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In this week’s
portion Moshe is charged to prepare every detail of the priesthood for his
brother Aharon and his descendants. In intricate detail, the sartorial
traits of every one of the priestly vestments are explicated, down to the
last intertwined threads.
And though Moshe is
in charge of setting up the administration and establishing the entire
order of service while training his brother and nephews, his name is
conspicuously missing from this portion.
Our sages explain the
reason for the omission. When Hashem threatened to destroy His nation,
Moshe pleaded with Him: “And now if You would but forgive their sin! — but
if not, erase me now from Your book that You have written”(Exodus 32:32) As
we all know, Moshe’s plea were accepted. The nation was spared. But Moshe was
not left unscathed. His request of written eradication was fulfilled in one
aspect. He was left out of one portion of the Torah Tezaveh. Thus the words
of the tzadik were fulfilled in one aspect. But why this portion?
Though this
English-language publication is not wont to discuss Hebrew etymological
derivations, it is noteworthy to mention a thought I once heard in the name
of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. Moshe’s plea “erase me now from Your book,” bears
an explanation. The word sifr’chah, “your book” can be broken down to two
words sefer chaf — which means the twentieth book. Thus Moshe was removed
from this portion of Tezaveh, the twentieth portion of the Torah.
But why would Moshe
intone such omission in this, of all the portions of the Torah? Why not
omit his name in the portions that declare the tragic outcome of sin or the
calamities of insurrection? Wouldn’t that be a better choice for omission?
Why did Moshe allude to having his name omitted in the week he charges
Aharon with all the honor and glory that is afforded the High Priest?
Rav Yitzchak Blaser
was once seated at a gathering of the most prominent sages of his
generation that was held in his city of St. Petersburg.
Among the Talmudic
sages present was Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi Soleveitchik of Brisk, world
renown for his Talmudic genius. Rabbi Soloveitchik presented a Talmudic
question that his young son, Reb Chaim, had asked. After posing the
question, a flurry of discussion ensued, each of the rabbis offering his
own answer to the riddle, while other rabbis refuted them with powerful
rebuttals. During the entire repartee, Rabbi Blaser, who had a reputation
as a Talmudic genius, sat silently. He did not offer an answer, nor did he
voice approval to any of the answers given by the Rabbis.
When Rabbi Soleveitchik
ultimately offered his son’s own solution, Rabbi Blaser sat quietly,
neither nodding in approval nor shaking his head in disagreement. It seemed
as if he did not comprehend the depth of the insightful discourse. It was
as if he was not even there! Bewildered, Reb Yosef Dov began having second
thoughts about the renowned Rabbi Blaser. “Was he truly the remarkable
scholar that the world had made him out to be?” he wondered.
Later that evening,
Rabbi Soloveitchik was in the main synagogue where he got hold of the book
“Pri Yitzchok,” a volume filled with Talmudic exegesis authored by none
other than Rabbi Blaser himself.
After leafing through
the large volume he saw that the afternoon’s entire discourse, his son’s
question, the offered and reputed responses, and the final resolution, were
all part of a dissertation that Rabbi Blaser had himself published years
earlier!
“Now I realize,”
thought Rabbi Soleveitchik, “Rabbi Blaser is as much a genius in humility
as he is in Talmudic law!”
Our sages tell us that
actually Moshe was to have been chosen as the Kohen Gadol in addition to
the leader of the Jewish nation. It was his unwavering refusal to accept
any of those positions that lost him the opportunity to serve as Kohen
Gadol. Instead, Hashem took it from him and gave it to Aharon.
Many of us would have
always harped on the fact. How often do I hear the claims “I got him that
job!” “I could have been in his position!” “I started that company! Had I
stayed, I would be the one with the stock options!” “That was really my
idea!”
Moshe, too, could
have injected himself as the one who propelled and engineered Aharon’s
thrust to glory — especially after a seemingly tainting experience with the
Golden Calf. In his great humility, Moshe did just the opposite.
Moshe did not want to
diminish Aharon’s glory in any way. He wanted the entire spotlight to shine
on Aharon and his great service to Klal Yisrael. Therefore, in the portion
in which Moshe charges, guides, and directs the entire process of the
priesthood, his name is conspicuously omitted.
One of the greatest
attributes of true humility is to let others shine in their own achievement
without interfering or announcing your role in their success. The greatest
educators, the wisest parents, and most understanding colleagues know when
to share the spotlight and when to let another friend, colleague, sibling,
or child shine in their success or accomplishment. They know exactly when
to be conspicuously or inconspicuously “missing from the book.” Good
Shabbos © 2000 Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky
Dedicated by Ira
& Gisele Beer in memory of Harry Beer — L’Iluy Nishmas Reb Zvi Mendel
ben Reb Pinchas — 8 Adar Aleph
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Copyright © 1998 by Rabbi M. Kamenetzky and Project Genesis,
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The author is the
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