Rabbi Nissan Lifschitz - From the Outside In - Parshat Tetzaveh

when I look at there's one word that comes to mind and that's the word dignity the main topic the topic that gets the most attention of the par is by far the clothing of the of the clothing of thean the Torah goes into great depth explain us all the clothing that the K need to wear for the regular kohanim pant shirt belt hat but not just pan shirt pan shirt belt hat but specific measurement that the Torah gives us specific color specific very very specific uh uh um requirements are given to how to construct these B the K has four additional clothing the Torah tells us the reason for these clothing to have the specific clothing that you have is because the reason is for dignity and for beauty the Kohan need to look dignified and they need to look beautiful they need to look nice but it's not just a topic of the clothing where we see the concept of dignity com come to play in fact there are three other topics of the para we have the first topic of par the topic of the oil that the B are told to bring special oil to The Bash in order to light the man and at the end of the par we learn about the the incense altar the altar where we put up the thees to create a fragrance in the in the B mdash what's the purpose of having a manora to produce all this light and what's the purpose of having to produce the fragrance so says the r and so does the that the reason for this is the same idea of the clothing of the for dignity and for beauty very simply put when you walk into the you should now see people kohanim who are dressed who dressed appropriately they look nice this is a place this is a wonderful place look at the way everyone is dressed over here the candle the gives up light we know special places you want to have a nice light and also this that should smell nice there's a thir fourth topic of the para which is really the third in the order of it of it delivery the Para that's the inauguration ceremony the inauguration ceremony called that Torah tells us in how toades and how to sanctify all the C and the by putting oil on them and so on and so forth the purpose of this says the ra is the same idea of the for dignity and for beauty when you anoint things and you show this is something which is important so therefore we see in summary the four topics of the par all tie together for for dignity and for beauty the question though is that why what's so important about that everything needs to be dignified and and to be beautiful so says and it's really facing the r that we know that we are flesh and blood and it's very important says to understand to never deny that fact brings out a concept he says that our actions our behavior is controlled is our actions our Behavior controls our emotions and in fact all the externals controls our emotions there's a famous psychology uh study probably most people learned in Psychology 101 about the study about putting a pencil in one's mouth if you put a pencil in your mouth you will tend to smile and the psychologist they did a test and they saw that people who had pencils in their mouth tend to be happier how do they measure happiness well I think what they did was they asked people to to measure on how humorous a comic was and the people who had pencils in their mouth when they were smiling they felt happier and they saw more humor in their Comics but that's the concept over here that our actions control our emotions so the uh says all the mitzvos are really like that mitzvos are all there to affect us when we go to the Bas mdash and we see a beautiful place we are and we see it signified we are now able to approach it with the proper awe and reverence that it deserves because our emotions the emotions of the O and the reverence of Bas deserves is actually based on the physical the external actions of B Migos that is built in a dignified way the ram says the same is true with shabis chabis is always put in parallel with the Bas Migos tomorrow we're going to get ready for shabas we're going to clean our house for shabas we're going to we're going to set up the candle the candles we're going to set the shabas table your house will be built to be and the reason the basic reason is because you will be in a be in a much more appropriate mood when you come into your house all beautiful when you spend your day tomorrow cleaning your house it will in embed within you the importance of shabas and walk the shabas with the reverence that we should walk in the bash I hope this idea comes forward and sinks in properly that the externals around us will affect our emotions and we should appreciate as the laws of chabas the laws of the B and the law on how the physical acts around us will control emotions and should have the proper reverence due to these places amen