Parashat Tetzaveh 5786

by Rabbi Margie Cella

This is the eighth parashah in the book of Shemot, meaning “names.” Throughout the book, we have seen the significance of names: which are included and which are absent. Tetzaveh is notable as the only parashah in the last four books of the Torah in which Moses’ name is never mentioned. Here, he recedes into the background as God gives the specifications for the priestly garments that his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons will wear, as well as the instructions for the ceremony for anointing them to their sacred tasks as high priest and priests.

The uniform of each priest consisted of four garments: a long tunic, a sash, a turban, and breeches. The cohen gadol, the high priest, wore four additional garments: an ephod (apron); a woolen robe with alternating bells and pomegranates on its hem; the tzitz, a gold plate tied to the turban which contained the words, “Holy to God”; and the choshen, or breastplate, for consulting God in decisions of judgment.

On Aaron’s shoulders were two stones, each engraved with the names of six of the twelve tribes of Israel. The breastplate was adorned with twelve precious stones, each representing one of the tribes, arranged in four rows of three stones each. The arrangement itself is significant: according to the Baal HaTurim (medieval commentator), the three stones in each row alluded to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the four rows alluded to the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. Aaron appeared before God on behalf of the people who were holy to God, and on the authority of those who had come before, the founders of the nation, the men and the women.

Oseh Shalom, Maker of Peace, hear our petitions as we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, our mothers as well as our fathers.