• | Print |
•  Email

Parshat Shemini / Para
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

ראשיכם אל תפרעו

May You HaShem 'bestow upon us beauty in place of ashes' (Isaiah 61).

This quote from Isaiah indicates the turning of mourning for the absence of the Bais HaMikdash, 'ashes - epher', into the joy of its re-building, 'beauty - pe'er (the same letters as 'efer'). Our Sages remark that Jerusalem, synonymous with the Bait HaMikdash, was the most beautiful city of the world (Kidushin 49b).

In Jewish sources, the term for beauty, 'pe'er' or 'tiferet' indicates a state of completeness, in which different or perhaps even opposing facets, work together in a harmonious whole called in Judaism 'beauty' or 'tiferet'. Hence, commentators point to Rambam's famous 'middle-path' method of personal perfection (Deot ch. 1) as being derived from Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi's teaching in Avot (ch. 2): 'which path should a man chose? One that is beautiful (tiferet) for him and beautiful (tiferet) before other people.' Based on this concept we can understand why 'beauty' takes such a dominant role in the Bais HaMikdash in the laws that allow only un-blemished priests and animals to take part of the Service. Although, generally speaking, a physical blemish is seen by our Sages as a spring-board of potential for spiritual perfection through humility, nevertheless, in regard to the Bais HaMikdash there is importance according to the Torah that the Temple's internal attribute of beauty be manifest also in the physical state of those who act in its Service.

This explanation follows perfectly with the Torah's term for un-blemished animals 'tamim', which also means 'complete.' Similarly, Torah mandates, as seen in our title quote, that the priests in service may not overgrow their hair, which can also be explained as maintaining the beauty of the Temple. In Torah perspective, properly cut head (not beard) hair is considered beautiful as we see in the laws of Kings: "the king cuts his hair every day... as its says 'a king in his beauty shall your eyes behold' (Isaiah 33, 17)" (Rambam Mlachim 2, 5).  The location in the Temple where the priests must obey these 'standards of beauty' (i.e being un-blemished, haircut) takes us to the third highest holy level of location in the Temple, between the Hall of the Sanctuary (Ulam) and the Altar of Sacrifice.

The terms of 'tamim' and 'tiferet' as explained above come together perfectly in the figure of Yakov our father. Yakov is the Father singled out for his exceptional beauty (Bava Metzia 87a) and is also referred to 'Ish Tam' from the same verb root as 'tamim'. Indeed, our Sages teach that Yakov is the archetype of the 'middle-path' of harmonious beauty, which we mentioned before. Therefore, all these concepts come together so beautifully in Yakov's burial place, Hebron, which itself means harmonious 'unity' (hibur) and unites the different tribes and facets of our People to their common roots, our holy Patriarchs.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Real Stories from the Holy Land #163

"For about 10 years we had been using a halla-cover, a wedding-gift, embroidered with my and my wife's names and the name of the giver of this gift. One day, we heard of the passing of the giver of this gift, so I went to comfort the giver's son at his home, who turned out to be my neighbor (this I never knew before). When I showed the giver's son the halla-cover, he recognized it and said that he had embroidered it himself before our wedding..." (M.G)

Comments, questions, and/or stories,email  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.