Said to Myself

In this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, we see an elaborate description of the cloths of the priests in the Temple. What was the significance of these clothing? There we see it says he is dressed this way,, “ ​lkavod uLetiferet- for his honor and his splendor” ​ (Exodus 28:2). Living so long after the destruction of the Temple it is hard to make meaning out of all of these fancy clothes.

This week we are celebrating Yadid’s becoming a Bar Mitzvah. In preparation for this we had many conversations about this idea of honor. But to hear more on that you will need to listen to his Dvar Torah on Shabbat. Now I wanted to explore the idea of tiferet.

In preparation for Yadid’s becoming a Bar Mitzvah we brought him to a sofer to get his Tfillin. On the first visit he picked out the hand writing/penmanship he liked in the scrolls that will be in his Tfillin.  It was great to see Yadid make a choice about his own aesthetic of beauty- one translation of Tiferet. And then we went back a second time to the sofer for a fitting. And on this visit we got to talking about why the right strap on the head tfillin is longer then the left. Traditionally the right side represents  rachamim-compassion, where the left  side represents din-  judgement. The right is longer as a reminder to always be more compassionate.

Seeing Yadid put on this tfillin for the first time as a Bar Mitzvah at school I could imagine the fancy clothing of the priests in the Temple. Tiferet is the force that integrates the Sefira of Chesed (rachamim) and Gevurah (din).

As you see here Tiferet  is the balance between these two spheres. Yadid is very holy person with a deep sense of faith. Yadid is filled with a profound sense of compassion and a deep sense of what is right and wrong. Yadid gracefully finds the balance. Seeing him in his Tfillen I was filled with an overwhelming sense of  his ​splendor. I  am honored to be his abba and excited to see him emerge as a young adult. Mazel Tov Yadid.