Parshat T’tzaveh

This week’s parashah, T’tzaveh, teaches how the kohanim, the priests were to be ordained. The Torah’s term for priestly ordination is “miluim” — literally “filling up.” As a verb, the term is “l’malei et yadav — to fill [the priest’s] hands.”

Why does the Torah use that idiom for priestly ordination? According to Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, it is to teach us that we find fulfillment in this world only when we serve a higher cause. When we focus on our own needs, we always feel that we are lacking something. We never feel completely full. But when we dedicate ourselves to something greater, as the priests did, we feel full.

On Shabbat, we step back from the weekday world in order to restore our larger sense of purpose, to remember what is most important in life. That is what makes Shabbat a day of such great fullness, a day on which we feel our blessings overflowing.

• Shabbat services at The New Shul are on Friday evenings from 6 to 7 pm and on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 noon. The kiddush this Shabbat, February 8, is sponsored by Dale and Alan Singer in honor of Alan’s 70th birthday.
• Childcare is available from 10 am to 12 noon on Shabbat mornings. Munchkin Minyan for preschoolers and parents meets this Shabbat from 11 to 11:30 am. Beyond Bim Bom for grades 2 to 5 meets from 10:15 to 11:30 am.
• Join us at The New Shul this Saturday night February 8 at 7:30 pm for Havdalah and a Game Night. Please email Barry Zorman for further information.
• Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am and on Wednesday mornings at 7 am.
• On Presidents Day, Monday February 17, The New Shul community will serve meals to the hungry at St. Vincent de Paul’s Jackson St. dining room. Please let us know if you can help.