is a mini-Mishkan and mizbeach, altar. Besoch Libi Mishkan Evneh, within my heart I will build a personal sanctuary to Hashem and I will build a personal altar. The Torah that we learn, the mitzvos that we do, and our Torah lifestyle that we live, all of this can be compared to the wood that the kohanim placed on the altar during the day to ensure that the fire burns constantly.

Chazal tell us that we should make a cheshbon hanefesh, a daily accounting of our actions, each night before we go to sleep. Each morning we wake up and give thanks to Hashem for returning our souls. When we realize that we had impure thoughts, we should immediately do teshuva and “burn” these thoughts on our internal altar, in our internal mishkan. Burn, with what? With the daily Torah living and mitzvos that we’ve done, acting as the wood to burn away anything impure. And every morning as we wake up and give thanks to Hashem, we should also thank Hashem for giving us the means to atone. This is comparable to the taking of the ashes from the altar. We “lift up” the impure thoughts by replacing them with thoughts of Torah and yiddishkeit, actually “burning” away the impure thoughts. And the “ashes” that remain are then offered to Hashem as proof that we did teshuva.

Zos Toras Ha’Olah, the Torah that we learn and follow becomes the vehicle with which we can burn our impure thoughts. This is the Olah which burns on the altar all night with the flames of the mitzvos that we did all day. In the morning we can clothe our souls with the pure clothes of Torah living and then offer the “burnt ashes” of our impure thoughts to Hashem, who will then surely forgive us and provide us with the means to live a Torah life.

Egoz, Sin or Good?

There’s an old Polish Chasidic Yiddish adage, attributed to Rebbe R’ Binom of Przischa, oib m’leigt tzi en oihr tzum seder, hert men shofer bluzen. If you listen carefully at the Seder, you hear the blowing of the Shofer. Odd isn’t, makes no sense at first glance. Actually there are many Chasidic interpretations of this. I’d like to posit mine here.

A well known traditional taboo on Rosh Hashono is the eating of egoz, walnuts. The reason is that the Hebrew letter numerical value or gematria of egoz is chet or sin. Egoz is 17 and chet without the alef is 17. However 17 is also the numerical value of the word Tov or Good. Why are we concerned with the bad aspect of 17 being sin when we can look at the good aspect of 17, Tov?

Chazal state that the month of Elul is a time for teshuva, repentance. Elul is always referred to as a period of trying to increase one’s yiraas shomayim, fear of Heaven or fear of sinning. Elul precedes Tishrei which begins with Rosh Hashono and Yom Kippur and the intermediary Days of Awe, all filled with trepidation over the judgement of Hashem on Rosh Hashono and the hope for repentance and forgiveness on Yom Kippur. Chazal state that teshuva that comes through fear of G-d’s retribution for our sins results in the egregious or “meizid” sins becoming “shegogos” or sins of mere negligence rather than on purpose.

The month of Adar is a month of simcha, joy, the simcha of Torah and mitzvos. Following Adar is the month of Nissan, of geula or redemption. Chasidish commentaries interpret this to mean that the month of Adar precedes Nissan as Elul precedes Tishrei. As Elul’s fear of G-d brings the teshuva of Tishrei, so does Adar’s simcha and ahavo for Hashem bring teshuva from ahavo during Nissan. Thus the repentance of Nissan brings a higher degree of forgiveness, the level of teshuva from ahavo which turns meizid sins into actual mitzvos, rather than into sins of negligence.

This may be the interpretation of the saying, listen to the Seder and your hear shofer. Look at your Seder and the service that it involves. Seder means Order, there’s an order and meaning to everything we do at the Seder. We have Morror which is bitter and then becomes sweet to connote that the golus of Mitzrayim was initially terrible but resulted in our redemption and receiving the Torah. We have Charoses which connotes the mortar used to build the walls of the cities by the enslaved Jews. The Seder teaches us that throughout the golus we know that Hashem is watching over us and will redeem us.

Look at Rosh Hashono. Look at the minhag of not eating walnuts because it connotes 17 which also connotes sinning. But during Tishrei we still have the trepidation of our sins because we only have the level of teshuva out of fear. However on Pesach, in Nissan, when our teshuva is out of joy and love, we aren’t afraid of our sins because they’ve turned into mitzvos. And therefore we now can take the very same walnuts or egoz which we did not eat during Tishrei and actually use them as part of the charoses and as part of the Seder. We have turned the 17 of egoz into the 17 of Tov, Good.

Parshas Poroh

The Shabbosim between Purim and Rosh Chodesh Nissan are called Parshas Poroh and then Parshas Hachodesh. Various Chasidishe seforim explain the order this way. Adar is a month known for simcha or joy. We know that a major reason for the redemption and miracles of Purim was that Haman had chosen a month of simcha and actually ended up giving us an additional holiday or day of simcha in this month. Through simcha we can merit geula or redemption. Thus the month of Adar comes before the month of Nissan, the month of geula. Just as these months will ultimately result in the Final Redemption for all of Klal Yisroel, as it did at Yetzias Mitzrayim, so too does each individual Jew have the opportunity to merit an individual redemption from his own Mitzrayim, or subjugation to the Yetzer Horah. How? Through simcha and this simcha is the pure spiritual joy of Torah and Mitzvos.

We know that Elul comes before Tishrei in the same way. Elul is a month of Yirah or Fear which comes before Tishrei, a month of Teshuva or Repentance and then Atonement. However this is a lower form of teshuva, repentance through the fear of punishment. Contrast this with the simcha of Adar which results in the geula of Nissan. This is teshuva from ahavoh for Hashem, and for Torah and mitzvos. This results in a higher level of atonement and thus a real geula or redemption from the Yetzer Horah.

In order to fully merit a higher level of teshuva and thus a higher level of atonement we need to purify ourselves. Therefore Chazal mandated reading the parsha of Poroh Aduma after achieving a level of simcha from Purim and prior to the parsha of Hachodesh. Poroh Aduma teaches us to achieve spiritual purification and be able to raise our souls and our minds to the level of Hachodesh Hazeh Lochem, this month of Nissan with a geula achieved through simcha, the simcha of Torah and Mitzvos, will imbue us with a hischadshus, complete renewal, as homiletically derived from hachodesh. As we know that teshuva from ahavoh results in the sins transforming into mitzvos and that we then become baalei teshuva who are on a higher level than tzadikim.

Moshe Rabbeinu remained in a spiritual heavenly state for 40 days and nights after Kabolas HaTorah receiving the whole Torah from Hashem. After Moshe destroyed the Golden Calf he again remained in heaven for another 40 days and nights. The Sfas Emes explains the need for Moshe to be in heaven for an additional 40 days and nights as his need to relearn the Torah on a new level, that of baal teshuva. Why baal teshuva? Moshe hadn’t sinned. But Moshe Rabbeinu was so attuned to Klal Yisroel that since they had sinned and done teshuva, he too was on this level of teshuva. And therefore he could only teach them Torah after learning it on this new level of baal teshuva.

Rashi cites Chazal on the concept of Poroh Aduma, “Let the mother or cow be sacrificed in order to clean up the sin of its child, the calf. This Poroh sacrifice is completely different than any other sacrifice. All other sacrifices have some concept of usefulness, and are all brought on the Holy Altar. Most sacrifices are eaten by the Kohanim and some also by their owners and any other Jews, as well as part of the animal being brought as an offering burnt on the Altar. Even the Korban Oleh which is completely burnt is brought to the Altar. The Poroh Aduma however, is completely burnt, meat and bones and blood, without any part offered to Hashem, so to speak. All that remains are seemingly dry unproductive ashes.

However it is these dry ashes that will purify anything that has become spiritually unclean by contact with a dead person. Death seems to be the end of the line and seems to connote a new level, an unproductive or dead state. Contact with this state brings a sense of despair to the individual. The person now requires a purification process to bring them back to a state of purity and a sense of renewed life. The mitzvah of using the ashes of the Poroh in the purification process is by adding the ashes to a vessel filled with “living waters” or water that has been taken from a water source that renews itself constantly, a water spring.

What can we learn from this in our current state of galus without a Beis Hamikdosh and the ashes of the Poroh Aduma? As I stated earlier, Chazal instituted the reading of Parshas Poroh before Parshas Hachodesh to purify ourselves before our accomplishing a redemption from our personal Mitzrayims. As we realize that we are in a state of subjugation or Mitzrayim to the Yetzer Horah through our sins, we can fall into a state of despair and thus fall into a rut of uselessness, without Torah and mitzvos. Through the simcha of Adar we achieve teshuva from ahavoh and we merit a full redemption. The Poroh's dry unproductive ashes, mixed with the living waters, purified the person. So too today can the living waters of Torah and mitzvos take away the dry despair of our sins and purify us. Chazal say that Ein simcha eloh Torah, Torah is the true source of simcha or joy. So again, through the simcha of Adar and the simcha of the living water of Torah will we earn the level of hischadshus, renewal, with the geula of Nissan and the higher level of baal teshuva from ahavoh, love for Hashem and His Torah.