Tzav / צו

צו

Just like with ויקרא last week, the opening verb of this week's portion cries out for our attention.

צַו אֶת אַהֲרֹן וְאֶת בָּנָיו לֵאמֹר זֹאת תּוֹרַת הָעֹלָה

Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering.

Tzav - command. If this was God speaking to Moses, we would barely notice. God commands Moses to do lots of things. In our portion however, Moses is doing the commanding - of his brother Aaron.

This is a pretty strong contradiction to our traditional way of understanding the relationship between God and People. Our Mitzvot, meaning commandments, not good deeds like I was taught in Hebrew school, come from God and God alone.

According to our covenant with God, it is our task to uphold them. When our sages talk about the "עול מלחות שמיים" - "yolk of the kingdom of heaven," they intentionally use the phrase yolk to signify us not being in control and our state of "commandedness" by God.

In the verse above, we apparently have a commandment from a man to another man. Does this mean that humans can have the same degree of authority over one another as God has over us? I don't think so - not a Jewish concept.

Of course, our trusty friend Rashi has an explanation: "The expression צַו always denotes urging [to promptly and meticulously fulfill a particular commandment] for the present and also for future generations. Rabbi Simeon taught: Scripture especially needs to urge [people to fulfill commandments,] where monetary loss is involved.

Rashi is saying two things here. First off, he thinks of צו less in the literal sense, and more as a דגש, an added emphasis. There is evidence for this from Numbers Chapter 34 Verse 1 and 2:

וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר.  ב צַו אֶת-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם, כִּי-אַתֶּם בָּאִים, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ כְּנָעַן:  זֹאת הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר תִּפֹּל לָכֶם בְּנַחֲלָה, אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן, לִגְבֻלֹתֶיהָ

The Lord spoke to Moses saying: Command the children of Israel and say to them, When you arrive in the land of Canaan, this is the land which shall fall to you as an inheritance, the land of Canaan according to its borders.

This is not a commandment at all. It is simply an important point that God wants Moses to make very clear to the people.

Rashi's second point, illustrated by Rabbi Simeon's quote, talks about the need to urge people especially strongly to do Mitzvot where monetary loss, or other uncomfortable sensations or events, are involved. Rashi is hinting that the upcoming mitzvah, which Moses is to command Aaron and his sons to do, might not be so pleasant. Sure enough - it's not. Vayikra Chapter 6, Verse 3:

.וְלָבַשׁ הַכֹּהֵן מִדּוֹ בַד וּמִכְנְסֵי בַד יִלְבַּשׁ עַל בְּשָׂרוֹ וְהֵרִים אֶת הַדֶּשֶׁן אֲשֶׁר תֹּאכַל הָאֵשׁ אֶת הָעֹלָה עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְשָׂמוֹ אֵצֶל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ:

"And the kohen shall put his linen tunic, and linen trousers on his flesh. And he shall lift out the ashes into which the fire has consumed the burnt offering upon the altar, and put them down next to the altar."

As someone who has cleaned out many a barbecue after roasting a turkey for Pesach and Thanksgiving, I assure you it is not a pretty picture. The ash can get mixed up with all sorts of grease and who-knows-what. No wonder the priest is commanded to change his clothes afterwards!

Additionally, this mitzvah is to be performed every morning, first thing in the morning. Perhaps God is worried most of the Cohenim will want to sleep in a little bit and let the other guy to this gooey work, so God makes sure the commandment is emphasized.

Turns out, the priests were way more than eager to take out the ashes in the morning. Rabbi Avi Weinstein shares a story from the Gamarra. I'll summarize:

'Originally whosoever desired to remove [the ashes from] the altar did so. If they were many, they would run and mount the ramp [of the altar] and he that came first within four cubits obtained the privilege.

It once happened that two [priests] were even as they ran to mount the ramp. One of them pushed his fellow who fell and broke his leg. When the court saw that they incurred danger, they ordained that the ashes of the altar be cleared only by a lottery.'

Apparently, the extra emphasis worked! What previously seemed like a disgusting and menial task turned into a great competition among the Cohenim!

The lottery is an interesting solution - now the Cohenim are probably waking up extra early and chomping at the bit to be the "lucky one" chosen to clean out the ashes..

This reminds me of a similar method we used at summer camp. Especially before the kids arrive and after they leave, there is a ton on manual labor to do. Organizing the kitchen and the cutlery, putting up giant platform tents, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. One of the most demanding tasks involved moving the heavy metal frames for the bunk beds, which were frequently rusted, all the way across the campus from the storage shed.

However, instead of complaining about our luck, and how we are getting paid about 25 cents an hour, we calculated, we actually had a great time doing it. How? In place of focusing on all the work yet to be done, we would say, out loud, "Awesome - we get to move another set of beds! What? The bed is rusted and needs to be dissembled and cleaned - what a stroke of luck!"

I know it sounds silly- but it worked. At first it seemed like a game, but after a while we really started to enjoy ourselves. As they say, EGE - enthusiasm generates enthusiasm.

Similarly, I once heard a great teaching about washing dishes. Unfortunately I don't remember who it was from - perhaps our very own Rabbi Frank.

Anyhow, I can look at washing dishes in one of two ways: As a obnoxious task that I have to do after every meal, or an opportunity to provide a safe eating environment for my family so they can absorb nutrition, grow, and succeed in life.

Worst case scenario is that we find ourselves debating whether or not this is merely a silly mind game while we are cleaning, and soon enough the work is done before we know it.

Our mental attitudes towards tasks play a huge part in the outcome of our endeavors.

All of us, myself included, can definitely learn to focus more on the positive and broadcast that energy to those around us. One might even say that to do otherwise is a disservice to those around us, because negative energy is even more contagious than it's opposite.

Even if we aren't really feeling the positive energy at the moment we can really on a classic technique - "fake it till you make it."

I want to bless everyone here today to see something, or someone, in a new light and bring positive energy to the world in a place where it wasn't before. We can all use it!

Vayikra / ויקרא

Vayikra

With this week's portion, and the beginning of a new book of the Bible, we enter into the densely detailed and slightly nauseating world of animal sacrifices.

As people in the 21st century, imagining the setting of a grand house of worship where we bring animals to be burned on an altar is not exactly an easy jump to make. This world seems so foreign and remote it is challenging to relate to in any meaningful way.

One way to get a grip on this issue is to focus on little details in the text that say a lot. For example, the very first phrase of our portion, and the book is Leviticus, is eye catching:

וַיִּקְרָא אֶל מֹשֶׁה וַיְדַבֵּר יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֵלָיו מֵאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לֵאמֹר:

And He called to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying...

We are used to different words to describe God speaking to Moses -
וידבר (spoke)
ויואמר (said)
ויצו. (commanded)

ויקרא , called, is less formal than the above. Perhaps now that God has revealed part of God's self to Moses on the mountain, God feels closer to Moses, and can relate to him in a different way.

This is also the same word that we find during the Kedushah section of the Amidah, referring to the Angles and how they called to each other, "וקרא זה אל זה ואמר"

It is as if G-d is letting Moses in on an intimate secret, after the bombastic announcement at Mt. Sinai. There is definitely an added degree of trust here - God is telling Moses what makes God happy in the physical, sensual world.

We read over and over again that the sacrifices provide a רֵיחַ נִיחוֹחַ, a pleasing fragrance to God.

In a way, this is similar to how we tell things to our loved ones that we would never tell to strangers. God lets God's guard down a little with more informal phrasing.

In fact, a very important aspect of the sacrifices is to increase the intimacy of our relationship to God, strange as that may seem. The Hebrew word for sacrifice, קררבן, comes from קרב or closeness.

This brings us to the second verse of the portion:

דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם, אָדָם כִּי יַקְרִיב מִכֶּם קָרְבָּן לַי־הֹוָ־ה, מִן הַבְּהֵמָה מִן הַבָּקָר וּמִן הַצֹּאן, תַּקְרִיבוּ אֶת קָרְבַּנְכֶם:

The English is a bit clunky here: "A man who shall bring near of you an offering to G‑d, from the beast, from the cattle and from the sheep, you shall bring close your offering . 

According to Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the verse does not say, “a man of you who shall bring near an offering,” but “a man who shall bring near of you an offering”—the offering brought is “of you.”

The offering that we are bringing is not some fancy trinket purchased on the way to the temple - rather it is a piece of our farm or our home - our livelihood.

There is great flexibility in what is allowed to be sacrificed. For an עולה offering, which is completely burnt on the alter and not consumed by man, one can bring a cow, sheep, goat or even a pair birds (turtle doves or young pigeons). For the minchah sacrifice, made up of something like high quality matzah meal, סולת, we can bring it in the form of a challah or wafers, or in a frying pan or a deep pot.

This goes along with the idea of creating closeness. God does not want a goat farmer to all of a sudden have to purchase a cow so he can sacrifice it. The sacrifice of something that is close to us, that we encounter in our daily lives, is much more meaningful than simply following a procedure that is the same for everyone.

In other words, there is great flexibility, within the system, for serving God in one's own way. This is an important teaching that we can bring with us today. We are all individuals, created by God with individual attributes, skills, personalities, hangups, etc.

We should embrace own individuality and use that as a vehicle for increasing God's presence in the world.

As we see from the sacrifices, God wants us to bring the most intimate and unique parts of ourselves to come closer to him.

Furthermore, we do not sacrifice anything with leaven or honey, symbolizing luxury and pleasure. These are surface elements - God wants the real thing that can only come from deep down inside all of us.

Because we are all created in God's image, yet totally unique, the way that I come closer to God categorically CAN NOT be exactly the same as the person next to me, even if we say exactly the same words during tefillah.

There are some in the Jewish world who believe that they have a monopoly on Jewish practice and halachah. To be a "Real Jew" one needs to follow exactly the practices that they have established. I am proud to be a part of the Conservative/Masorti Jewish Community, which is pluralistic and accepts the idea that different interpretations of Halacha are not necessarily contradictions, and that we should embrace this variety in our view of Judaism.

I want to bless everyone here today with the inspiration to find a new, unique and personal way to bring more holiness into this world and the perseverance to make it happen.

Vayakhel / Pekudei ויקהל / פקודי

Vayakhel / Pekudei

This week's parsha is most unusual. First off, we read two portions, וַיַּקְהֵל and פְקוּדֵי at the same time.

Why double up? The simple reason is that there are more Torah portions, 54, then Shabbats in a year, 51 or 52. Depending on the each year's configuration, there are also some Shabbatot that fall on Yom Tov, where we read special parshiot and not the usual weekly portion.

For example, Shabbat must fall at least once during Hol HaMoed Pesach and Sukkot, so right away we "lose" two weeks or regular Torah readings.

Some of the "doubled" parshiot have similar subject matter, and this week's parshiot are no exception. After the first three verses of Vay'ke'hel, all the focus is on Am Yisrael building the Mishkan, the traveling tabernacle. This brings us to another unusual aspect of this week's portions.

We have already read this stuff in Parshat Terumah, where God gives the instruction for building the Mishkan.

Why do we read this information twice? Isn't every word in the Torah supposed to be meaningful and unique?

Let's take a look at the distribution of themes in the Five Books of Moses.

Thirteen full chapters of the book Exodus are devoted to describing the creation of the Mishkan and the priestly garments. Contrast this with the one chapter describing the creation of the universe, and the three chapters describing the revelation at Mount Sinai. In fact, more time is spent on the details of the traveling temple than on the Exodus from Egypt, only eleven chapters!

What gives? I thought that what makes the Jewish G-d so special is a lack of physical being. We are commanded over and over again to avoid creating physical objects to worship. עבודת זרה, idol worship, is one the most serious sins in the Tanach. Yet here we are lavishing detail upon detail of a physical structure?

In trying to understand this puzzling phenomenon, I was helped immensely by the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, (z"l), also known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Of course, "the Rebbe" was one of the more controversial Jewish leaders of his time, mainly because some of his followers think that he is/was the Messiah. If we can ignore the more fantastical and outlandish beliefs associated with certain fans of Rabbi Schneerson, and perhaps some of our own biases about the Chabad movement, we can learn a lot from this deeply profound and knowledgeable man, who gave so much of his life to helping others and building a stronger Jewish world.

According to Rabbi Schneerson, the Hassidic response to the ultimate question 'Why are we here?' can be summer up simply- "to make a home for God in the material world."

What exactly does this mean? - after all, are we not taught that God is everywhere, in everything

True, we cannot bring God into the world where God is already present. The difference is a matter of awareness - God's house is not always a home. A home is a place where you feel comfortable, accepted, one of the "chèvre." As living beings, when we walk around forgetting about our holy neshamas, and those of other people, God does not feel at home, even though God is present.

When we are selfish, thinking only of our own needs and wants, we forget that we were created for a higher purpose. When we recognize this, and connect with our own divinity, God feels at home.

Humans also have the power to transform physical objects from ordinary matter into a instrument for God. This is truly what is happening in building the Mishkan.

Schneershon himself says it best:

When we take a piece of leather and make a pair of tefillin out of it, when we take a dollar bill and give it to charity, when we employ our minds to study a chapter of Torah -- we are effecting such a transformation. In its initial state, the piece of leather proclaimed, "I exist"; now it says, "I exist to serve my Creator." A dollar in pocket says, "Greed is good"; in the charity box it says, "The purpose of life is not to receive, but to give." The human brain says, "Enrich thyself"; the brain studying Torah says, "Know thy G-d."

When God commands the Israelites to build God a temple, in the middle of the desert no less, I believe God is trying to teach us a difficult lesson. Material objects are not ends in themselves. In order to be holy people, we need to put these objects to holy use. Gold, Silver and Copper and fine linen are great in and of themselves - but God wants us to keep of all these objects in their proper perspective.

This is not an easy lesson - think of the Golden Calf. Am Yisrael was feeling abandoned by Moses and the direct connection to God that he represented. They wanted to use their material possessions that they had recently acquired in Egypt to create a new object to focus their spiritual energy on. So close - yet so far away.

True, the Israelites were using their material possessions for a higher purpose, but the possessions themselves had become the objects of worship. We are free to USE material objects as tools to help us get closer to God, but must never mistake the object for God itself.

In our modern world, our new Golden Calf is undoubtably money. People will do almost anything to get a little bit more than the next guy/gal. How many times have we read about the abuse of human beings, and even entire cultures, for a bit of material wealth? Our drive to make use of the Earth's resources to fuel our engines is threatening to destroy the very planet that we live on. How many people spend their entire lives in pursuit of more and more cash, forgetting about those around them, let alone God?

How de we as Jews relate to money? It's simple - Jewish tradition has lots and lots of rules about money, and Jews have been traditionally good at making lots and lots of it!

Seriously though, Judaism is not a religion of austerity and denial - we feel lucky when we can feed our love ones and even indulge in a bit of the pleasures of the material world (as long as we say a bracha over it). During Rosh Chodesh, we even pray for פרנשה טוהב" a good living.

At the same time that we realize the importance of money in allowing us to live successful, happy lives, we must also realize that money, just like the precious metals of the Israelites, is a tool to be used for the greater good, starting with our family and moving outwards toward the entire community of the world.

Perhaps the Torah emphasizes the exacting details of building the Temple precisely because it knew the great length to which Modern people would go to make money, and how lost we would become in the search for it.

I bless everyone hear today for success in the economic sphere, but even more importantly, the wisdom to use it in the best way possible.

Ki Ti'se כי תשא

It is said that the Jewish people are a people of memory. We cherish good memories, but even more so, almost fanatically remember bad events in our history.

We see these bad memories reflected in our customs, even at the happiest of times. We break a glass at the end of a wedding, and when building a new house, leave one small section incomplete.

This week's parsha, Ki Titze, exemplifies this tradition, as we recall the story of the Golden Calf - not one of our brighter moments. It is especially painful because this wound was totally self-inflicted, and occurred with such terrible timing. How could we lose faith in Moses and God so quickly after experiencing divine revelation?

Upon further investigation, the Golden Calf incident turns out to be just another example of seemingly bad event creating amazingly positive results further down the road.

First off, the Golden Calf incident provides Moses with an unprecedented opportunity to shine. True, in Egypt brought down the 10 plagues (with Aaron's help), engineered his people's escape and even split the Sea of Reeds. However, in all these cases, he was following God's direct orders, and not acting on his own accord.

In this week's Parsha, Moses takes it to a new level - starting with arguing with God and winning. God is threatening to destroy the entire Jewish people and make Moses that head of a new nation, but Moses isn't having any of it. He appeals to God's moral/parental sense - 'how could you do this to your people that you so recently brought out of Egypt', God's reputation - 'the Egyptians will say that you are cruel and evil,' and finally to the memory of God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

God is convinced and spares Jewish people. You could even say that Moses bests Abraham here, because God destroyed Sodom and Gemorrah despite Abraham's pleas.

Next up, Moses needs to make a strong statement to the people condemning their idolatrous behavior. So he takes matters into his own hands, and WITHOUT GOD's PERMISSION, breaks the tablets that God himself had written!

If this isn't chutzpah, I'm not sure what is. Moses is truly tempting fate - he knows that God is not in the best mood, to say the least, and now he goes and breaks his tablets?!? It's too bad we don't have leaders these days willing to take a tough stance with so much confidence.

Of course, it turns out that breaking the tablets worked out very well - we eventually received another set and there rest is history. Rashi even says that God gives his retro active approval to Moses's actions.

Chapter 34, Verse 1

. וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֶל מֹשֶׁה פְּסָל לְךָ שְׁנֵי לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים כָּרִאשֹׁנִים וְכָתַבְתִּי עַל הַלֻּחֹת אֶת הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ עַל הַלֻּחֹת הָרִאשֹׁנִים אֲשֶׁר שִׁבַּרְתָּ:

And the Lord said to Moses: "Hew for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones. And I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.  

Rashi concentrates on the last two words of this passage. In Hebrew - אשר שברת. . He says the word אשר is not necessary, and could have been written as ש שברת. . So what is the meaning of אשר in this sentence? Rashi says it should be read as אישור permission - God's permission to Moses.

Personally, I think this explanation is a stretch, because אשר is a very common word that frequently serves as a substitute for "that" in the exact same way as the above example- are we to find "permission" in every occurrence? Nonetheless, it is a very elegant observation.

More than that, our sages say that the second set of commandments actually contained something the first set did not - the Oral Law - Mishnah, Talmud and Aggadah. Because the people were ready to truly repent and come back to God, we received the ultimate expression on God's love, an eternal partnership in which we are constantly engaged in dialogue with the almighty - a Torah that we can take a part of.

The story of the Golden calf also teaches us another lesson - one that is more challenging, especially these days.

After destroying the Golden Calf, Moses calls out, saying, "Whoever is for the Lord, [let him come] to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.

וַיַּעֲמֹד מֹשֶׁה בְּשַׁעַר הַמַּחֲנֶה וַיֹּאמֶר מִי לַי־הֹוָ־ה אֵלָי וַיֵּאָסְפוּ אֵלָיו כָּל בְּנֵי לֵוִי:

He then instructed the Levis to take up their swords and kill the leaders of the rebellion. Again, Moses takes this action without consulting God. 3,000 people are killed.

This is eerily reminiscent of another incident in our people's history - albeit some 3,000 years later. In June 1948, the British Mandate was coming to an end. There was great excitement about the cruel British rule finally ending, but perhaps an even greater fear of the Arabs who could now attack with impunity. The nascent Jewish State, always outnumbered, faced an acute shortage of weapons. Against this worrisome backdrop , the "official" political leadership of the Jewish settlement, headed by David Ben-Gurion, was locked in a power and influence struggle with Menachem Begin's underground army, known as the Irgun.

The Altalena affair to this day generates an enormous amount of controversy, and it's possible to see it different ways. The bare bones facts are these - the Begin's Irgun had negotiated a large and sorely-needed arms shipment from France, that was set to arrive on a ship known as the Altalena.

There was disagreement on what would happen when the arms reached the shore. Begin claimed he would give them to Ben Gurion's Israel Defense Forces, but only after he outfitted his own troops, which were technically a part of the IDF. Additionally, there was concern that certain Irgun members were in fact planning a coup. In any case, they were not following IDF orders and wanted to unload the weapons their way.

Ben Gurion faced a devastating decision. He needed the guns, but no one could predict what would happen when the guns were taken off the ship- there was a very real possibility of civil war or a coup attempt breaking out if the Irgun were able to shift the balance of power with these arms.

After a series of warnings to not dock in the Irgun controlled Tel Aviv port, the IDF was ordered to fire on the Altalena. The ship was hit and sank. Six Irgun members were killed on the ship, and another 10 the beach. Begin barely escaped with his life.

The fallout of this incident was intense and bitter, but there was no mutiny in the ranks. This was at least partially due to Begin's legendary and unbreakable sense of patriotism and unity within the Jewish people. He later claimed "My greatest accomplishment was not retaliating and causing civil war."

Just like Moses in the desert, Ben Gurion was faced with a situation where he thought the only solution was violence. In both cases, the Jewish people ended up surviving intact, not withholding the loss of life.

These two events reinforce a difficult but crucial lesson - sometimes the situation is so dire that violence is the only possible response. Judaism is certainly not a pacifist religion.

Of course, this is a very slippery and dangerous slope. In addition to the many heroic and courageous examples of this kind of behavior, history is strewn with the stories of those who try to take God's will into their own hands and commit terrible atrocities. It is not always easy to draw the line - but we cannot ignore the fact that violence is sometimes necessary.

We are extremely lucky today live in a Jewish State with a strong army that is backed by a superpower. Precisely because of this, we must be extra careful when even calling for the use of violence in the media, let alone actually using it.

These days a lot of rhetoric is being thrown around - let us pray that our current conflicts can be resolved peacefully. May ours be the days when bloodshed cease.

via - aish.com

Te'tza'veh תצוה

This weeks parsha, תצוה details the instructions God gives to Moses about creating the priestly garments. Just like last week's parsha, the materials used are top of the line, and the instructions are very specific.

Reading over the portion, we get a pretty clear picture of the vestments. There is the אפוד - More or less a very fine smock, made of the finest Linen, and woven from gold, blue, purple, and scarlet. On the Ayfod's shoulder straps, we attach two stones - each stone engraved with the names of six of the tribes of Israel.

Over the אפוד hangs the חושן, a breastplate, made of gold. On the breastplate are 12 holes, which are filled with stones, arranged in four rows, three stones to a row. The twelve stones also correspond to the twelve tribes.

The חושן is attached to the אפוד via a blue cord, and anchored by golden rings to the shoulder straps of the אפוד.

Until now, everything is pretty clear. Here comes the curve ball:

Exodus, Chapter 27:30

וְנָתַתָּ אֶל חֹשֶׁן הַמִּשְׁפָּט אֶת הָאוּרִים וְאֶת הַתֻּמִּים וְהָיוּ עַל לֵב אַהֲרֹן בְּבֹאוֹ לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה וְנָשָׂא אַהֲרֹן אֶת מִשְׁפַּט בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עַל לִבּוֹ לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה תָּמִיד:

You shall place the Urim and the Tummim into the choshen of judgment, so that they will be over Aaron's heart when he comes before the Lord, and Aaron will carry the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord at all times.

Got it? All we have to do is add the Urim and Tumim and we can move on…

So just what are the Urim and Tumim? Don't expect an explanation in the next verse, which begins to describe the priestly robes. In fact, this is the only mention of the Urim and Tumim in the entire parsha, an abrupt change from the detailed descriptions of the other equipment.

The Urim and Tumim are very mysterious. Clearly, they have something to do with judgement, but no one seems to know for sure what they were. Of course, there are some very interesting ideas.

Rashi says that on the Urim and Tumim was written the full name of HaShem - and they would light up, מאיר, or מרתמם, perfect, the verdict that was given by the high priest.

Rashi brings a proof text from the book of Numbers. God tells Moses to present Joshua to the people, and bring him before the Priest Eleazar. Moses is to "bestow some of his magic upon him, so that all the congregation of the children of Israel will take heed.

Number 27:21: "He shall stand before Eleazar the kohen and seek [counsel from] him through the judgment of the Urim before the Lord."

From this verse, we learn the the Urim is a tool for the judgement of God to come forth. This is further backed up by a story from the book of Samuel.

The prophet Samuel, who had anointed Saul King of Israel, had died. The Philistine Army was massing and seemed ready to attack.

1st Samuel, 6:5: And Saul saw the camp of the Philistines. And he feared, and his heart trembled greatly. And Saul inquired of the Lord, and the Lord did not answer; neither by dreams, nor by the Urim, nor by the prophets.

We are quite familiar with two of the above ways for God to speak with humans - dreams (the "man" wrestling with Jacob and bestowing him the name Israel is a prime example) and prophets - Isaih, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc. This business about the Urim and Tumim, a very rare physical manifestation of God's presence, is truly a cause for curiosity.

The above biblical verses help us to understand the role that these mysterious objects played, but not their physical form or how exactly they were used. We are even in the dark about the meaning of the words themselves.

Rashi and other scholars think of אורים as as coming from אור, lights. תומים seems to be from the root ת.מ.מ meaning innocent or perfect - like תם, the simple child, or כבשים תממים, lambs without blemish that are used in the sacrifice.

Because of this, Urim and Tummim are translated as lights and perfections. This is the translation that Yale University must have been thinking of when they chose their logo - a picture of an open book with the Hebrew words אורים ותומים and the Latin phrase "Lux Et Veritas" - "Light and Truth."

Another question is why are the names plural? According to one source, this is a case of pluralis intensivus - words that are really singular but are pluralized to enhance their majesty. This makes sense if we are thinking of the items as a reflections of God's power - on Earth we see God as providing many different lights, not just one.

There is however, another possible translation, which may make more sense. אררים is a rare biblical Hebrew word that means "curses," and is very similar to אורים. Perhaps we are talking about a tool that tells the difference between guilty (cursed) or innocent?

In any case, it is safe to say that the Urim and Tummim are one of the parts of the Torah that we don't understand fully - just like we don't fully understand many of the events in our lives.

I know in my life, and probably in many of yours, things have happened that I immediately chalked up as terrible disappointments, but with the benefit of hindsight, turned out to be incredibly beneficial in ways that I never could have imagined. This phenomenon is familiar to us through many expressions - "everything happens for a reason," "when God closes a door he opens up a window," etc.

Just like previous events in our lives are over and we cannot do anything to change them, the Urim and Tumim are part of our Torah, even thought we may not understand exactly why/who/where/what, etc. All we can control is how we react to them - after all, who couldn't use a little perfection and light in their back pocket?