Shabbat Parashat Tetzaveh - 5783

Shabbat Parashat Tetzaveh - 5783

Rabbi Hal Miller

And you shall command the children of Israel that they shall take for you clear

olive oil, crushed for illuminations, to light a lamp continually. [Shemot 27:20]

Tetzaveh is first person, singular, future, meaning "you shall command". Our verse

reads v'atah tetzaveh, literally, "and you, you shall command". What is the purpose

of that introductory word v'atah? Until now, the Torah has not given us this combination

expression, yet in our parsha, it appears three times, our verse, 28:1 and 28:3.

Rav Yosef Soloveitchik reminds us that this is the only parsha in the Torah from the time

of the birth of Moshe in which Moshe's name is not given. Leaving aside the discussion

about why (covered elsewhere), he suggests that God was using atah, you, in place of

the name when He wished to call Moshe's attention. Rav Hirsch adds that it refers to

Moshe as the "transmitter of the Torah".

Our verse spells the word vov-alef-tof-hey. There is another word that sounds nearly

identical, but is spelled with an ayin instead of the alef, and means 'now'. Many of the

commentators read our verse, "and now, you shall command", referring to the timing of

events rather than who the command is directed to. It gets us around our problem but

is a stretch of the Hebrew, something the Torah is not likely to do, and then repeat.

Ramban, Sforno and others note that in 28:2, and in various previous similar structures,

the Torah says v'asita, "you shall make". Clearly, with this sandwiched between 28:1 and

28:3 where it says v'atah, it isn't chance, it isn't stylistic, but there is something we are

supposed to learn here. Both of them say that "you shall make" means that Moshe was

not to actually do, but to delegate, and that "you, you shall command" means that Moshe

is to do the commanding personally, not through delegation.

The Brisker Rav finds a way to combine these two ideas of who and when. Other "you

shall make" type commands were followed with something like "and so shall you do",

meaning that any time in the future that the Jewish people were going to repeat this, such

as in the building of the Second Temple, this was how they were to do it. But here, these

three commands were directed to today, Moshe you personally are to do this now and it

will not be repeated in the future.

Kol Dodi points out that tetzaveh is not the imperative form, which is tzav. Tzav would

mean "you, give a command now". Instead the Torah is saying, "you will give this

command some day in the future" but at present he is not required to do anything. We

could then read our verse to say, "you will someday command".

There is another word in our verse that could give us insight, eilecha, "for you". Ramban

explains that the oil was to be brought to Moshe who would check its suitability. Sforno

says the oil was not yet needed, but would be upon completion of the Tabernacle as, Kol

Dodi, so Moshe would hold onto it. Ibn Ezra says that the lighting of the Menorah gave great

benefit to Moshe, more than for anyone else, but Nechama Leibowitz argues that instead

the verse shows that the oil is not being brought for the sake of God, but for the sake of the

one doing the service. God is bestowing benefit here, not receiving benefit. Either way, this

verse is providing benefit to Moshe, With this in mind, we review of 28:1 and 28:3 and can

see a similar benefit to Moshe himself, which sets these three apart from the rest of the

various commands. We could read our verse as "and for you, you shall command".