The parsha (weekly Torah portion) is called Tzav which is the verb, “To command,” and one of the roots of the word mitzvah (or commandment).  The parsha starts with god telling Moshe (Moses) to command Aharon and his sons on the laws of the olah offering – the olah offering on the flame of the altar all night until morning.  The priests, who are Aharon and his sons, are then told how to deal with the ashes from the altar, and after being told that the fire can never go out, they are told how to rekindle the flame the next morning and how to put the various offerings onto the flame.  Next, we read how the priests are to handle a meal offering with a reminder that the meal offering may not be leavened.  We then are told what Aharon and his sons can eat, and where, and why.

HaShem (god) then tells Moshe the offerings Aharon and his sons need to bring when they get anointed and initiated as priests to haShem.  Next, we read the laws for the priest around a sin offering.  This includes who may eat of it.  After the sin offering laws, we get the guilt offering rules, the meal offering rules, and the shlamim/peace offering and thanksgiving offering rules, and finally, the rules for the priest regarding someone bringing a voluntary offering or an oath offering, including who can eat from it and how many days it can be eaten.

God then has Moshe to tell the children of Yisrael that they are not to eat the fat of an ox, lamb, or goat, for these are the olah offerings to god and a soul that eats them will be cut off from its people.  The same is also true of eating the blood of any animal.  We then read about the wave offering part of a shlamim offering.

Now the Torah tells us of the initiation ritual for Aharon and his sons which includes them getting washed and dressed in the sacred clothing of the priesthood, 3 sacrifices, blood and anointing oil put on them, and them having to stay at the entrance of the tent of meeting for 7 days.

This year our parsha falls just before Pesach (Passover).  In other years, it falls just before Purim.  How interesting.  I wonder why?  Perhaps it is because Purim is the story of miracles, Pesach is the story of miracles, and the building of the mishcan and initiation of the priests create the miracle of the infinite existing within the finite.  I went into this idea a bit last year – click here if you want to read it.

What I want to talk about regarding the pasha this year has to do with the blood that gets sprinkled onto the priests and their clothes during their initiation ritual.  It seems like a strange and arcane, even grizzly thing to do.  Why is it so important?

To understand we need first to look at the parsha as a whole.  Two weeks ago, we talked about the sacrifices, and this past week we talked about the same sacrifices.  This week, however, we talked about how the priests handled the sacrifices.  You see, the priests are servants – servants of the people to help them get close to haShem.  At first this seems like a turn-around from the way we normally think of the priests.  The stones with the names of tribes that is on the breastplate and the shoulder straps of the Cohen Gadol (high priest) is one clue to this purpose.  We read about this already, but just to remind you, they are there bring all the tribes into whatever ritual the Cohen Gadol is doing, the members of the 12 tribes are with the Cohen Gadol, thru the stones, when the Cohen Gadol is interacting with haShem.

Now, onto the blood.  This parsha we read that we are not to eat the blood of an animal.  Why?  Because we need to be as purely ourselves as possible.  In an earlier parsha, haShem tells us that the part of the soul called the nephesh is in the blood.  So, if we eat the blood of an animal, we are eating/absorbing that animal’s soul into us, and we are no longer a pure soul, we are a soul mixture of the animal we ate and the soul we are.  This is not consistent with the purpose of our being a “nation of priests,” and hence the reason for what seems like a harsh punishment:  this impure soul being cut off from the rest of the people.

It is this very quality of blood that is key to why the blood is sprinkled onto the priests during their initiation.  If you recall, before every sacrifice the person bringing the sacrifice puts his hands on the head of the animal.  As I said when we read that parsha, that person is putting part of his being into the animal, so that animal now has a soul mixed with a little bit of us.  That animal is then slaughtered and the blood is put onto the altar.  The blood is a carrier, not just of the nephesh of the animal, but also a bit of the person who offered the sacrifice, and the altar with all the blood mixed together, contains a little bit of every person from that time on!  This blood is then sprinkled onto the priest and his clothes during his initiation into the priesthood, essentially reminding him and becoming part of him whenever he is serving as a priest that he is serving not just the current person whose sacrifice he is handling, but every person who has ever had the blood of his/her sacrifice put onto the altar.  The priest is coming forward and, on a similar but different level than the Cohen Gadol, interacting with haShem ALONG WITH ALL THE PREVIOUS PEOPLE AND THE PERSON GIVING THE SACRIFICE to get closer to haShem!!!  Wow.  I guess this really is a group endeavor.

With Pesach so close, I leave you with blessings that whatever difficulties have been in your recent past, may you now see that they were just a stepping stone to better times and deeper connections giving you the strength to use the energy of Pesach to attain your freedom and a connection to your creator.

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.