Making sense of the sedra: Teztaveh
Creativity sheds light but we shall not forget evil
Rabbi Ariel Abel is based in Liverpool
Oil – the second most sought after liquid on the planet, appears at the start of this week’s parasha, Teztaveh.
“They shall take for you pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to make the continuous flame rise.”
Nowadays, we seek oil mostly to power mobility. Roads would be empty without the ‘black gold’ that enriches sheikhs and barons wherever they find it.
The Torah’s oil is pressed from the olive – at first clear, then yellow-gold. In biblical times, oil was used as a salve for the skin, a hair shampoo, a foot bath for the well-to-do, fuel for lighting and, to this very day, for cooking.
The tribe of Asher was blessed with olive trees in its territory. As in the Hasmonean era, when the Chanukah miracle took place, olive tree crops in northern Israel produce Israeli exports that rival the best on the world market.
Olive oil represents the spiritual task of parents – and teachers – raising children.
“Your children are like olives sprigs around your table.” (Psalms)
In the same way that olives need to be pressed to produce their best product, so too do children need to be challenged in order to produce their best efforts. Past studies have shown that virtual social networking and instant reliance on the web has eroded children’s social skills and abilities to persevere in life.
We need to take the classroom outdoors to exercise our children physically and mentally again, so that their creativity will have the best chance to shed light, as do the lights on the menorah.
This week’s extra reading is Zachor – the eternal commandment to never forget the evil perpetrated against our people by the Amalekites, the Egyptian Pharaohs, Haman, Hitler and the terrorists cults and industries of contemporary history. This generation has learned that we are not free from historic threats; that we must all be ever-vigilant and take charge of our own security.
The extra reading this week is the only one which the rabbis considered to be Torah-mandated. This is because the rabbis of old realised that Judaism can only survive through Jews, and only if Jews can hold their own can they carry out their mission. Samaritan Israelites in the holy land have reduced in number to very few; arguably too few to have the desired spiritual impact promised by the Torah by the children of Israel on the world.
Jews have retained this position, but only just; one third of our world population was cruelly exterminated in the 1940s. Hamas tried to restore belief in Israel’s erasure on and after 7 October 2023. The evil dream of conniving enemies in the Holy Land and beyond it must be opposed with rigour, and globally. Purim has no meaning without realising the truth of this lesson.
This piece is dedicated to our wedding anniversary and our daughter’s birthday.
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