Parshat Tetzaveh – Exodus 27:20-30:10 

by Shoshana Zimmerman

 

And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron's garments to sanctify him, that he may minister unto Me in the priest's office  Exodus Chapter 28: 3

 

How beautiful to me is this sentence, one of the first of the Parsha.

 

God's directive is given here to Moses, whose name isn't mentioned throughout  the entire Parsha, to guide "wise-hearted" people to handle the preparation of Aaron's and his sons priest-garments, so that he who wears them is sanctified and found worthy of his holy work.

 

These "wise-hearted", it is emphasized in this magnificent sentence, are those whom God (himself!) filled their heart with "the spirit of wisdom". Not their minds did he fill with wisdom, but their hearts. Maybe, so that they know from their heart how to prepare the garments: through the connection enabled in the heart, between the everyday-I, and the higher-I. This, in accordance with the God-decreed-guidance of Moses. And maybe their heart is also filled with wisdom so that they pass on to their work their unique spiritual vibration, the vibration of heart-wisdom, and instill in the garments (material) the vibration of the divine wisdom (spirit).

 

The true artists are meant, so I hear, to create out of inspiration, art and craftsmanship from the depth of their heart-wisdom.

 

But upon reading these words, some non-naïve-questions arise in me: what is needed for a man to be "wise-hearted"? Were the "wise-hearted" filled by God with the "spirit of wisdom" out of their own free choice? And how did/does this filling-up occur?

And then I remember and answer myself: indeed, "all is up to the above ("Shamayim") except reverence of the above " as say the Ethics of the Fathers.

"Reverence of the above" for me is the loving and grateful reverence that I, mind-body and incarnate-soul-spark, have towards the above- a code name for the infinite light hierarchy of creation through love and compassion, that is in all, and in which all is.

My feeling is that only after "Reverence towards the above" has been instilled into one's heart, especially in light of the heart-wisdom that "greater is the hidden than the revealed" and that the hidden is loving and compassionate, then and only then can the divinity, which for me is that same light- hierarchy immersed in an infinite collection of forces-lights and has an unattainable super-consciousness-

Fill the heart with wisdom.

 

And I know, that each and everyone can come to revere his source, and by that cause God to fill his heart with supreme wisdom, the wisdom of creation and love.

Maybe not everybody wishes for this…. Maybe not everybody knows that he can…

Knowing this and wanting this are the perquisites for "being able to".

And learning  -how to fill up with the heart wisdom granted by God- is, for me, learning the spiritual knowledge- from ourselves, our friends that may know a little more… a learning of remembrance, of awakening from the illusion of separate material to the heaven of unified spirit.

Not forsaking the material, but remembering its source and conducting-oneself in a new, happy way, in light of this remembrance.

 

A free choice of waking up. A free choice in the wisdom of the heart.

First "Reverence"- coming from below upwards,

Then filling of "love", coming from above downward- together with the granting of empowerment of wisdom, creativity and abundance.

Shabat Shalom and light to us and all of our world,

A Shabat of love,

from Shosh.