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£The Seven Days of Consecration£The Seven Days of ConsecrationThe Seven Days of Consecration that when God “thought” to create the world “the thought of Israel
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The portion of Tzav describes in great detail the initiation of the
cohanim, the priests, that took place during the seven days of
preparation before the Tabernacle was finally dedicated on the
eighth day, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, as discussed in the two previous
Torah portions.
The Zohar (3:34b) relates the seven days of consecration to the
following teaching in the Talmud: “Seven things were created before
the world - The Torah, Repentance, the Garden of Eden, Gehenna,
the Throne of Glory, the Temple, and the name of Mashiach”
(Nedarim 39b). The Zohar refers to these seven as “lights,” which it
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then further corresponds to the seven lights of the menorah which
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the High Priest would light every day in the Tabernacle.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe asked why do we need to know about these
seven pre-creation creations; how can this knowledge benefit our own
service of God? His answer is that since a Jew’s divine service in
learning Torah and acting according to its dictates and teachings is
indispensable to the continuation of the world, it needs to follow the
pattern and dynamics of how God created and continually re-creates
the world at every instant. Internalizing these seven concepts or
“lights,” and all they represent, gives a Jew a proper world view and
orientation to life. (For an expanded treatment of these seven things
see Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh’s HaMemad HaPnimi; Parshat Tzav).
This simple yet profound insight personalizes and makes relevant
the Torah’s description of creation and the oral tradition’s deep
insights into the Divine creative process, while also shedding light on
the reason the Torah contains such an abundance of detail regarding
the Tabernacle, which was dedicated on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the
very day the world was created. Every detail of the Tabernacle -
its construction, consecration, and the service that took part there
- gives us eternal spiritual as well as practical teachings in order
to assist us in being partners with God in bringing creation to its
ultimate purpose of rectification and the redemption of all mankind.
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arose first” (Bereishit Rabbah 1:4).
This correspondence between creation and Israel’s birth and
redemption is also unveiled in other ways by the mystical tradition.
Israel’s slavery in Egypt (a county whose name in Hebrew connotes
a sense of narrowness or constriction) is analogous to the tzimtzum
preceding creation, while the exodus corresponds to the primordial
ray of light piercing the void (see “The Small Alef in Vayikra”
above). Israel’s redemption begins on Rosh Chodesh Nisan and finds
its ultimate expression on Shavuot with the Giving of the Torah and
the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are themselves
intrinsically linked to the ten utterances of creation, thus an even
deeper fundamental connection between “the day of the ten crowns”
– the day that God invites Moses to enter the Tabernacle and gives
Israel its first mitzvah – and creation is manifest.
The alef, written especially small in the word “vayikra” in
traditional Torah scrolls, also connects creation and Israel’s birth,
as mentioned in the first section of Vayikra. However, it furthermore
alludes to the fact that Moses, who originally felt inadequate to fulfill
the mission of redeeming Israel, was truly humble, so much so that
the Torah testifies that Moses was “the most humble person on the
face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). According to the Midrash, when
God told Moses to write the word “vayikra,” Moses objected to God
couching his invitation in endearing language and asked that the
word be written without an alef, so that it implied that God only by
happenstance invited Moses. God told him that this was impossible
as the heathen prophet Balaam would later be addressed in the
Torah in that manner. A compromise of sorts was reached and God
allowed Moses to write the word with a small alef, to illustrate his
humbleness (Tosafot Harosh).
In some deeper sense, the small alef also alludes to God’s humility;
for when God invited Moses to enter the Tabernacle, he could not
because God’s glory filled the entire structure. God, as it were, humbly
contracted His infinite presence – alluded to by the small alef – to
allow Moses to enter. This contraction on God’s part to permit Moses
to enter the Tabernacle mirrors God’s initial act of tzimtzum which
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