There was once a family so poor they could not afford to buy enough food. One day, the wife found two coins. She gave them to her husband and asked him to go out and purchase their necessities. He returned home with a loaf of bread in one hand and a rose in the other. “We need the bread to sustain us,” he explained, “and we need the rose to make life worth living”.
“We need to live a life that is truly worth living.”
Let us search, together, for that road that will lead us on that path.
As I reflect on this statement, my mind travels back a number of years to my son’s Bar Mitzvah, when he focused on two words from this week’s Sedrah, T’tzaveh, לכבוד ולתפארת, “We are to live lives that bring glory and honor to G-D and man.”
The Menorah and the the בגדי כהונה, are described as being made לכבוד ולתפארת. The Torah is using this description to express a very important concept in Yahadut.
The Mitzvah of being Madlik the Menorah in the Mikdash, is to enhance the glory and honor of the בית המקדש. Thus, we see that the purpose of the Menorah is that those who will see the Nerot will realize the importance of מקדש של הי יתברך and, as a result, will shape their lives, in a way, that will be לכבוד ותפארת, to עם ישראל.
The other Mitzvah, which brings about לכבוד ולתפארת, is the בגדי כהונה, the priestly garments. One may wonder why there was so much emphasis placed on the garments of the Kohen.
I sense, that the garments worn by the Kohen, were to remind him of his responsibilities to
בני ישראל, and to G-D, and all those who see him bedecked in his Priestly garments, will be reminded of their responsibilities to Judaism. As the Kohen views these garments he will, equally, realize in his heart, “Before whom he stands”, and this will bring לכבוד ולתפארת to Hashem and will create a change in his attitude and personality, bringing about a true redemptive way of life.
This is our charge in life - a charge that will result in bringing about a world of לכבוד ולתפארת to humanity and to bring the light of the Menorah that will illuminate the world with Holiness.
It is well to realize that this it is not what man finds in the world, it is what he creates and how he fashions his life that will have a positive impact on the universe.
Man can take an ordinary life and make it a Blessing to the world. It is a fact that “Life is not to get ahead of the next person, but to conquer oneself.”
As long as we keep living, let us continue to learn how to live in a more positive and constructive way, thereby, becoming Jewish citizens of eternity.
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