Tetzaveh

Tetzaveh, Tetsaveh, T'tzaveh, or T'tzavveh (תצווה — Hebrew for "you command,” the second word and first distinctive word in the parshah) is the 20th weekly Torah portion ("parshah") in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the eighth in the book of Exodus. It constitutes Exodus [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0227.htm#20 27:20–30:10.] Jews in the Diaspora read it the 20th Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in February or March.

Summary

God instructed the Israelites to bring Moses clear olive oil, so that Aaron and his descendants as High Priest could kindle lamps regularly in the Tabernacle. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0227.htm#20 Ex. 27:20–21.] )

God instructed Moses to make sacral vestments for Aaron: a breastpiece (the Hoshen), an ephod, a robe, a gold frontlet inscribed “Holy to the Lord,” a fringed tunic, a headdress, a sash, and linen breeches. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0228.htm Ex. 28.] ) God instructed Moses to place Urim and Thummim inside the breastpiece of decision. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0228.htm#30 Ex. 28:30.] ) God instructed Moses to place pomegranates and gold bells around the robe’s hem, to make a sound when the High Priest entered and exited the sanctuary, so that he not die. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0228.htm#33 Ex. 33–35.] )

God laid out an ordination ceremony for priests involving the sacrifice of a young bull, two rams, unleavened bread, unleavened cakes with oil mixed in, and unleavened wafers spread with oil. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0229.htm Ex. 29.] ) God instructed Moses to lead the bull to the front of the Tabernacle, let Aaron and his sons lay their hands upon the bull’s head, slaughter the bull at the entrance of the Tent, and put some of the bull’s blood on the horns of the altar. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0229.htm#10 Ex. 29:10–12.] ) God instructed Moses to take one of the rams, let Aaron and his sons lay their hands upon the ram’s head, slaughter the ram, and put some of its blood and put on the ridge of Aaron’s right ear and on the ridges of his sons’ right ears, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0229.htm#19 Ex. 29:19–20.] )

God promised to meet and speak with Moses and the Israelites there, to abide among the Israelites, and be their God. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0229.htm#42 Ex. 29:42–45.] )

God instructed Moses to make an incense altar of acacia wood overlaid with gold — sometimes called the Golden Altar. ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0230.htm Ex. 30.] )

In early nonrabbinic interpretation

Exodus chapter 28

Josephus interpreted the linen vestment of to declare the sun and the moon. He interpreted the breastplate of says hung on the fringes of the High Priest’s garments to signify thunder and lightning, respectively. And Josephus saw the blue on the headdress of to explain why Israel was, in the words of The midrash offered a fourth explanation: Just as oil gives forth light, so did the Temple in Jerusalem give light to the whole world, as it says in On the east side of the altar, the priest placed the two loaves on the two lambs and put his two hands beneath them and waved them forward and backward and upward and downward. (Mishnah Menachot 5:6; Babylonian Talmud Menachot 61a.)

Exodus chapter 30

The Mishnah taught that the incense offering of )
*The breastpiece must not be loosened from the ephod. ()
*To burn incense every day ( [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0229.htm#36 29:36–37] ), and the haftarah in Ezekiel’s conception of a future Temple. () The haftarah for Shabbat Zachor, identifies Haman as an Agagite, and thus a descendant of Amalek. Numbers [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0424.htm#7 24:7] identifies the Agagites with the Amalekites. Alternatively, a Midrash tells the story that between King Agag’s capture by Saul and his killing by Samuel, Agag fathered a child, from whom Haman in turn descended. (Seder Eliyahu Rabbah ch. 20; Targum Sheni to Esther 4:13.)

In the liturgy

The "tamid" sacrifice that