A Lasting Imprint: Serving with Holy Fire

1“Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: Command Aharon and his sons, saying …”¹ Why is the word leimor, “saying,” written twice here? Rashi comments: “Tzav, ‘command,’ always denotes urging, for now and for all generations. R' Shimon said: Scripture must urge especially where there is a loss to the pocket.”² We should also look closely at Rashi's wording: why does he speak of chisaron kis, “a loss to the pocket,” rather than chisaron mamon, “a loss of money,” as elsewhere?

2Further on, the Torah says: “Hashem spoke to Moshe …: Take Aharon and his sons with him, and the garments … and gather the whole congregation to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. And Moshe did as Hashem had commanded him … And Moshe said to the congregation: This is the thing that Hashem has commanded to be done.”³ We must understand what Moshe Rabbeinu was referring to when he told the congregation, “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded to be done.” The passage deals with the service of the offerings, which only the Kohanim perform; it has nothing to do with the rest of Bnei Yisrael.

3We may explain this by first citing what my holy great-grandfather of Biala, zt"l, wrote in his holy sefer Divrei Binah: “Zeiruz, urging, means strengthening: a person must strengthen himself in avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. When he performs a service for Hashem, he should see to it that its power is not cut off from him, and that a reshimah, an imprint, of the service remains with him. This is the meaning of ‘for now and for all generations’: through the power of the service he is doing now, its holiness will remain forever.” So far his words. In other words, when we are privileged to engage in Torah and mitzvos, we must do so with holy fire and vitality, so that their power leaves an imprint of holiness that remains even afterward. That is why the Torah speaks of urging in connection with the offerings: so that they would leave their imprint both for now and for the generations to come.

4On this basis we can explain the rest of Rashi's words: “Scripture must urge especially where there is a loss to the pocket.” A kis, a pocket, is the pouch in which one keeps something for later. Scripture urges here for fear that the service will not be like a pocket, which keeps what it holds for the generations. [A “loss to the pocket” is service that keeps nothing stored for later.] We find something similar in the Gemara, about a sage who reviewed a teaching with his teacher: “He learned it from him forty times, and it seemed to him as if it lay in his pocket.”⁴ The Maharatz Chayes, in his glosses, asks about the words “his pocket,” since Torah is kept in the mind, not in a pocket.⁵ In light of what we have said, the Gemara means that one must learn in a way that leaves a lasting imprint, and “pocket” alludes to this, since a pocket is where things are kept for later use.

5aIt is the offerings in particular that needed this urging for the generations, because the Kohanim's service in the Beis HaMikdash had to leave an imprint that would last for generations. [That is why this parshah says, “And the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it,” and “A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar; it shall not go out.”⁶ The holy fire in Hashem's service was to remain both for that hour and for the generations. It was to remain in the service of the offerings, and in prayer, which was instituted to correspond to them.⁷] By the power of the Kohanim's service in the Beis HaMikdash in their day, Israel in every generation can pray with longing and fervor. This explains why leimor is said twice. As is well known, Chazal teach that leimor means telling it to the generations,⁸ and so it hints that the service of the offerings was meant to influence the generations. That is why the Holy One, blessed be He, told Moshe to command Aharon and his sons to strengthen themselves especially in the service of the offerings, so that it would remain for the generations, as the Divrei Binah taught.

5b[True, every mitzvah told to Moshe says leimor, meaning that he should tell it to Israel for that hour and for the generations. But Scripture must urge especially where there is a loss to the pocket, as we explained above on the basis of the Divrei Binah. Since this service was destined to cease from Israel, it had to leave a special imprint that would carry it on through the generations in the service of prayer. That is why leimor had to be said a second time.]

6So too, each individual's prayer leaves behind an imprint of holiness that helps him and his descendants later on. As we find in Chazal: “Whoever sets a fixed place for his prayer, the God of Avraham is his help.”⁹ For when a person prays in a fixed place, an imprint of holiness from his earlier prayers remains there. We learn this from Avraham Avinu, for the Beis HaMikdash was set on the site of the Akeidah, the binding of Yitzchak, because an imprint of holiness remained there for the generations, for the sake of Klal Yisrael.

7In light of all this, we may say that this is what the verse means: “As Hashem commanded Moshe, so he did. And Moshe said to the congregation: This is the thing that Hashem has commanded to be done.”¹⁰ When Moshe Rabbeinu carried out the whole order of dressing and anointing Aharon's sons, he surely did it with holy fire and vitality, so that it left an imprint of holiness that lasted. And he told Israel, “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded to be done,” meaning that they too must do all the mitzvos with fervor and holy fire, so that each leaves a holy imprint for the generations.

8May Hashem grant that we be privileged to serve Him with holy fire and to bring the redemption near. Amen, may it be His will.