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Command! / Tzav
Command! / Tzav
Poetic Notes on the parashah of Tzav*
Poetic Notes on the parashah of Tzav*
And The LORD God
commanded the Adam
so that the Adam would not be an orphan
For Adam was an orphan
having neither mother nor father
The LORD God commanded the Adam
And the Adam’s existential loneliness
began to abate
It was enough
that the LORD God should command the Adam
Being given an imperative
would have meaning
as from a mother
and certainty as from a father
But the LORD God
wanted the commandment
to embrace the Adam intimately
and to nurture them and raise them
Therefore, the LORD God
"commanded the Adam, saying…"
The commandment
was not just the imperative, “Obey Me!”
The LORD God commanded the Adam to obey Him
saying something
something that they would have to think about
something that would require them to have faith
something that would require them
to be faithful in understanding
Something that would engage them
embrace them and raise them
something that would give them freedom
to chose to obey
and be faithful in doing
and in learning better to do
what was commanded
The LORD God commanded the Adam, saying,
of every tree of the Garden
you may freely eat!
Of the Garden that was planted for you
you may freely eat
But there is a tree here
that was not planted for you
It is not of the Garden
The commandment is not
that you may freely eat of that tree
Be warned!
The day you eat of that tree
you will end in death
Eating freely of the trees of the Garden
which was planted for you
is your commandment
Your commandment will feed you
And will be to you your mother
and your father
And you will not be an orphan
You will not be alone
You will not be half of yourself
Through the imperative of the commandment
you will double
And the commandment
as your mother and father
will say to you
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
fill the earth with your children
and with your freedom and obedience
to the commandment of the LORD your God
The commandment
as your mother and father will say to you
Subdue all that is corruptible in the earth
and lead all the animals
which you, yourself, will have named
to learn from you
obedience to the commandment
of the LORD your God
And the commandment shall become
a house and a home to you
and a dwelling place
for the LORD your God in the earth
When the Adam was lost
the Adam was stolen
from the commandment of the LORD God
And like a mother with a fierce love
she pursued her child into exile
Like a father with a ferocious
righteous jealousy
he shall rescue his child from captivity
The commandment of the LORD God
shall pursue them
and shall find them
and shall save them from death
For the commandment shall say unto them
"Hear, oh Israel
The LORD your God
the LORD is one"
and they shall obey
and live
*Being a personal reflection upon Making Connections: The Message of Mitzvos By Eli Touger Adapted from Likkutei Sichos, Vol. VII, p. 30ff; Vol. VIII, p. 232ff; Vol. XXXII, p. 1ff
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