Parsha for Kids: Tetzaveh 2023
Below is the transcript for this week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Tetzaveh 2023.
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Season 2 Episode 8:
Hello! My name is Chana and this is Parsha for Kids. The Parsha of the week is Tetzaveh. Tetzaveh means “and you shall command.”
But who is commanding? And what are they commanding?
God was commanding Moshe to tell Bnei Yisrael to take shemen zayis zach, or pure olive oil, to light the Menorah. Shemen Zayis Zach is special because it refers to the very first drop of oil squeezed from an olive, and only those first drops of oil are used to light the Menorah.
TRANSITION
There’s an emphasis in this week’s parsha on creativity.
What is creativity? Creativity usually refers to the use of imagination or original ideas in making something new. But creativity can also refer to the ability to see something in a different way or to come up with a working solution to a problem that others might not yet have imagined.
Creativity is very important, and it can manifest in a variety of ways. There’s intellectual creativity, which is where someone is using their mind to come up with something new, writing a new book or solving a math problem. But there’s also creativity that involves working with our hands or bodies, like when someone builds a house or a monument or designs a new product.
On that note, I think it’s important to talk about Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Howard Gardner explained that a person can have many different kinds of talents. Not every talent is always valued equally, nor are people with that talent given enough time to shine at school. For example, a typical school day focuses on book learning, reading, writing, math and science. To do well in those classes, it helps if you have a talent for language, which will help you with book learning, reading and writing, and a talent for logic and math, which will help you see patterns and understand how one idea connects to another.
But there are other talents people can have as well. You can be excellent at spatial-visual thinking, which allows you to think in images and pictures and visualize space. You can have bodily-kinesthetic talent, which means you can control your body’s movements and handle objects well. A dancer, for example, would need bodily-kinesthetic talent. You can have musical intelligence, which means you can produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber. You can work well with other people, correctly able to read their moods, interact with them and understand their point of view. You can be a naturalist, which means you have deep understanding of plants and animals and other objects in nature. And you can also be an existentialist, which means you like thinking about big questions like “What is the meaning of life?”
Most people have a combination of these talents, not just one. In this week’s parsha, we see many of these talents highlighted. There’s a beautiful pasuk that showcases this.
The pasuk reads:
וְאַתָּ֗ה תְּדַבֵּר֙ אֶל־כָּל־חַכְמֵי־לֵ֔ב אֲשֶׁ֥ר מִלֵּאתִ֖יו ר֣וּחַ חָכְמָ֑ה וְעָשׂ֞וּ אֶת־בִּגְדֵ֧י אַֽהֲרֹ֛ן לְקַדְּשׁ֖וֹ לְכַֽהֲנוֹ־לִֽי:
And you shall speak to all the wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, and they shall make Aaron's garments to sanctify him, [so] that he serve Me [as a kohen].
What a beautiful turn of phrase- the wise hearted. What do you think it means to be wise-hearted?
I think it means having the capacity to create. And this is very important, especially nowadays, because not all kids are the same. Some kids may do very well at school. They know how to read the pesukim, or verses, in the Chumash and Navi, learn Rashi, and do well on their tests. But not every child will naturally find themselves easily understanding their Torah learning. So what is another way to reach God and to serve Him?
Creation. We are able to use our other talents- in this week’s parsha, especially our artistic talents and our visual-spatial talents- to create items that God desires. Here, God is explaining the importance of creating the Kohanim’s clothing, the Bigdei Kehunah. They had to be designed in a very specific way and they had to be very beautiful. In order for them to be created, God needed people who were skilled at sewing, knowing how to work with gems, and who could follow His instructions and directions to make something beautiful with their hands.
Even nowadays, there are people who serve God through creating with their hands and bodies. There are people who create beautiful Kiddush Cups and Mezuzot, or Challah Boards and Challah Covers. There are people who make Tefillin or Tzitzit. There are Sofrim who write Torahs. There are many different ways to serve God, and a lot of those ways involve using talents and intelligences that might not always be seen in school.
Take a moment to think to yourself- what are your talent areas? What do you enjoy doing? How can you take whatever it is you most enjoy and figure out a way to use it to serve God?
TRANSITION
There’s also an emphasis in this week’s parsha on beauty.
When God made the world, He made it very beautiful. Have you ever stood next to an ocean, watching the waves roll in, crashing against the shore? Or witnessed a sunset, with orange, purple and pink colors colliding? Have you ever examined leaves as they change colors in the fall? There is so much natural beauty in this world, a feast for our eyes.
Why do you think God did that? After all, God could have made us a functional world without all this beauty. Our world could have been designed to simply exist in black and white. Or, instead of making so many different kinds of colorful fruits and vegetables, God could have made us one food product and only one which would have sustained us forever (similar to Mun.)
I think God made the world beautiful because He wants us to be happy in it. Different colors can impact and affect our moods. Seeing something awe-inspiring or being in a majestic setting can also change how we feel. So when God set out to have us build the Mishkan, He wanted the building to be very beautiful. That would impact how we would feel when we visited it. Similarly, God wanted His representatives on earth, the Kohanim, or priests, to be dressed in beautiful garments. When people would see the Kohanim, they would be amazed and impressed.
There were two different kinds of Kohanim, the Kohen Hedyot, which means the regular Kohen, and the Kohen Gadol, or High Priest, which means the Kohen who would have additional special responsibilities. In the time of the Mishkan, Aharon was the High Priest.
This is the clothing that the Kohen Hedyot, or regular Kohen, would wear.
Kutonet- A long white shirt made of linen that reached down to the Kohen’s ankles
Michnasayim- Pants that were short and woven of white linen
Migbaat- A hat that was made up of a long, white band of linen woven around the Kohen’s head
Avnet - A belt that was very, very long, wound several times around the Kohen’s waist, and made of many colorful fabrics
Altogether they had four garments. A Kohen Gadol had four additional garments:
Choshen- A breastplate containing twelve colorful gems, representing the twelve tribes of Israel
Aifod- A beautifully woven, colorful apron. The apron part was worn on the back of his body, and he tied it in front of his body. It was held up in the back by two straps that went over his shoulders to the front. On one shoulder, there was a special gemstone. One stone had the names of six tribes engraved on it, and on the other shoulder there was a gemstone with the names of the other six tribes engraved on it.
Me’il- A coat woven from blue wool. There were golden bells attached to the bottom of the coat that tinkled as the Kohen Gadol walked. Between every two golden bells were ornaments made of wool that looked like pomegranates.
Tzitz- A golden piece worn across the forehead that had the words “Kodesh La’Hashem”- Holy to God engraved on it. The tzitz was the Kohen Gadol’s crown.
The Kohen Gadol’s hat was a bit different from a regular Kohen’s, and it was called a Mitznefet. It was also made out of a white strip of linen woven many times around the Kohen’s head, but the hat itself was flat instead of pointed.
You might have noticed that we did not list socks or slippers in the list of clothing a Kohen wore! That’s because the Kohanim actually had to be barefoot when they served God. This was because the earthen floor of the Mishkan was holy and God wanted the feet of the kohanim to touch the floor. This is similar to the scene when Moshe was at the Burning Bush and God told him to take off his shoes because the earth he was standing on was holy.
Seeing the Kohen or Kohen Gadol must have been a magnificent experience. The regular Kohen mainly wore white, which symbolizes purity. The Kohen Gadol wore a variety of colors, many of them in jewel tones, which would have impressed the nation and made them feel like they were in the presence of royalty. Seeing the Kohanim would lead Bnei Yisrael to feel respect not only for them but for God, since they were God’s representatives on earth.
In your own life, how do you use beauty to serve God? Perhaps you have special Shabbat and Yom Tov, or holiday, clothing that you wear. Is there anything else you do to connect with God through beauty?
TRANSITION
God explained to Moshe that soon the Kohanim would become ready to perform the avodah, or service of God, in the Mishkan. This avodah would include offering sacrifices, sprinkling blood of the sacrifices on the Mizbeach, placing certain parts of the korbanot, or sacrifices, on the Mizbeach fires and eating other parts and more.
However, before they could begin the avodah, the following things needed to happen for a period of seven days.
The Kohanim had to watch Moshe offer three types of korbanot on the Mizbeach so they could learn the proper way to do it.
They needed to dip themselves in running water (like from a spring) to purify themselves.
Moshe needed to anoint them with shemen hamish’cha, holy oil.
They had to put on the Bigdei Kehunah every day.
If you think about it, this makes sense. Most people need to practice before they actually undertake the responsibility to do a job. For example, if you are performing in a school play or Erev Shira, you will have rehearsals before you have the actual performance. If you are about to serve as a camp counselor, you will have training, which may include role-playing and learning what to do in different situations, before you begin. So too the Kohanim had to learn how to do their jobs.
Have you ever given a speech, been in a play or taken on a job that required practice first? What was it?
TRANSITION
The last thing God talks about in this week’s parsha is the Mizbeach HaZahav, or golden Mizbeach. It was made of wood coated with gold and located within the Kodesh section of the Mishkan. Ketores, or delicious smelling incense, was offered on it daily.
You may have noticed by now that the Mishkan was a feast for the senses. The actual building was beautifully decorated- with gold, copper and multicolored fabrics, which meant that their sense of sight was engaged. There were some korbanot, specifically the Korban Shelamim, that members of Bnei Yisrael were allowed to eat, which meant that their sense of taste was engaged. The process of offering a Korban involved one’s sense of touch, because you would put your hands on the Korban before offering it up and say Vidui, confessing what you had done wrong and what you hoped the Korban would atone for. And now, your sense of smell would also be engaged, because you could smell the delicious incense spice mixture burning nearby.
I think God did this deliberately. No matter what kind of person you were, and which of your five senses mattered most to you, there was a way to engage that sense when one visited the Mishkan. This would enable every single type of person to connect with God.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week!
God values creativity. This week’s parsha focuses on people who knew how to work with their hands to create beautiful garments, which is a different skill from reading or doing math. No matter what skill set you have, there is a way for you to connect with God.
God values beauty. The Mishkan and the garments the Kohanim wore were all extremely beautiful to enable people to feel impressed and amazed.
God values practice. The Kohanim were not allowed to do their jobs until they first prepared for seven days and learned what to do.
God values engagement. He wanted to make sure everyone in Bnei Yisrael could be engaged with all of their five senses, so He designed a Mishkan experience that would do just that!
If you have any questions or comments on this week’s episode, please email me at parsha4kids@gmail.com. That’s parsha the number 4 kids at gmail.com. Good Shabbos!