By Adina Cooper and Netta Bob

This week is Parshat Tetzaveh, and it is about the laws and guidelines that God makes for the cohanim (priests of the Israelites).

Tetzaveh talks about the kinds of clothes the cohanim have to wear, the type of oil that they need to use, and how to sanctify the cohanim. The cohanim had to wear clothing that was nicer than that of the rest of the Israelites. They wore gold ornaments and gold bands, distinguishing them from everyone else. They were commanded to dress this way and use pure ingredients to ensure that the sacrifices that they offered were completely holy. When reading this, we questioned what it means for God to be choosing to set aside certain members of the Jewish people to be holier than others. How does this make you feel? What do you think makes people holy and can/should they be distinguished somehow by appearance? That was how holiness was expressed in biblical times but how do we express it now? Does holiness still really exist in our lives?

This Parsha also addresses God’s process in choosing who will be the cohanim. God chooses Aaron, Moses’ brother, and his sons. People often wonder why God would suddenly hate on Moses and give this responsibility to Aaron. One midrash explains that when Moses talked to God via the burning bush, he begged God to give the responsibility to someone else. Because he tried to deflect responsibility at that point, God does not give him the honor of being a priest. This forces us to ask ourselves whether or not we can choose to be responsible over just certain things and not others. If we are choosing not to take responsibility for something, do we still have the right to criticize or comment on it? Another midrash explains that Moses was punished for the burning bush responsibility deflection incident by not being allowed to enter Israel. What does that mean for how we view our relationships with Israel and our responsibility to the Jewish people? Are we taking responsibility over those things? If we choose not to take responsibility for

those things, how much of a say do we have regarding them?