Parshat Tzav

2009

Taking Out the Garbage

This week's parsha opens with the description of a rather odd commandment. The cohen is commanded to remove the ashes from the previous day's sacrifices that have burned on the altar all night, and carry them outside of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) to a designated place outside the camp.

Essentially, the priest is being told to take out the garbage. Of course, this is not ordinary garbage – the remnants of the sacrifices have a status of elevated sanctity, as evidenced from the fact that the Gemara in Pesachim 26a rules that the ashes are subject to me'ilah – misappropriation of sanctified items.

Furthermore, we may have expected this work to be done by a custodian, or the equivalent of a minimum wage worker. Yet we are told that this act was performed by the kohanim, the priests – the most privileged people in the Temple.

The Talmud in Yoma 23b identifies two stages to this ritual: terumat ha-deshen – lifting the pile of ashes from the altar; and hotza'at ha-deshen – removing the pile of ashes from the Temple. The Talmud also notes that the terumat ha-deshen (removing the ashes from the altar) was considered an avodah, a formal service in the Temple. There is even a debate over whether the second step of removing the ashes from the Temple is also considered an avodah.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the leading figure of the 19th Century German Orthodox community has a beautiful analysis of the terumat ha-deshen and hotza'at ha-deshen rituals. Rav Hirsch explains that we should not think the removal of ashes from the altar is a preparatory stage for the new day's Temple service. Rather, it is the final conclusion of the previous day's service.

As the priest is about to begin the new day's service in the Temple, he first concludes the previous day's work. As Rav Hirsch writes: "It would give the idea, as the introduction to the service of the day that, 'Today brings no new mission, it has only to carry out, ever afresh, the mission that yesterday too was to accomplish… The Jewish 'Today' has to take its mission from the hand of its 'Yesterday.' "

Indeed, we all understand that the need for continuity from one day to the next is crucial. However, there is a danger in placing too much emphasis on the previous day's work – the danger of living in the past, and of thinking we have fulfilled all of our responsibilities. This, explains Rav Hirsch, is why there is a need for the ritual of hotza'at ha-deshen (removing the ashes from the Temple) as well. We cannot focus our thoughts and energy on that which we have already achieved.

He explains: "The thought of what has already been accomplished can be the death of that which is still to be accomplished. Woe unto him who, with smug self-complacency thinks he can rest on his laurels, on what he has already achieved, and who does not meet the task of every fresh day with full fresh devotion as if it were the fist day of his life's work!"

This message explains another detail in the Torah's description of the ritual. We are told that the cohen must change his clothes in between performing the terumat ha-deshen and the hotza'at ha-deshen. The Talmud (Yoma 23b) explains that he is to wear clothes that are worn out and less valuable for the hotza'at ha-deshen.

Rabbi Hirsch understands the message of this detail to be: "The past is to be there and not forgotten, but it is to be retired to the background, and is not to invest us with pride before the fresh task to which each new day calls us."

We must live with a delicate balance. On the one hand, to contextualize our current responsibilities as being connected with and a continuation of the previous day's work; on the other hand, we cannot place too strong of an emphasis on the past and what we have already accomplished.

The balance described by Rav Hirsch in his analysis of the terumat and hotza'at ha-deshen is the same balance we seek to achieve at the Pesach seder. On the one hand, we come to the seder with a very strong sense of history. We tell the story of what happened to our ancestors thousands of years ago in Egypt. We all have sentimental memories and nostalgia for the sedarim we celebrated as children. Yet, our goal of the seder is not merely to tell the story and focus on the past.

As we read in the Haggadah, "In every generation a person must see him/herself as if he/she personally went out of Egypt." We must make the story and message of Pesach relevant to us in our current situation. Furthermore, we express our desire to say before Hashem a "new song" (shirah chadashah) because the praise that we say to God once we have made the story of Pesach relevant and applicable to our lives is a brand new, unprecedented song of praise for God.

Written by Rabbi Elliot Kaplowitz, co-director of the Jewish Learning Initiative at Brandeis University.