When I was in college at the Jewish Theological Seminary, I had the opportunity to take a fantastic class in the Cantorial School called Methods and Materials of Jewish Music Education with Cantor David Tilman. It was an incredible experience. Cantor Tilman is a prolific cantor, conductor, and songleader, and I learned so much. It was also very fun… often he would pull out his accordion to teach us some of the tunes we were learning, and for our final at the end of the semester we had to number a paper 1-40 and he sat at the piano and we had to name that tune. Cantorial school! Not biochemistry I can tell you that!
Once, Cantor Tilman brought in a guest educator, a composer named Nick Page, a nationally renowned musician with over one hundred published choral pieces. I will always remember it because the class met in a small practice room in the back of the Seminary, and Nick is a very tall and very large man who plays a very tiny ukulele, and he taught us a little ditty that will often randomly pop into my head…
and it’s not lost on me that I’m about to sing a melody the week after Rabbi Klein’s Rabbi Josh joke about singing, but I can’t help it, it’s who I am. Also it’s a call and response song, so you try it too.
Do you let the light in? (echo) Do you let the light out? (echo)
Do you shine? (echo) Really shine? (echo)
Do you dance with the light? (echo)
Does the light dance with you? (echo)
Do you shine? (echo) Really shine? (echo)
I love this sweet little melody and its very big sentiment. What does it mean to let the light in? And what does it mean to really shine? It feels so very relevant to this parsha and to this moment in our Jewish year. It’s about light shining in the right places at the right time.
For some reason, last week’s parsha, Terumah, ended two verses short of the end of Exodus chapter 27. We had been learning about all of the gifts that were brought to build the tabernacle and the way it was supposed to be built. And this week we begin with these two verses, before concluding the chapter and moving into the topic of priestly garments.
וְאַתָּ֞ה תְּצַוֶּ֣ה ׀ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְיִקְח֨וּ אֵלֶ֜יךָ שֶׁ֣מֶן זַ֥יִת זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית לַמָּא֑וֹר לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד׃
“You shall further instruct the Israelites to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling the eternal flame. (Ex. 27:20)”
בְּאֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵד֩ מִח֨וּץ לַפָּרֹ֜כֶת אֲשֶׁ֣ר עַל־הָעֵדֻ֗ת יַעֲרֹךְ֩ אֹת֨וֹ אַהֲרֹ֧ן וּבָנָ֛יו מֵעֶ֥רֶב עַד־בֹּ֖קֶר לִפְנֵ֣י ה׳ חֻקַּ֤ת עוֹלָם֙ לְדֹ֣רֹתָ֔ם מֵאֵ֖ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
“Aaron and his sons shall set them up in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is over [the Ark of] the Pact, [to burn] from evening to morning before GOD. It shall be a due from the Israelites for all time, throughout the ages. (Ex. 27:21)”
To all of us who have ever been to a Jewish sanctuary, this instruction makes sense. Look up. The Ner Tamid, the Eternal flame, is sitting right there in front of the ark and curtain, Ba’ohel mo’ed michutz laparochet.
But take a moment to think about it. Wouldn’t you think that the light that they were commanded to kindle would be inside the tent? In the place where the encounter with the Holy One is actually happening? In our sanctuaries it seems to fit a little better because it’s in the room, but imagine the tent of meeting outside in the midst of the camp – the ner tamid is on the outside, it must be outside the curtain. Outside so that people can see. The Pardes Yosef, an early 20th-century Torah commentary, explains that the ner tamid is outside to light the way not just in our holiest place, but in the places where we need it even more… in the streets, at work, in our everyday interactions with other people, that is where light is needed the most.
Who is the one who is instructed to do this work? It is Aaron and his children, the leaders of the people must take the oil and continuously light this outer flame. L’ha’alot ner tamid. That word “Tamid” is meant to mean “forever.” That’s how we usually understand it. The Netivot Shalom, Rav Shalom Noach Berezovsky, brings a midrash that imagines Aaron the priest last week when all of the people of Israel and all of the other chieftains brought sacrifices and gifts to dedicate the altar, but he and the Levites did not bring anything. Aaron was saddened about not contributing, and in the midrash God says to him, “for a greater task than this you have been appointed, as the sacrifices are only to be made when the Temple stands, but the lamps will forever be lit upon the face of the menorah.”
The Netivot Shalom’s explanation continues in a fascinating way. Yes the sacrifices were to be made in the Temple, but the Ner Tamid was also explicitly for the Temple too. You might think that the lighting of the menorah stopped in its destruction, but it turns out that when the Temple was destroyed, we learn that there were four things in it that were incapable of being destroyed: The Ark, Holy Fire (eish kodesh), the “Keruvim” (the two angel statues that were built above the ark), and the Ner Tamid. Why these four things? Apparently because they are supernatural – they are not of this world. Holy Fire, the eish kodesh that would consume the sacrifices upon the altar came straight from heaven and so to heaven it returned. The Ark contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments inscribed by the finger of God – supernatural. But why were the Keruvim and the Ner Tamid categorized in this way as well?
The answer is that they are in us, in human beings. The Keruvim were facing each other, with arms and wings raised towards each other and towards heaven. When human beings do this, it is supernatural. It is not in the nature of human beings to look at each other, to truly see. Imagine kids in a staring contest, someone always seeking to turn away. But when we turn our faces towards each other and embrace, we allow for the possibility of something holy to take place, we are raising ourselves and each other up.
This is reflected in the Purim story as well. Although we often wear masks and hide our faces, the essence of all four of the mitzvot of Purim is finding ways to see each other, understand each other, and come together. All four mitzvot of Purim require gathering – Seudah, a celebratory meal, mikra megillah, hearing the megillah being read, matanot l’evyonim, giving gifts to the poor, and mishloach manot, reaching out and giving gifts to each other.
The Chatam Sofer taught that the original purpose of mishlo’ach manot, the reason that Mordechai instructed the Jews to give them right after they defeated their enemies, is to increase peace and friendship, the opposite what Haman tried to do, and the opposite of what he said about the Jewish people, whom he called “scattered and separated.” Mordechai said that we must reach out to our community members, our Jewish neighbors in 127 countries, and realize our shared purpose, heritage, and destiny.
That brings us back to the Ner Tamid. The explanation for the Ner Tamid follows this same logic as the keruvim: It could never be destroyed because it is in each one of us. In Proverbs it says,
“נר ה’ נשמת אדם”
“The flame of the Divine is the Soul of a Human Being.” The light of the eternal flame shines in each one of us.
There are particular moments in our lives where this happens in earnest, but we can also actively take steps, on a regular basis, to bring more light and let our soul shine through.
For the sages, this is what brought them back to Shabbat every single week. After the Temple was destroyed the light of the menorah also continued to be revealed through Shabbat, as it says in Breishit Rabbah on the verse, “And God blessed the seventh day…” with what did God bless it? God blessed it with light, that on Shabbat the hidden holy divine light is revealed.
Once the Temple was destroyed, synagogues, batei knesset, became our houses of gathering and prayer, and the Shabbat table and the home became our altar. We say hamotzi on two challah loaves because that’s how many were on the altar in the tabernacle, and we salt them just like an offering would be salted in the Temple. So on shabbat each one of us has the opportunity to take up the mantle of Aaron the priest and light our own personal neirot tamid. Because they weren’t always lit, that would be impossible. The only way they could be eternally lit was through the continuous action of human beings doing the work.
When God says to Aaron in the midrash that his task will outlast them all. These people have brought their gifts, but they don’t know what to do with them, they need someone to be lamplighter, someone to step up and show the way. And even and especially when the Temple is destroyed they will need light and guidance and direction. And you might not understand your own potential, but you are the exact leader they need in this moment to do this work.
Aaron needed God to light his own lamp and show him the way. Mordecai does the same to Esther:
וּמִ֣י יוֹדֵ֔עַ אִם־לְעֵ֣ת כָּזֹ֔את הִגַּ֖עַתְּ לַמַּלְכֽוּת׃
“who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis”
How do you know if it wasn’t for this reason that you were elevated to this position? For Mordecai the answer is a given: Of course this is the reason why you are here. You were made for this moment. But perhaps you need kruvim, those holy angels looking right at each other with arms and wings outstretched, someone to really see you and believe in you and know you can do it. The hidden potential of Esther is right within Hadassah all along.
On this Shabbat, that holy light of potential, bravery, and leadership is what I am holding onto and aspiring for. Every single week we end Shabbat with the iconic line from near the end of the Megillah:
Layehudim hayta orah v’simcha v’sason v’ikar, ken tihyeh lanu
The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honor.
As we make our way towards Purim on Monday night, how do we find ways to bring light, and joy, and honor, to each other, to our community, and toward ourselves.
Nobody’s perfect, as Leonard Cohen taught us. “Forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, That’s how the light gets in”
So do you let the light in? (echo)
Do you let the light out? (echo)
Do you shine? (echo)
Really shine? (echo)
Do you dance with the light? (echo)
Does the light dance with you? (echo)
Do you shine? (echo)
Really shine? (echo)
Shine when we are reflected off of someone else
