Tetzaveh
(Ex. 27:20 - 30:10)
Purim
Tonight
begins the Feast of Esther, or Purim, as it is known in the Jewish world. It
commemorates the victory of the Jewish people over the Persians sometime
between 483 - 473 BCE during the reign of Xerxes 1 also known as Ahasuerus.
In our service today we will hear the book of Esther and every time we
come to the name of Haman we make lots of noise with “groggers”
(noisemakers). The Torah portion
for this week gives the instructions for the inauguration of the priesthood of
Aaron and his sons. What does the
Torah portion have to do with Esther? There
are two answers: nothing and everything. The
answer is nothing in the sense that it just so happens that Purim occurs this
year on a Saturday night. The weekly Torah reading is not interrupted by the
holiday. The answer is everything in that Aaron and his sons as well as Esther
were being called to a task that they had never done before - a task that had
enormous implications for the Jewish people.
Aaron and his sons were being trained to represent the people before
God in bringing sacrifices and serving in the Holy of Holies. There were
certain serious risks involved in this work. In fact we see the enormity of
these risks in the 10th chapter of Leviticus where we read of the
deaths of the two sons of Aaron for offering “strange fire” on the alter.
For Esther, the risk was that she could die for coming to see the king
without being summoned first. Esther
showed great courage in coming before the king in order to intercede for the
Jewish people. We read the words of Esther in
4:16
"Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in
Susa
, and fast for me; do
not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast
in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to
the law; and if I perish, I perish.” She asked for
prayer and fasting realizing that she could die as a result of this task.
We learn an important lesson from the actions of Esther as well as
those of Aaron and his sons. When
God calls us to a situation “for such a time as this” (Esth.
4:14
), we re called to move
forward and allow God to make the way possible. For Esther, her responsibility
was to be available and willing to serve. For Aaron and his sons, while they
were also called to be available and willing to serve as well. In Esther’s
case, there were no instructions from heaven about how she was to go to the
king as was the case for the priests. The
valuable lesson we learn is that when we are in a situation that demands
action we must move forward in faith, taking into consideration the obstacles,
but not viewing the obstacles as deterrents.
Aaron could not say that he would not go into the Holy of Holies
because he might die and Esther could not refuse to see the king because she
might die. If God has called us to a task we move forward and trust God for
the outcome even if it seems impossible. For
us at Beth Messiah, right now we are in the beginning stages of raising funds
for a new building. It is a daunting task. It requires all of us to view this
project as a ministry of the congregation and there fore to support it. Each
of us is here for such a time as this. The challenges are enormous. However,
we are called to move forward. It is God who will bring the victory. May we
rejoice in the story of Esther and allow God to enlarge our faith and trust
God for the outcome of the task as we do our part. Shabbat shalom!