Shabbat Parashat Tetzaveh - 5781

Shabbat Parashat Tetzaveh - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

I shall meet there with the children of Israel and it shall be sanctified through

My honor. [Shemot 29:43]

A few times, in the previous parsha and again this week, God specifies a spot

to Moshe where He will meet and speak with someone. Last week, Shemot

25:22 read, "It is there that I shall arrange audience with you and I shall speak

with you from atop the lid from between the two Cheruvim that are on the Aron

of the Testimony, and it is all that I shall command you pertaining to the children

of Israel." The verse before ours says, "at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting

before God, where I will arrange audience for you to speak to you there." But

the spots are not exactly identical, nor are those He will meet at them. What is

the purpose in the Torah giving us multiple verses that seem so similar?

From last week, it would seem that Moshe's appointments take place in the Holy of

Holies, separated from the people, but most commentators take issue with that, based

on Vayikra 1:1 and Bamidbar 7:89, which indicate that although God's voice came from

there, Moshe himself was outside with the people. Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Hirsch

understand this to teach that Moshe's greatness was dependent on the people, not upon

himself, and that this place was meant for conversations directly impacting the people as

a whole. Further, our verse is an elevation of the people, that each individual now has the

merit to meet with God face to face.

Onkelos puts our verse in the passive, "I will be met there by the children of Israel",

which rather than any kind of commandment is an announcement of what is to come. He

further says, "and I will be sanctified" rather than it being sanctified.

Rashi holds that our verse is a reaffirmation that God has accepted the Jews as His

people, "like a king who sets a meeting place to speak there with his servants."

Reading the verses together it appears that they emphasize that Moshe and the people

are intimately tied together, and that God's messages are meant for all, but that some

need to be spoken directly, and some through an intermediary. Thus there are two places

and two formats, but in the end, only one message.