Something’s Missing

By Rabbi Joshua (elliptically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman z"l 

Rabbeinu Yaakov ben Asher, in his commentary Baal HaTurim, raises the question of why Moshe’s name is omitted in Parshas Tetzaveh, the first parsha since his birth in which his name isn’t found. This question, on the one hand, is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the order of Torah readings, as we have it, in a yearly cycle, is of fairly late origin, while in the older division of pesuchos and setumos (open and closed sections) there are earlier parshiyos in which Moshe’s name is omitted, as pointed out by Rabbi Avraham Korman in his HaParasha LeDoroseha. On the other hand, the question becomes more acute when we note that, in the first verse of the parsha, which begins with the words, “And you shall command,” which is a direct communication of God to Moshe, we would have expected Moshe’s name to be mentioned, but it is not. In any case, the Baal HaTurim answers, in accordance with the midrashim followed by Rashi, that the parshiyos are out of order, and the sin of the eigel, the golden calf, occurred earlier, so that Moshe’s plea to God on behalf of the people to be erased from the Torah if God would not forgive them (Shemos 32:32), was fulfilled, despite the fact that they were forgiven to an extent. This fulfillment came in the form of the omission of his name from the Sedra of Tetzaveh. This connection of the omission of Moshe’s name to the sin of the eigel has led to a range of explanations that highlight some very interesting aspects of Moshe’s personality.

One explanation in a Chassidic source is that Moshe understood that the sin of the eigel came about because the people, mistakenly thinking that he had delayed his return and perhaps was not coming back, felt that they were hopeless without him, and therefore built an eigel to serve as their leader. Moshe, by having his name omitted, was, in humility, trying to show them, that actually, he drew his strength from them, and that, on their own, they were capable of thriving spiritually. According to Rabbi Norman Lamm, in his Derashos LeDoros, God actually intimated this message to Moshe by addressing him directly without mentioning his name, as an encouragement to remain as their dedicated leader, despite his disappointment with them over the sin of the eigel.

Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlop, in his Mei Marom on Purim, takes a radically different approach. He cites the Zohar, which says that the words at the beginning of the parsha, “and you shall command,” are an allusion to the shechinah, the Divine presence. In this parsha, the kehuna, the priesthood, is given to Aharon and the tribe of Levi, but, actually, it comes from the Jewish people in general, who, at Sinai, were charged to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation...” This singling out of the tribe of Levi entails a spiritual elevation, which came at the heels of the sin. This elevation is alluded to in the words “and you shall command.” Moshe’s name, however, cannot be associated, in any way, with the sin, of the eigel, and, therefore, it is not mentioned here explicitly. For Rav Charlop, then, the omission of Moshe’s name in Tetzaveh is an indication of his spiritual fitness, rather than his humility.

Interestingly, both the Noam Elimelech of the Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk, and the Be’er Mechokek, of the Lithuanian Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe, Rav Chaim Mordechai Katz, understood the absence of Moshe’s name in the words “and you shall command” as an indication of the selfless attitude one must have in approaching holy work, as Moshe was doing in commanding the work of the Mishkan. This explanation stands independently, without being related to the sin of the eigel, as the Baal HaTurim’s answer does. By extension, it carries a message for all of us, that to truly achieve the maximum in doing holy work, we must do our best to divest ourselves of any self-interest, and act in alignment with the spark of divinity that is within us, which is our inner essence. This is the deeper meaning, says Rav Katz, of what Hillel said when rejoicing at the drawing of the water on Sukkot: “If I am here” – meaning, if my spiritual essence is involved in my celebrations, “then all is here, and if I am not here, who is here.”

Best wishes for a joyous, meaningful Purim.