ZAV 5786
TZAV 5786
Take Out the Garbage With Love
Today is the Shabbat before Passover—Shabbat Hagadol (the Great Sabbath). My message is essentially a dvar Torah for the men in our shul, so all the women present need not listen.
Let me begin by reading the opening verses of our Torah portion: “Gd spoke to Moses saying: Tzav/Command Aaron and his sons saying, ‘This is the law of the olah offering that stays on the flame.’” The use of tzav/command instead of the usual amar/say, Rashi tells us, is the language of zeyruz (urging). In other words, Gd was urging them to bring this offering with the same focus and enthusiam as the other offerings. The Talmud (Kiddushin 29a) explains that this was because it was an olah offering that was fully burnt on the altar with no food for the Kohanim to eat and no hides for them to take home as with the other offerings—and, therefore, no personal benefit.
Then the Torah continues (Lev. 6:3-4): “The Kohen shall don his fitted linen Tunic…he shall separate the ash of what the fire consumed of the olah offering on the Altar… and he shall remove the ash to the outside of the camp.” In other words, he was to “take out the garbage!”
The Torah is telling us that the 1st task of the Kohen (priest) every day was to remove the ashes from the offering sacrificed the previous day. So, the Kohen would begin his day by taking out the garbage. Couldn’t he get someone else to do it with a lower status? Is there any significance to this being the priest’s 1st order of business with which to start the day?
Samson Raphael Hirsch—the leading German rabbi of the 19th century—suggests that this mandate serves as a constant reminder that service of the new day is connected to the service of the previous day. After all, it was the ashes from the remains of yesterday’s sacrifice that had to be removed. “Even as we move forward in time and deal with new situations and conditions,” Rabbi Hirsch teaches, “it is crucial to remember that all that is being done is anchored in a past steeped with religious significance and commitment.”
A colleague and a friend, Rabbi Avi Weiss, offers another approach which I think is magnificent. You might remember Rabbi Weiss as an activist for Jewish causes—especially Soviet Jewry in the late 20th century. Rabbi Weiss suggests: “The Kohen begins the day by removing the ashes to illustrate the importance of his remaining involved with the mundane. Too often, those who rise to important lofty positions, separate themselves from the people and withdraw from the everyday menial tasks. The Torah through the laws of terumat ha-deshen (removing the ashes) insists it shouldn’t be this way.” In other words, the Torah is telling the Kohen, “You think you’re so hot? No one is too lofty to do mundane acts like taking out the garbage!”
Let me share with you a classic story that beautifully makes the point. Rabbi Mordecai Gifter, who was the head of the Telz Yeshiva Cleveland, Ohio had a student in his Kollel for advanced studies who approached him and asked if he could see him and his wife together to rule on a family dispute. He agreed and an hour later they both appeared in his office.
The wife explained that her husband spends every available hour in the Yeshiva studying. He comes home at night. Eats dinner and goes back to the Yeshiva for the evening Seder of learning. He doesn’t help me do homework with the kids, wash them or put the kids to bed. All I ask is for him to take out the garbage, and he refuses.
The husband, however, felt that as one who studies Torah in Rabbi Gifter’s prestigious Kolel, it is beneath his dignity to take out the garbage.
Rabbi Gifter concluded that while a husband should in fact help his wife, there was no Halachic (Jewish law) obligation to take out the garbage.
The next morning at 6:30am, before the Shacharit morning services, Rabbi Gifter knocked at the door of the young couple. Startled, the young man asked Rabbi Gifter to come in and have a cup of tea. “No,” responded Rabbi Gifter, “I’ve not come to socialize but to take out your garbage. It may be beneath your dignity, but it’s not beneath mine!”
Why do I share this message with the men in shul today? It’s because today is Shabbat Hagadol and Passover is in 4 days, and, no doubt, the women in their lives are working very hard to make Passover as joyous as could be. So men, when you come home from shul today, hug your special woman. Thank her and surprise her by asking: “Honey, is there anything I can do to help you?” in fact, why don’t you find a way to help without even being asked. Know, that like the Kohen who brings the offering without any benefit, help your wife with a tzav, a special love and enthusiasm. Amen!
