The Jerusalem Prayer List – 28 February, 2025

By Barry Shulam

The reading of the Torah on Shabbat, Tetzaveh (“You Shall Command”) 

Torah Exodus 27:20 – 30:10Haftarah Ezekiel 43:10-27. New Testament Titus 1:5-2:15.

Most of the time when we read the Bible, we skip over things that we can’t relate to.  I remember my grandmothers’ house and Beth’s parents house  have oil lamps.   We just had a big ice storm in Nashville and people were without electricity for 10 days in some areas.  I know that people went back to candles, oil lamps, gas stoves to heat and light the homes.

20 “You shall further command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, so that a lamp may be set up to burn continually. 21 In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that is before the covenant, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a perpetual ordinance to be observed throughout their generations by the Israelites. NRSV EX 27-20:21

We see that people ( the Israelites the common folk who are not priestly ) have an essential part in the tabernacle function.  I remember as child we visited the Galilee. On the sea there is a fishing village named Capernaum or in Hebrew (Kfar Nahum).  Peter, Andrew, James and John all lived and worked there.  This is the location where Yeshua heals the paralytic.  So this Kefar Nahum is where a 1st century synagogue stands.  The stones are all black and they are called Basalt - this is a volcanic rock and is rough.  Near the synagogue you will find two places that are special. One is the house of Peter the fisherman.  The second is a Basalt rock mill stone for crushing the olives. The mill had a wooden rod that went through the wheel and a donkey was tied to it as he walked in circles the stone turned and crushed the olives.  The second phase was to collect the crushed olives and place them in woven baskets. These stacked baskets (think of a stack of pancakes) were pressed by heavy stones that were set on them.  The oil would squeeze out run down in the vat and collect.

Mom and dad have an olive three in the yard and some years they would take their olives up north bo to a Palestinian family that harvested olives and make olive oil.  On an average year they would come back home with 6 - 8 bottles of olive oil from one tree in the yard.  They would use that much in a year just with cooking and eating.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_15483_An_olive_press_in_Capernaum.JPG

So we see that the average person had the privilege to participate in keeping the lamp burning in the tabernacle that is permanently lit from evening to morning.  Now,  I love flashlights.  I love going outside and seeing how bright my flashlight is, how far it can shine down the road and L.E.D. flashlights are much better than the old filament ones.  Please notice the flashlights can only be tested in the dark.  There is no purpose of having a light lit outside in the day time.  We don’t go around lighting candles when we sit outside.  The effort to make the oil took great effort of picking, making oil and storing it.  All this is from a living plant and the tree has seasons for making olives.  So the oil which is used for food, cooking, anointing and lighting is a precious commodity.  However, God does not need the light at night time.  The first thing God spoke into existence was light.  He created that for humanity.  He called it evening and morning.  It became the measurement of days for us. Which became the measurements of a week.  The one simple thing of light brought so many things into existence.

By bringing the oil to the priests it gave someone a job at night time to tend the light during the darkness.  This creation of light for a short period by the people now became part of the generational ordinances, it became a partnership between shining light on where  God is present.  

Near the end of the Parasha we have this text from chapter 29. 

45 I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them; I am the Lord their God NRSV EX 29-45:46

I would say that we see a condition here of God taking Israel out of bondage ( I would say out of darkness ). We all can relate to being in a situation in our lives, work, or family where it might seem it’s so dark, it is so difficult and hard to bear.  However when we are freed from that darkness , we now are called to be the light.  In fact,  this chapter begins with our being called to shine a light on God.  To be that light where when it’s dark,  others can see that light in your life.  You are that beacon like a light house to a refuge, to a way of life that is saving.

These beginning verses have not been forgotten today.  We might not have to pick and press olives to have oil. We just switch a light on or talk to Alexa to turn on the lights in our home.  

But I challenge you to be more effective than the modern day implementation of these verses in the synagogue :  the (permanent, constant)  Ne’er Tamid lit in front or above the Holy Ark (Aron HaKodesh)..  

Tom Bodett an NPR personality (it’s a voice that is unique) in a commercial for Motel 6 speaks an iconic tag line “We’ll leave the light on for you”.  SO - BE THE LIGHT!, you must make an effort to light yourself especially in the dark times we are in.  This is where the light makes a difference in the shady places of humanity.  

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,[a] in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. NRSV 1 Peter 2:9

God Bless You all

Barry Shulam