Dear Friends and Family: It has been a very difficult number of weeks, as is reflected in my d'var torah below. We have been strengthened by the support from family and friends, and by the knowledge that our beloved Esther would want us to approach the upcoming holiday with joy and laughter.
Tzav
Lev. 6:1-8:36
Précis: The parasha begins with Adonai ordering Moses to command (“tzav”) Aaron and his sons concerning offerings. Requirements for the daily offerings, directions for the meal offerings, instructions for guilt-offerings and thanksgiving offerings are described. The parasha then describes the initial offerings of the Tabernacle made by Aaron and his sons following their consecration to priestly service by Moses.
Lev. 6:6 “A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to go out.”
What was the symbolic meaning of the aish tamid, the perpetual (eternal) fire? Some felt that it was a symbol of Israel’s unending and continual devotion to Adonai. One modern commentator suggests that it expresses the fact that the Shechinah dwells in the midst of the People constantly, and is never far away. Today, “keeping the fires going” is an idiom for constancy of effort.
It is in this spirit that I pay tribute to my late mother-in-law, Esther Propis z’l, with the end of shivah yesterday. She was not only an “ayshet chayil” (a woman of valor in the words of our tradition), but she was a perpetual force in our lives. We know that she will always be a symbol of unending devotion to her family, to her faith, and to Hashem.
