Tzav (command)
Lev. 6:1 - 8:36
Shabbat haGadol The Great Shabbat
Chag
Sameach!
Tonight
begins the celebration of Passover, the remembrance of the exodus of the Jewish
people out of the
That
day is called Yom Adonai Hagadol v’hanora which means "great and
awesome day of the Lord". On the Shabbat prior to Passover we are reminded
that a day of judgment is coming but the good news is that Elijah will come and
announce that the Messiah is immanent. Every year at the Seder, we leave one
seat empty for Elijah to come and announce the appearance of the Messiah. The
question for the day is are we prepared for the judgment of God? Are we prepared
for Elijah’s announcement? Amos, another one of
We
read at the beginning of the portion that the Kohen was to clean the
ashes of the sacrifice of the burnt offering. Rashi speaks to this as well as
other Sages of Israel. They are concerned about the issue of the priest changing
his clothing in order to accomplish this task. They reason that good clean
clothing should be worn in the service of God. If the Kohen always wore the same
clothing they would become dirty after cleaning out the ashes. Therefore he must
change into other priestly clothing for this task so that he would be wearing
clean priestly clothing the next time. The point is to be clean before the Lord.
This lesson is not only found in the clean clothing of the Kohen but also in the
act of cleaning the ashes. The alter had to be clean in order for a sacrifice to
be acceptable to God. Once again we see this lesson of the need of preparation
in order to enter the presence of God. There is a midrash on this passage that
says that when people repent it is as if they are a temple being cleansed.
As
we prepare for the Seder tonight, may we learn from this week’s Torah portion
that we need to put on clean linen - that is righteous living. We need to allow
God to search our hearts and our homes for the "leaven" of sin and
remove it so that we can be clean. As we read in the Scriptures, "do you
not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you
have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a
price: therefore glorify God in your body. We also read that we are to celebrate
the feast - not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The New Covenant says that John is a
type of Elijah and that Yeshua is the Messiah who came to cleanse us from our
sins once and for all. He did this by dying for our sins and being raised from
the dead. When we trust in Him we have the cleansing and are prepared to meet
Yeshua when he comes in glory. Have you settled the question of your sins?
Yeshua
came to clean us and prepare us. I encourage you to settle the question… for
who knows who will be on the other side of the door tonight…
Shabbat
Shalom!