This shabbat Parasha Tetzaveh continues the previous parasha, Terumah, and adds instructions for the construction of the ‘Mishkan’ – the temporary temple that accompanied our ancestors on their journey through the desert. The instructions in this parasha focus on the priestly clothes of Aaron Hacohen and his sons and their preparation for the work in the tabernacle that will be built. As part of these preparations, God instructed Moses to prepare olive oil to light the menorah in the Tabernacle, the lighting that Aaron and his sons would be entrusted with.
This issue of lighting the candles in the tabernacle, and after that in the temple of Jerusalem, aroused great attention among the sages of the Midrash. They delve into the reasons and purposes of lighting the candles and subsequently the subject of light and lighting in general.
“Rabbi Meir said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I love the candles that Aaron lights, more than the lights that I have set in the sky during the world’s creation.”
In continuation’ the Midrash compares the natural lighting of the sun during the day and the moon at night to the lighting with which Aharon illuminates the tabernacle and concludes that human lighting is more pleasing to God than the heavenly stars that illuminate without human intervention.
And Midrash continue with the words of Rabbi Shimon.
“Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: Why did Saul win the kingdom? Because his grandfather used to light candles for many in the dark hallways…”
Rabbi Shimon deals with the lighting that a person lights for other people in dark places, and tells about the grandfather of the king Saul, who used to light dark alleys so that those passing through them would not be harmed when walking.
As a reward for this, he was awarded that his grandson Saul was the first king of the people of Israel.
This Midrash is not about lighting as such, but rather a metaphor. The spiritual and moral light of Israel’s tradition will influence all of humanity and save them from falls and damages existed in spiritual and moral darkness.
Through this midrash we are ready to understand the divine expectation of man and the ‘question of evil’… Why is there evil in the world?
Of course, there is suffering that we cannot understand, such as natural disasters. But a significant part of the evil is not related to nature but to man. Why does evil exist in man?
Why does man sometimes create suffering for others? Why was man not created as good as we would expect?
The words of the midrash “The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I love the candles that Aaron lights, more than the lights that I have set in the sky” direct us to the answer: God expects man to make himself better, to illuminate the dark alleys of life for others, to spread light to all of humanity. This is the role of the people of Israel – to be humanity’s beacon of light.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Refael Cohen