DRASH -TZAV Shabbat HaGadol

Rabbi Dr. Aviva Kipen

Traditionally, the messaging of Shabbat ha’Gadol may look as though the point is detailed Pesach observance for its own sake. Long, impassioned sermons this week drive home the ‘slippery slope’ argument that any deviation will put not just the individual and their family at risk, but by inference, the whole household of Israel. So says Exodus 12:15.

The 1917 JPS Tanakh provides, “Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; howbeit the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.” Clearly, shifting language styles in successive translations into English, demonstrate that in each generation “bechol dor va’dor”, we re-experience the original commandments on new frequencies. While it is incumbent upon us “chayav aleinu” to re-experience the Exodus as though we were there ourselves, we know that a reenactment is not the original experience and that our seder rituals have transformed hugely since the original “souvlaki” of roasted lamb and flat pitta that didn’t have time to rise. Our evolutionary personal and communal practices orchestrate the joyous start of each corporate year, the 1st month of Nissan (not the 7th month of Tishrei).

Tzav’s Haftarah includes the quotation that elicits heartfelt chorusing from wedding guests hearing the Sheva Brachot being recited. The marital hope, “kol sasson v’kol simchah, kol chatan v’kol kalah”, that the sounds of the voices of couples who marry will be the sounds of joy and gladness, evokes spontaneous unison from all. But the original context of that quote appears in our Haftarah, not as a carrot, but as a terrifying stick. If we do not observe the commandments, “the sounds of joy and gladness will be suspended from the cities of Judah and streets of Jerusalem and the land will become a ruin” (Jer 7:34).

We do not believe for one moment, that events currently besetting the Middle East are related to non-observance of mitzvot and the choices we empower ourselves to make. We are aware that the risks are great in the current Jeremiad landscape. Yet, as we journey towards Pesach, this Shabbat has its own imperative. Tzav: feel yourself commanded! Feel yourself a participant and a link in the historic march of footsteps that bring you to observe the foundational, corporate event that frees us to make choices in our complex, modern world. In whichever small ways we can overcome the Jeremiad, the foretelling of doom and commentators who predict it, we have the obligation to hold onto the joy of renewal, the chance to prepare ourselves for the coming week of Passover. Then the tiny but significant wedding tweak to the original Jeremiah quote will reenergise us and give us the strength to carry on, so that there will yet be heard the sounds of joy and gladness in the cities and streets of Israel.

עוֹד יִשָׁמַע בְּעַרֵי יְהוּדָה וּבְחוּצוֹת יְרוּשָלַיִם

קוֹל שָשוֹן וְקוֹל שִמְחָה

Rabbi Dr Aviva Kipen