A Bima-Ready D’var Torah Every Week
13 Adar II 5779
Parashat Tzav
Making Your Bed
Torah Portion: Leviticus 6:1-8:36
Haftarah Portion: Jeremiah 7:21-8:3; 9:22-9:23
Shalom!
"If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed."
-Admiral William McRaven[i]
In 2014, Admiral William McRaven, the architect of the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that ended Osama bin Laden's tyranny, gave the commencement address at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin. If people thought that the most memorable, tangible moment of the speech was about jumping out of planes in the middle of thunderstorms, diving against monstrous currents at perilous depths, or overseeing the bin Laden Raid, well, think again.
"If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made--that you made--and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better."[ii]
When we think about being told to make our bed, we probably assume that the person telling us to do this unforgiving, "Herculean" task is our parents--not a combat-hardened Navy SEAL. All kidding aside, there is something profound in Admiral McRaven's words. How much of our life is out of our hands, so past us that we can't control it? On the other hand, what are those things that we can do, we can guide and harness, and perhaps even own? In this week's parashah of Tzav, we see some mitz'vot--or commandments--that are akin to "making your bed." For example, we see instructions for removing the ashes of the daily offering (Leviticus 6:3), lighting a fire on the altar every day (Leviticus 6:6), and burning any leftover or impure korbanot (sacrifices) (Leviticus 7:17, 7:19).
This idea is incredible: God--the infinite and indescribable Ruler that exists beyond time and space itself--gives the Israelites tangible, doable tasks that allow them to achieve a higher and holier sense of being. It's also a reminder for us that making the world a better place can come one step-at-a-time through simple, ordinary, everyday acts just as much as it can through those dramatic, dynamic events of the history books.
The great Yiddish writer Micha Josef Berdyczewski penned, "Washing your hands before a meal... is in itself a trivial act... but when you wash your hands by the command of God... the souls of all the generations that lived and died to sanctify His name come into some kind of touch with you!"[iii] The Orhot Tzaddikim declares, "Clothing, bed, table, especially dishes, indeed everything we ever take in our hands, must be clean, sweet, pure; and above and beyond all, the body, made in the image of God."[iv] Finally, the agricultural Zionist A.D. Gordon proclaimed, "You work here [on the farm] simply without philosophizing; sometimes the work is hard and crowded with pettiness. But at times you feel a surge of cosmic exaltation, like the clear light of the heavens... And you, too, seem to be taking root in the soil which you are digging, to be nourished by the rays of the sun, to share life with the tiniest blade of grass, with each flower; living in nature's depths, you seem then to rise and grow into the vast expanse of the universe."[v]
Whether it is vacuuming, doing the laundry, taking the dog for a walk, or spreading mulch, this week's parashah provides us with a new lens at how to look our daily lives. Tzav shows us that even the most mundane act can yield immense spiritual rewards and make us better people. It is also a reminder that we have a lot more control and say in our lives than we think, we just have to know where and how to look. So what are you waiting for? Go make your bed!
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Aaron A. Rozovsky
Director of Rabbinical Services
[i] McRaven, William H. Commencement Speech to Graduating Class of 2014 at the University of Texas at Austin. May 17, 2014. https://news.utexas.edu/2014/05/16/mcraven-urges-graduates-to-find-courage-to-change-the-world/
[ii]Ibid.
[iii]Berdyczewski, Micha Josef. Din uDebarim. 1900. 63 (q. S. Spiegel. Hebrew Reborn. Macmillan Co. 1930. 372) (courtesy of Baron, Joseph. A Treasury of Jewish Quotations. Jason Aronson, Inc. Northvale, NJ. 1985. 54.).
[iv]Orhot Tzadddikim. 15C ch 1 (courtesy of Baron, Joseph. A Treasury of Jewish Quotations. Jason Aronson, Inc. Northvale, NJ. 1985. 55.).
[v]Wallenrod, Reuben. The Teachings of A.D. Gordon (1856-1922). Jewish Social Studies (Vol. 7, No. 4). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. October 1945. 337-356.
© 2018 Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
"If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed."
-Admiral William McRaven[i]
In 2014, Admiral William McRaven, the architect of the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that ended Osama bin Laden's tyranny, gave the commencement address at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin. If people thought that the most memorable, tangible moment of the speech was about jumping out of planes in the middle of thunderstorms, diving against monstrous currents at perilous depths, or overseeing the bin Laden Raid, well, think again.
"If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made--that you made--and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better."[ii]
When we think about being told to make our bed, we probably assume that the person telling us to do this unforgiving, "Herculean" task is our parents--not a combat-hardened Navy SEAL. All kidding aside, there is something profound in Admiral McRaven's words. How much of our life is out of our hands, so past us that we can't control it? On the other hand, what are those things that we can do, we can guide and harness, and perhaps even own? In this week's parashah of Tzav, we see some mitz'vot--or commandments--that are akin to "making your bed." For example, we see instructions for removing the ashes of the daily offering (Leviticus 6:3), lighting a fire on the altar every day (Leviticus 6:6), and burning any leftover or impure korbanot (sacrifices) (Leviticus 7:17, 7:19).
This idea is incredible: God--the infinite and indescribable Ruler that exists beyond time and space itself--gives the Israelites tangible, doable tasks that allow them to achieve a higher and holier sense of being. It's also a reminder for us that making the world a better place can come one step-at-a-time through simple, ordinary, everyday acts just as much as it can through those dramatic, dynamic events of the history books.
The great Yiddish writer Micha Josef Berdyczewski penned, "Washing your hands before a meal... is in itself a trivial act... but when you wash your hands by the command of God... the souls of all the generations that lived and died to sanctify His name come into some kind of touch with you!"[iii] The Orhot Tzaddikim declares, "Clothing, bed, table, especially dishes, indeed everything we ever take in our hands, must be clean, sweet, pure; and above and beyond all, the body, made in the image of God."[iv] Finally, the agricultural Zionist A.D. Gordon proclaimed, "You work here [on the farm] simply without philosophizing; sometimes the work is hard and crowded with pettiness. But at times you feel a surge of cosmic exaltation, like the clear light of the heavens... And you, too, seem to be taking root in the soil which you are digging, to be nourished by the rays of the sun, to share life with the tiniest blade of grass, with each flower; living in nature's depths, you seem then to rise and grow into the vast expanse of the universe."[v]
Whether it is vacuuming, doing the laundry, taking the dog for a walk, or spreading mulch, this week's parashah provides us with a new lens at how to look our daily lives. Tzav shows us that even the most mundane act can yield immense spiritual rewards and make us better people. It is also a reminder that we have a lot more control and say in our lives than we think, we just have to know where and how to look. So what are you waiting for? Go make your bed!
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Aaron A. Rozovsky
Director of Rabbinical Services
[i] McRaven, William H. Commencement Speech to Graduating Class of 2014 at the University of Texas at Austin. May 17, 2014. https://news.utexas.edu/2014/05/16/mcraven-urges-graduates-to-find-courage-to-change-the-world/
[ii]Ibid.
[iii]Berdyczewski, Micha Josef. Din uDebarim. 1900. 63 (q. S. Spiegel. Hebrew Reborn. Macmillan Co. 1930. 372) (courtesy of Baron, Joseph. A Treasury of Jewish Quotations. Jason Aronson, Inc. Northvale, NJ. 1985. 54.).
[iv]Orhot Tzadddikim. 15C ch 1 (courtesy of Baron, Joseph. A Treasury of Jewish Quotations. Jason Aronson, Inc. Northvale, NJ. 1985. 55.).
[v]Wallenrod, Reuben. The Teachings of A.D. Gordon (1856-1922). Jewish Social Studies (Vol. 7, No. 4). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. October 1945. 337-356.
© 2018 Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
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