Parashat Tetzave: From appetite to avodah
When Does Eating Become Part of the Inauguration of Holiness?
How Do the Sacrifices Teach Us About Communal Responsibility?
In high school, I chose social sciences as my major. I was deeply drawn to questions of justice and conscious community, and I felt a strong pull toward movements that spoke about shared responsibility and moral accountability. Having demonstrated for freedom, equality, and brotherhood, it is not surprising that the Torah principle that “all Israel are responsible for one another” (Babylonian Talmud, Shavuot 39a) resonated with me so powerfully. From an early age, I recoiled from the emphasis on the isolated individual, detached from the collective, that characterized the bourgeois society in which I grew up. I instinctively sensed an invisible bond between us all and how my actions, words, and even thoughts could affect the general community.
Only later did I come to see how deeply this intuition is woven into the Torah’s approach. I would never have imagined that the sacrificial service, of all things, embodies this principle so precisely. Like many others, I have always struggled to relate to the service of the Kohanim, especially since it is no longer practiced on its literal level today. Even when the Temple is rebuilt and the sacrifices reinstated – may it be soon – most of that service will still be carried out by the Kohanim alone.
And yet, the Torah reveals something profoundly reassuring. In Judaism, spiritual life is not built on isolated perfection. The holy eating of the Kohanim does not serve them alone. It carries the weight of the entire nation. For those of us who struggle with mindful eating, consistency, or discipline, it is comforting to realize that the Torah does not demand spiritual heroics from every individual at every moment. Our individual shortcomings can be compensated for through the elevated service of another. Therefore, we are never alone in our endeavor for spiritual growth. The sanctified eating of those who stand higher can lift those of us who are still finding our way.
Why are the Sacrifices Only Completed through the Eating of the Kohanim?
While the detailed laws of the offerings and the Kohanim’s portions appear later in the Torah, Parashat Tetzave quietly lays their foundation. It establishes that the Kohanim’s eating from the offerings is not an act of private nourishment, but a defined element of Divine service. Their eating is not instinctive or indulgent. It is bounded, sanctified, and purposeful.
ספר שמות פרק כט פסוק כח וְהָיָה לְאַהֲרֹן וּלְבָנָיו לְחָק עוֹלָם מֵאֵת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי תְרוּמָה הוּא וּתְרוּמָה יִהְיֶה מֵאֵת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מִזִּבְחֵי שַׁלְמֵיהֶם תְּרוּמָתָם לַהַשֵּׁם:
“It shall belong to Aharon and to his sons as an eternal statute from the children of Israel, for it is an elevation-offering; and it shall be an elevation-offering from the children of Israel, from their peace-offerings – their elevation-offering to Hashem” (Shemot 29:28).
At the very moment when the Mishkan is being prepared for its inauguration, when the garments of the Kohen Gadol are completed, the altar stands ready, and Divine service is about to enter history, the Torah turns our attention not only to fire and offerings, but to a quieter and more intimate question: who eats, what is eaten, and by whom. The ram of inauguration is divided with precision, designating portions for the altar, for Moshe, and for Aharon and his sons. These are not technical details or secondary laws. It is the Torah teaching that holiness does not descend only through flames and ascension, but also through sanctified eating. The offering is not considered completed when the fire ascends upon the altar, but only when its holiness enters a refined human vessel.
What is the Connection between Moshe’s Inauguration Portion and Purim?
Against this backdrop, the Torah introduces a striking phrase regarding Moshe’s portion:
ספר שמות פרק כט פסוק כו וְלָקַחְתָּ אֶת הֶחָזֶה מֵאֵיל הַמִּלֻּאִים אֲשֶׁר לְאַהֲרֹן וְהֵנַפְתָּ אֹתוֹ תְּנוּפָה לִפְנֵי הַשֵּׁם וְהָיָה לְךָ לְמָנָה:
“You shall take the breast from the ram of inauguration that is Aharon’s, and you shall wave it as a wave-offering before Hashem, and it shall be for you as a portion (Shemot 29:26).
The language of the inauguration offering וְהָיָה לְךָ לְמָנָה – “It shall be for you as a portion” echoes the mitzvah of מִשְׁלוֹחַ מָנוֹת/mishloach manot, quietly opening the door to the festival of Purim that we celebrate at this time.
Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk explains that מָנָה/manah does not refer to just any share, but to something prepared, completed, and ready. It is food that has reached its proper state. This is precisely the spiritual grammar of mishloach manot. Not raw potential, but nourishment already sweetened and refined into generosity (Meshech Chochmah, Shemot 29:26). The word מָנָה/manah contains the very letters of הָמָן/Haman, for Purim is the festival in which Haman is defeated through sanctified eating that repairs separation and restores connection and dignity.
Rabbi Moshe Sofer explains that Israel is a תְּרוּמָה/terumah (elevation offering) from the nations, the Kohanim are a terumah from Israel, and the holy portions they eat are a further terumah from the offerings. When a Jew gives, sends, and elevates food on Purim, the act becomes a living reenactment of their offering to Hashem (Chatam Sofer, Shemot 29:28).
Mishloach manot are therefore not symbolic gestures. They are fully prepared foods that express wholeness, honor, and relational repair. Haman sought to destroy Israel through calculated consumption, through silver, power, and numbers. Mordechai answers with the secret weapon of Israel – a holy portion that cannot be bought, only offered. What begins in Parashat Tetzave as a Kohanic portion becomes, on Purim, a national act of sanctified eating that defeats Amalek not by force, but through restored connection, in the merit of Esther and Mordechai.
What Message Does Moshe’s Role in the Inauguration Offering Hold for Our Time?
Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin asks, by all logic: the breast – the higher, more inward portion – should have gone entirely to the altar. Why then did Hashem command Moshe to eat it? Why place the most spiritual man in Israel at the center of an act of physical consumption? Because Moshe’s eating is not ordinary eating. His portion is received only after the blood is sprinkled and the fats ascend; only when the korban is spiritually complete does Moshe eat (HaEmek Davar, Shemot 29:26). The Torah teaches that the highest level is not escape from the body, but its consecration. Moshe embodies the human being who can bridge above and below, whose flesh itself becomes holy. In a generation torn between indulgence and control, between disembodiment and obsession, Moshe offers a third path: integration. The mouth can be an altar. The act of eating can become service. Holiness is not proven by how little we need the physical, but by how faithfully we elevate it.
What Is the Deeper Symbolism of the Breast and the Thigh in the Inauguration Offering?
The Torah does not choose the חָזֶה/chazeh – “breast” and שׁוֹק/shok – “thigh” arbitrarily. These are not merely valuable cuts of meat; they are charged anatomical symbols.
ספר שמות פרק כט פסוק כז וְקִדַּשְׁתָּ אֵת חֲזֵה הַתְּנוּפָה וְאֵת שׁוֹק הַתְּרוּמָה אֲשֶׁר הוּנַף וַאֲשֶׁר הוּרָם מֵאֵיל הַמִּלֻּאִים מֵאֲשֶׁר לְאַהֲרֹן וּמֵאֲשֶׁר לְבָנָיו:
“You shall sanctify the breast of the wave-offering and the thigh of the elevation-offering, which were waved and which were lifted up from the ram of inauguration, from that which is Aharon’s and from that which is his sons” (Shemot 29:27).
Siftei Kohen explains that Moshe receives the breast because he protected Aharon, whose defining trait was that he “rejoiced in his heart” at Moshe’s leadership (Shemot 4:14). The breast corresponds to the heart – the inner seat of intention. Kabbalistic sources take this further, identifying the heart with בִּינָה/binah, the place where judgments are sweetened and understanding is born. Imrei Noam even associates the chazeh with the mystery of the two upper channels of nourishment, where harsh blood is transformed into sustaining milk. In this light, the inauguration offering becomes a תיקון/tikkun of desire itself. Tzror HaMor explicitly links the sanctification of the chazeh and shok to atonement for the sin of the serpent. The curse of the serpent was to crawl on its גָּחוֹן/gachon – “the front underside of the body” (Bereishit 3:14), encompassing the chest and abdomen. This is the very zone through which desire and appetite are oriented. The serpent’s punishment was not merely humiliation, but a corruption of how desire moves, reducing it to instinctive, grasping consumption. The breast corresponds to the upper point of that damaged zone, the seat of the heart and intention, where desire can still be elevated. The thigh represents movement and direction, which the serpent lost when its motion was degraded into crawling. By sanctifying and consuming both the breast and the thigh, the Kohanim repair the serpent’s breach at its root. This teaches us that true nourishment flows only when appetite is held within holiness, lifted, waved, and consciously received. The atonement for the corrupted eating of the serpent is rectified when desire is lifted from instinct to intention, movement is raised from crawling to purpose, and eating itself is restored as avodah.
Why Does the Eating of the Kohanim Bring Atonement for the World?
The eating of the Kohanim brings atonement because a korban is not complete until holiness can successfully enter a human being without being dragged down or distorted. When the Kohen eats, he does not consume for himself but receives from what Chazal call “the table of the Most High” (Babylonian Talmud, Chullin 120a). The owner of the offering is atoned because the physical substance of the korban has fulfilled its purpose. It has not been destroyed or rejected, but has passed through fire, intention, and a sanctified human vessel, returning to its Source intact. Rabbi Ya’acov Yehoshua Falk explains that the breast and thigh specifically rectify power, livelihood, and desire, forces that so easily devolve into violence, theft, and corruption when severed from faith. Through the Kohen’s eating, these drives are retrained and realigned, teaching the nation how to live, earn, and desire without the serpent’s bite (Ateret Yeshuah, Parashat Tetzave). These portions are elevated gifts rather than ordinary food. This is not consumption; it is elevation. And when eating itself becomes holy, the world is already being healed at its root.
