Shemoth/Exodus
CHAPTER 28
1. "And you must bring near to yourself your brother Aharon, and his sons along with him, from among [all] the sons of Israel so that he may function as a priest to Me--Aharon, along with Nadav and Avihu, El'azar and Ithamar, the sons of Aharon.
Moshe must have been excited to have his own brother chosen to be high priest, but because he was such a humble man, he probably could foresee that some would later level against him the charge of nepotism, and it might be that if it were not that YHWH himself had chosen him. This is, after all, a very willing family, all of whom have taken great risks on behalf of Israel—including Yokheved their mother, who tradition says was one of the midwives and their sister Miryam when she went to Pharaoh’s daughter to offer her mother as Moshe’s nurse. No one deserved this position more than Aharon. Later YHWH would end the debate over who He has chosen, settling the question once and for all with the rod that budded and bore almonds overnight. Why was he chosen? YHWH can change anyone, but He most often looks for someone who has proven faithful in smaller things to choose for larger responsibilities. (Luke 16:10) From this time forward the tribe of Levi will be held up as the standard for Israel, and Yahshua would lay a similar standard on his students. “Let the dead bury their dead” parallels the requirement that the high priest was not to bury even his closest relatives, so he would not defile himself and be unfit to do his job. In our day, when so much is being restored, we must also go beyond the minimum and uphold the highest standards. What made Aharon exemplary? Simply put, he was willing to stand in YHWH’s place before the people, and he acted on his willingness. Aharon left Egypt to go meet Moshe, when he was a slave who could be killed for doing so. He risked incurring Pharaoh’s wrath when he raised the rod that was not even his own and helped bring the plagues on Egypt. He was even less afraid to speak for YHWH than Moshe was, even though he did not have the advantage of having seen the burning bush, heard YHWH’s voice, or seen the signs at Mt. Sinai. He did not have to be convinced, as Moshe did. (Compare 4:12ff) Moshe tried to get out of his calling, probably in part because of his humility, but Aharon was already on his way before YHWH called to Moshe from the buirning bush. He was close enough for Moshe to see him coming in the distance. He showed up when he was most needed, and just as important, he was glad to be there. The people in Egypt stood in awe of Moshe, but not Aharon; he was like Robin, not Batman! So when the Tent of Appoiontent was ready and needed people to work in it, YHWH showed him special favor, not because he was Moshe’s brother, but because of his own actions. He has been doing YHWH’s will on behalf of Israel for a long time, standing by Moshe through thick and thin, but only now is he being recognized with an official position. And because of his faithfulness, his sons are honored as well. There is no envy, backstabbing, or political maneuvering. (Later there would be some, but it was mainly Miryam who was guilty, not Aharon. He was committed and loyal, and went with the flow.) His voice is no longer needed to stand in for Moshe, but he has proven worthy, so his actions are needed. In Israel, being given such a high position does not mean he will be able to sit back, collect taxes, and burden the people; this is no honorary doctorate. Rather, the people will become his responsibility. There was no room for error in this serious, demanding, exacting job. He is therefore no longer among the people, though he has come from among them rather than being born royalty. He is not a rich politician pretending to be “with the little guy”. He is in a category all his own. He has a different set of rules. He will be able to do things on the Sabbath that no one else can. Moshe has no title, though he is essentially an acting king. Aharon is given a position in the public eye, but he is not elected by the people. He is working first and foremost for YHWH, though the people will certainly benefit from it. “Priest” means officiator, mediator, or administrator. And note: this is not a job offer. There is no interview, no dangling before him the dazzling clothes he could wear or all the meat he could eat. He is just informed that this is his position. They are still at Sinai, where the people have been afraid to approach YHWH. Now Aharon and his sons are told they are the ones who will draw near to YHWH regularly on behalf of all Israel. His life will never be the same again. He is the one man who will be able to walk behind the veil, and his sons will be in training to one day take his position, but this is a scary job—one in which nothing less than perfection will be accepted. One misstep and there will be no atonement for the people. He has no choice, yet he had to perform the job perfectly, almost like someone who is told, with a gun to his head, that tonight he will perform as a tightrope walker in the circus, and there is no safety net. He must do it, and do it rightly. Having their names here in the Book of Life is a great honor, but with it comes an extremely high level of accountability. But in YHWH’s eyes, he is the man for the job. What kind of man must he have been? Like us, he grew up in Egypt; he was not trained from his childhood for this position. He was trained by Yithro in how to slaughter animals, but the last priest of the Most High was Melkhitzedeq, several hundred years earlier. As YHWH regathers Israel, we, too, will be given responsibilities such as we have only heard about in stories from long ago. Like Aharon, we need to restore ancient things we have not seen before. Now the crown on his head will say “belonging to YHWH”. He is in a “fishbowl” for all of Israel to see, and they are told to watch him to find out how to approach YHWH. The whole nation will look to him for answers about what YHWH wants and for an example of how to approach Him. YHWH gave him responsibility because he chose to be responsible. Aharon means "light-bearer" (see v. 17 below). Nadav means "generous or willing"--a "cheerful giver"; Avihu, "he is my father". El'azar means "Elohim has helped". And Ithamar means "coast of date palms" or “island of palms”—possibly an ancient way to describe an oasis, for “coast/island" comes from a word meaning "desire, sigh, or wait longingly", as anyone traveling through the desert would do if he knew of an oasis somewhere ahead. The fulness of the connection is seen in Yeshayahu/Isaiah 42:4. "The coastlands [to which the lost tribes were scattered] shall wait expectantly for his instruction [torah]." Palm trees are juxtaposed with kh'ruvim in the artwork of the coming temple (Ezek. 40-41). Psalm 92:12 tells us the palm is a symbol of the righteous man. So this last son of Aharon symbolizes that there is a place for the repentance of the northern kingdom as seen in Hoshea 14, where the beauty of their return is described in terms of a variety of other important trees.
2. "And you shall make holy garments for your brother Aharon, for authority and for splendor.
Authority and splendor: or, for weightiness and outstanding dignity, so as to identify him as set apart from anyone else so they will be approached in a way different from others, much as one would when seeing someone in a police or general’s uniform. Clothes do not make the man, but they do set a certain standard of expectation that he will perform in a way appropriate to his position. But “splendor” is not an adequate translation. It has the sense of ornamentation, but the best way to describe it may simply be, “Wow!” The garments are styled to demand attention like an ambulance siren, a flashing red light, or a bright orange vest. They have gold thread woven right into them, so they shimmer. When you see them you have to look and take notice. There are no other clothes like these. They are meant to be something we cannot take our eyes off of, because we are meant to watch what he is doing and do the same thing—not at his level, but all of Israel is called a “kingdom of priests, a set-apart nation”. (19:6) We have a service to carry out that parallels his. The thread of blue in our tzitziyoth (Num. 15:38ff; Deut. 22:12) is our priestly garment, reminiscent of the blue of his garment. Tzitzit comes from a word meaning to sparkle or shine—so it, too, is to catch our attention and remind us of YHWH’s commands. Like clothing, our actions and attitudes allegorically cover us. YHWH said He would clothe His priests with salvation, but His enemies would be clothed with shame. (Psalm 132:13ff) Laziness clothes a man with rags. (Prov. 23:21) When we put on our physical clothes, we should think of what character traits we want to “wear” this day: Balance? Mercy? Confidence? Determination? Self-examination? What Kingdom things do you want to express today? They should all have the same kind of underlying “garments”--love for YHWH and our neighbor--at all times. But what specific aspects of these do you want to come alive in you? Sometimes we “wear our feelings on our sleeves”, and sometimes others can even tell if we really want to be where we are, just by what we wear. Aharon was willing to do the difficult things, and he is dressed in a way that shows it. His clothing signified the weightiness and uniqueness of his position as the "spiritual general" of the ranks of Israel. He was not permitted to officiate without this covering (except during some parts of Yom Kippur), even if otherwise he had purchased a nice new garment. These clothes represent what YHWH wants to communicate about Aharon, and fit the attributes He wants to highlight about him. This time there is no room for self-expression. He cannot change the color just because it matches his eyes better or looks better on him, just as we cannot change the Sabbath from the seventh day to simply “every seventh day”.
3. "And you shall speak to all the wise-hearted whom I have filled with a spirit of [perceptive] skill, and they shall make the garments of Aharon to set him apart unto his service as a priest to Me.
Skill: or wisdom. Certainly the credit ultimately goes to YHWH for their wisdom. They are wise because He has made them that way. But we can also look at it from the other direction: They are filled with a spirit of wisdom because they are wise of heart. I.e., they have prepared within themselves a place for wisdom, so that when they receive this “transplant”, they are ready and will not reject it. This is more than knowledge or even understanding. Those are prerequisites, but simply knowing that if we flip a switch a light will come on, or even understanding the science behind the engineering--the flow of electrons to ground, how an electric circuit works, how amperage is generated, what elements work best to compose the filament and how it interacts with the current and voltage--does not actually make a light work. We have to use the knowledge that is on the schematic and apply our understanding. We have to dam a river, build a generator, run the wiring, and take the load up and down; only then will flipping the switch actually do something. That is the equivalent of wisdom. Of course, it always begins with knowledge. YHWH says His people perish for lack of knowledge, and ties it directly back to this passage by saying that if we reject knowledge he will not let us be His priests, and that He will forget our children. (Hoshea 4:6) How do we prepare our children to be a kingdom of priests? Of course we must start with a literal knowledge of the Torah. But we must also understand the “why” of the commands, for the Hebrew word for understanding means “dividing” with the mind: picturing how to do what it says. But this is still only useless trivia until that understanding is applied and we actually use the knowledge. When we are wise as well as understanding, there is real power. If we keep His commands, YHWH says the nations will see us as wise and understanding (Deut. 4:5)—that we can not just tell them what is the right thing to do, but show them how it is done. But there is more: Obeying YHWH’s commands is not the final goal, but learning the principles behind them. Wearing tzitziyoth (Num. 15:38) does not fulfill the command; letting it remind you to obey all of His commands, and then actually obeying them is what fulfills it. Wisdom comes from experience and by seeking more if it. Proverbs 4 says wisdom is the principal thing and will deliver a crown of splendor (compare v. 2) to those who take hold of it. The same chapter tells us that the way to find wisdom begins with letting our hearts retain the words of righteous parents and obey their commands. As we do, and as we let it shape our lives beyond the strict command to our lives in other situations as well. When David died and Shlomoh (Solomon) came to the throne, he asked YHWH for wisdom and a “heart that could hear clearly” so he could judge His people. (1 Kings 3:5ff) YHWH said He would give it to him if he walked in His ways. (3:14) David had taught him the Torah, and a king is required to write a copy of the Torah, and that is what YHWH has given us to prepare a place for wisdom. It tells us what to do in a property dispute where one ox is dead and one is still alive, and when two mothers who were arguing over which of them the dead child and the living child belonged to (3:15ff), he did not need to engage in forensics to find the clues. He used a test based on the Torah, because he understood the underlying principle. He could therefore go beyond the literal command about oxen and apply it in this different but parallel situation, because it was really the same issue. He applied what he knew, and the truth came out—and the world was amazed at his wisdom and held him in high respect. Like Aharon, he was put into a position he had not asked for, and was afraid, but he ended up with everyone fearing him! It cannot be applied haphazardly, or a baby will end up cut in half. The craftsmen had to be chosen based on how well they could interpret the descriptions of the garments and turn them into something that really would express authority and make people say, “Wow!” in a way that was not sarcastic. But this is not magic or a closely-held secret. The fact is that you can have the wisdom of Shlomoh—not in three easy payments, but as you learn to apply the Torah YHWH has given. It is that simple. Make room in your heart for wisdom, or it will not fit when YHWH offers it. You will not get it any other way. Seek to serve Israel and do what YHWH asks, and you will prepare a place to be dressed in the right garments.
Commentary on
Parashat Tetzaveh
Fully Dressed
for the Right Job
