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Parshat Tetzaveh
2003
Be Like a Dove
In the beginning of this week's Torah portion, parshat Tetzaveh, God tells Moses to command the Jewish People to take pure olive oil for the menorah, which was to be lit each day in the Temple. This is the first of the Temple services described. The following Midrash (Tanchumah 5) gives some explanation for the menorah's central and prominent place in the daily Temple service.
Midrash Tanchumah 5
"How beautiful are you my beloved, your eyes are like doves" (Song of Songs1:15). Why are the Jewish People compared to a dove in this verse? When Noah sent the raven out of the Ark to check if the waters had receded, the raven flew away on its own. But afterward when he sent the dove it came back with an olive twig in its mouth showing that the world was habitable again. Just as the dove brought light to the world, so you, the Jewish People who are compared to a dove, shall bring pure oil and light a lamp before God, as it says, "command the people and tell them to bring oil ... to bring up a constant flame."
Your Midrash Tanchumah Navigator:
1. How did the dove bring "light" to the world?
2. Is lighting the menorah similar to the dove's light?
3. What kind of light should the menorah remind us to bring to the world?
4. As a Jew how can you bring more of this light in your life and world?
A Word:
When the Jews in the desert dedicate the Temple, the first service they do is lighting the menorah (see Numbers). Similarly, later in history when the Macabees rededicate the Temple the first thing they do is light the menorah. Somehow the lighting of the menorah sets the stage for all other Temple services. The Talmud notes that the windows in the Temple were smaller on the inside and larger on the outside as if the spiritual "light" of the Temple was meant to radiate to the outside world. The dove comes from and returns to the Ark (a special place), and in the process brings light to the outside world. So too should we come from a holy place and return back to holiness, but in the interim bring light to a world that so needs that light. This is what the menorah in the Temple (and in our houses on Chanukah) should remind us of. We are like doves leaving the ark, bringing light to the world. Shabbat Shalom.
Prepared by Rabbi Hyim Shafner, Campus Rabbi, St. Louis Hillel at Washington University.
Learn More
Additional commentaries and text studies on Tetzaveh at MyJewishLearning.com.
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