Ha Shavua Tetzaveh- You shall Command

Another contribution from Rabbi Jack, Thanks
"The Mitzbeach And The Korbanot"


Parashat HaShavua Tetzaveh / You Shall Command

This Week's Reading List:
Shemot / Exodus 27:20-30:10
Sh'muel Aleph / 1 Samuel 15:2-34
Ivrim / Hebrews 13:10-16


Shemot {29:42} It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the Ohel Moed (Tent of Meeting) before HaShem, where I will meet with you, to speak there to you. {29:43} There I will meet with bnei Yisrael; and the place shall be sanctified by My kavod (glory). {29:44} I will sanctify the tent of meeting and the altar: Aharon (Aaron) also and his sons I will sanctify, to minister to Me in the cohen's (priests) office. {29:45} I will dwell among bnei Yisrael, and will be their G-D. {29:46} They shall know that I am HaShem their G-D, who brought them forth out of the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt), that I might dwell among them: I am HaShem their G-D.

Why was the mitzbeach (altar) to be placed at the entrance of the door in front of the Ohel Moed? Why could it not be placed at the back or on either one of the sides?

Well, as we can see from this Parasha, there was an elaborate system of korbanot (draw near offerings) that were required to be made so that Aharon and his sons would be permitted to enter into the Ohel Moed. Before they passed beyond the mitzbeach they needed to be sanctified, and cleansed of sin so as to come into the presence of a holy G-d and the mitzbeach, upon which was offered the korbanot, served that purpose.

With the Ohel Moed HaShem created for Himself a place where He could dwell among His people, yet be separate from them. This was because a holy G-d could not dwell among an unholy people. What was the purpose of having HaShem dwell in the midst of His people? It was so that they could have a personal relationship with Him and as our Scripture above says, so that they will know that He is the Yud Hay Vav Hay (the G-d who is, who was and who will be), the G-d who brought them out of the land of Mitzrayim.

G-d is not a G-d of rules and regulations -- He is a G-d of relationships! However, it is impossible for unholy people to have any kind of relationship with a holy G-d, hence the mitzbeach and the korbanot. Nothing unclean could pass beyond the mitzbeach because nothing unholy can ever have a relationship with G-d. Scripture is quite clear that serving the Torah and fulfilling the mitzvoth (commandments) does not make you holy. What makes a person holy is forgiveness of sin through the substitutional korban.

Did you notice in reading the Parasha that Aharon and his sons had to lay their hands on the offerings before the offerings were killed? The laying-on of hands constituted the transfer of their sin onto the korban. The animal, upon which they laid their hands, was then killed and offered to HaShem as a substitute for the death of the human sinner, in this case Aharon and his sons.

HaShem is as holy today as He was during biblical times, and we are still as unholy as we were during biblical times; therefore, we still need a korban, just as in biblical times, if we are to have a relationship with Him. What is our korban, seeing as there is no longer an Ohel Moed or mitzbeach upon which to offer korbanot? On what do we place our hands so as to transfer our sin that we might have a relationship with a holy G-d? It is, of course, Yeshua HaMashiach.

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) {59:2} But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your G-d, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

Yeshayahu {53:5} But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.

There is an interesting point I would like to share about the mitzbeach and the korbanot; it concerns a statement made by Yeshua:

Mattityahu (Matthew) {23:34} Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: {23:35} That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Avel (Abel) unto the blood of Zacharyah son of Barachias, whom you murdered between the Bet HaMikdash (Temple) and the mitzbeach.

We are aware that when Yeshua returns to the earth that His feet will touch the Mount of Olives, which incorporates three peaks of which the Temple Mount is one and this mountain range will split forming new mountains. There is a good reason for this and it concerns the Scripture I quoted above.

Did you notice in our Scripture passage from Mattityahu that Zacharyah was killed between the mitzbeach and the Temple? Do you remember that this Parasha says that Aharon and his sons had to be sanctified before they passed the mitzbeach so as to enter into the Ohel Moed?

The mitzbeach was placed in its particular location to offer forgiveness of sin for anything done between it and the outside world. However, any sin, such as with this case in our Scripture above, committed between the mitzbeach and the Temple could not be atoned for because it happened on the wrong side of the mitzbeach.

Forget about the Dome of the Rock that now dominates Tzion (Zion), forget about it defiling the Temple Mount and making that area unholy. This piece of real estate is defiled, not because of the Mosque, but because of the blood of Zacharyah who was murdered between the Temple and the mitzbeach. His blood was not and can not be atoned for; therefore, the Temple Mount will, in its present state, always be defiled. For this reason the existing mountain will have to be destroyed and a new mountain raised so that Mashiachs (Messiahs) millennial Bet HaMikdash can be built.

Yeshayahu {2:1} The word which Yeshayahu the son of Amoz (Amos) saw concerning Yehuda (Judah) and (Yerushalayim) Jerusalem. {2. 2} Now it will come about that In the last days, the mountain of the house of HaShem will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. {2. 3} And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of HaShem, to the House of the G-d of Yaacov (Jacob) ; that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths." For the Torah will go forth from Tzion (Zion), and the Word of HaShem from Yerushalayim.

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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber