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This week's Parshah is called "Tzav". "Tzav" means "command" - it comes from the same Hebrew root as "mitzvah", as in Bar/Bat/B'nai Mitzvah. If you look "mitzvah" up in a Hebrew dictionary, it is translated as "commandment" (or duty orobligation). But we also associate the word "mitzvah" with good deeds, and that's what we often mean when we use the word today. We've talked before about this double meaning, but it's always worth asking :

- How is a commandment a good deed, and how is a good deed a commandment?

In this Parshah, God tells Moses to command Aaron and the priests to learn all about the sacrifices that will be brought to the altar in the Mishkan, the portable temple. Last week and this week the Torah describes different kinds of sacrifices: the "sin offering", the "guilt offering", the "thanksgiving offering", the "peace offering". Each is for a different purpose, and each has its own rituals. The sacrifices include animal, grains, and spices. The Torah goes into great detail (as it often seems to do!) describing the nature of the sacrifices, how they should be prepared, what the priests should do with them, and which of the sacrifices the priests are allowed to eat (remember that one very practical reason for bringing sacrifices is for the priests to have food, since they do not farm or raise animals).

Imagine yourself 3,500 years ago or so, in the wilderness with all the other Jews.

- What would you bring as a sacrifice to the priests at the Mishkan, and why?

- What would you hope would happen as a result?

As the Torah describes the sacrifices - how they are prepared, and how they are cooked or burned on the altar in the mishkan, it also describes how the priests should prepare themselves and what they should wear when perform the sacrificial tiruals. It sounds almost like doctors and nurses preparing to examine a patient or perform a procedure. 

While we no longer bring sacrifices to a temple, people still commit sins, do things they feel guilty about, feel thankful, or want to make their lives more peaceful.

- How do you make up for doing something wrong? 

-What do you do when you feel guilty about something?

-What can you do when you are thankful?

-What can you do to make your life or your family's life more peaceful?

The very first thing God through Moses tells the priests is that the fire on the altar must always be kept burning.

- Why do you think that is?

- Is there anything at a modern synagogue or in our lives that represents the idea that the fire on the alter should always be kept burning?

It seems we Jews are always lighting fires or candles or lights:

- What examples can you think of when we light candles or special lights?

Here are a few: The fire at the altar and the oil-fueled Menorah in the holy temple; the eternal light (Ner Tamid) in the synagogue; the candles we light at the beginning of Shabbat and every major holiday; the Chanukiah we light every night of Chanukah; the twisted candle we light at Haydalah when the new week begins; the Yartzeit candle we light on the anniversary of the death of a loved one.

- What's with all the candle-lighting? Why do you think we light candles so often?

- What do you feel or sense when there's a lighted candle nearby?

The constant lighting of candles and eternal lights tells us a number of things: First, that some things should always continue. 

- What can you think of in your life or in the world that you hope will always continue - experiences, emotions, or other things? How would you complete the sentence "I hope I always..." or "I hope there is always..."?

Second, that everything we do what we can to bring light and warmth into the world. 

- What can you do to bring some light and warmth to yourself, your family, and others?

We know there are people in the world who need more warmth and light right now. As we keep them in our thoughts, I hope that, as springtime approaches and the weather gets warmer, you and your family comfort each other and find reasons to be hopeful.

Shabbat shalom,

Dan