Shabbos Parashas Tzav - 5779

Shabbos Parashas Tzav - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

God spoke to Moshe saying, command Aharon and his sons, saying, this is the

law of the burnt offering. It is the burnt offering on the hearth, on the Altar, all

night until morning, and the fire of the Altar should be kept lit on it. [Vayikra 6:1-2]

We often see the Torah write that God spoke to Moshe saying that he should say to Aharon or

the people something. Occasionally, it writes that Moshe is to command instead of say. Here we

see the latter, and to emphasize it, Chazal named this week's parsha after the word 'command'.

Why 'command' instead of 'say to', and why here?

Rashi wrote: "Command can only mean urging on, for the immediate moment and for

generations." He cites R'Shimon, "There is an urgency associated with mitzvos that involve

monetary loss." But monetary loss, combined with urging, could be interpreted to mean that any

time we might lose money, we have some leniency in following God's laws, which could not be

true. So what does Rashi mean?

Rav Soloveitchik goes through a list of other commandments that necessarily involve the loss

of money, and notes that they do not use the word 'command'. We are told to give charity, to

give tithes, to give for building the Mishkan. Some of these only applied once, some apply for

all following generations. The loss of money, on its own, does not seem tied to 'command'

under Rashi's definition in the way that R'Shimon seems to be discussing.

Ramban disagrees with Rashi, saying that the command is to the kohanim, and the kohanim

do not stand to lose money if they make a mistake when sacrificing a fully burnt animal

because they have no share in it anyway. Or HaChaim, though, supports Rashi and notes that

the loss referred to is not personal, but a loss to the congregation, which would apply here.

Thus Aharon had to be urged to be careful as it was not his own loss involved, which also

seems to reconcile Rashi, R'Shimon, and Ramban. This casts 'urging' in a light of strictness

rather than leniency in terms of financial loss.

Malbim comes along and defines the situation. He gives three rules for use of 'command':

1. Where the verse means to emphasize that the command be performed with alacrity and zeal.

2. Where the verse means to emphasize immediacy, that the act be performed right away.

3. Where the verse means to indicate that the act be performed in perpetuity.

Lacking one or more of these would require use of 'say' rather than 'command'.

Nachshoni says that R'Shimon is bringing a fourth rule. He notes, though, that Malbim's three all

apply to the congregation as a whole, where R'Shimon's rule applies to individuals. Rashi fits

nicely into Malbim's rules.

Kol Dodi has a different perspective. He says that 'command' is only used when the speaker is

afraid that the listener might be lax in fulfilling the directive. Why in our situation would Moshe

suspect that Aharon and his sons not be as fully dedicated and enthusiastic as they were for all

the other commandments? Because they had no "skin in the game". In the situation where a

person must offer a specific sacrifice for his own good, such as a sin offering, he has great

impetus to perform it properly in order to achieve the personal goal. Here, the Kohanim have

no interest, so must be directed with some urgency to make sure that what they do will be

sufficient for the person on whose behalf they are acting. But this alone seems odd since the

Kohanim are equally responsible to the entire congregation for all of the service, and do not

require urging for anything else.

What is specific to this verse that requires 'command'? Malbim's rules give us the answer.

The second half of our verse indicates that this offering is somehow tied to our constantly

remembering Who it is that we are making offerings to, day and night. The word 'mokdah',

which usually means hearth or flame, has a small 'mem', which indicates that there may be

some additional meaning. If we change the voweling, we end up with the word 'mokeid',

which means to focus. With this, we can understand the Torah to be using 'command' here

whenwe need to focus on exactly this point, that our minds must be on the immediacy, the

urgency, and the everlastingness of our acceptance of God as our Creator. This explanation

obviously includes Malbim, but it also includes R'Shimon as it directs all individuals to avoid

personal loss. It includes Kol Dodi because it tells us that we cannot be lax in understanding

and keeping alive this everlasting flame.

This view of the command being a directive about the continuity of God in our world is the

essence of Judaism and our role in this world.