Ben Pakman is a seventh-grader at the Delta Program at Booker T. Washington Middle School 54 where his favorite subjects are math, history and film. In his free time, Ben studies acting and voice at BizKids and participates in teen theater at the JCC. He just acted in an NYU student film, “Home Sweet Home,” where all the dialogue was in Russian. When he was younger, Ben sang in the Children’s Chorus of The Metropolitan Opera, singing in operas by Puccini and Alban Berg. He was the solo boy in Baz Luhrman’s “La Boheme on Broadway.” Ben is a proud member of Actors’ Equity. Ben also enjoys playing baseball and basketball and talking with his friends. His mitzvah projects included reading to students at the Herbert E. Birch School across the street from Hebrew Tabernacle and making sandwiches for the homeless. He also takes good care of his grandmother who lives next door to him.

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        This week’s parashah, parashat Tetzaveh, starts out with God talking to Moses on Mount Sinai and giving Moses detailed instructions on how to construct the Tabernacle. Because of these precise instructions, Moses can already envision the Tabernacle with its Ark, cover, display table, lamp stand, multi-layered tent with a wooden frame, an inner curtain, entrance screen, and altar which are all located within a yard surrounded by fabric curtains.

        God then tells Moses to keep a light in the temple, the Ner Tamid; also known as the Perpetual Light or Eternal Light. The Perpetual Light must be on the lamp stand, God says, and the Israelites must continue to bring clear oil to light it from beaten olives. Aaron, Moses’ brother, and his sons, who will serve as Priests, will light the Ner Tamid every day in the tent, outside of the curtain over the ark, and it will burn from morning to night as the Israelites keep bringing oil.

        God then describes the Priestly vestments in great detail. The priestly vestments are to include a breast piece, robe, tunic, head dress, sash, breeches, and an ephod of blue, gold, purple and crimson yarns. The breast piece will have two shoulder pieces attached by each of the ends and the decorated band that is on the two shoulder pieces will be made like the two shoulder pieces, but it will be made of the different yarns. Then Moses was to take two stones and engrave the names of the sons of Israel – six on one stone and six on the other – in order of birth.  Moses was to attach the stones to the shoulder pieces as remembrances of the entire Israelite people. In addition Moses was to make a gold frame and two gold chains and make a breast piece of decision like the breast piece with the sons of Israel on it. He would then make the robe of the ephod of pure blue where the opening for the head would be in the middle of it. The hem for the robe would be decorated with many things including fruit shaped objects, crimson and golden bells. Moses would then make the headdress that was inscribed with the words “Holy to the Eternal.” Moses would then give linen breaches to cover the nakedness of Aaron and his sons and turbans, sashes and tunics that should show both dignity and adornment. Aaron and his sons were always to wear these priestly vestments when entering the tent and meeting area. They were also to wear these vestments at their own ordination as priests.

        God then describes to Moses the ceremony for ordaining the priests. During the ordination, Moses was supposed to take a young bull of the herd and two healthy rams. Moses was also commanded to bring unleavened bread to the investitures, to put the bread in the basket and present it with the bull and the two rams. Moses washed Aaron and two of his sons with water and made sure that they wore the correct garments. God told Moses to take the anointing oil and pore it on Aaron’s head so that they would all be priests. Moses was to take the bull to the front of the tent and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the bull as the bull was slaughtered.

Several instructions were to be followed with the dead bull including pouring most of its blood on the base of the altar and burning all the flesh that was left of the bull after removing the fat on the liver and the two kidneys with the fat on them. Then Moses was to kill a ram in the same way as the bull except he was to cut it up and burn all of it as a sacrifice. After that, he was to kill the other ram and pour its blood all over the tent and on Aaron. Aaron and his sons were then to eat part of the ram on the unleavened bread. This was to be done exactly as it was said for the ordination of Aaron and his sons.

Instructions and details are some of the most important things in life. One may say that if you did not follow the instructions you would not be considered a worthy person. Following instructions gives order to life and without order there is chaos. For example, in my life at school, if I write a research paper, but don’t write it according to the instructions and guidelines given to me by my teacher, then there is no way for me to get 100 percent on my paper. Following instructions, even if you don’t like them, can help you accomplish complex tasks. If I wanted to get 100 percent on my paper, and also get extra credit, I would make sure that I include good details.

The rabbis teach us about the concept of hiddur mitzvah– beautifying a mitzvah.  Following instructions may be a mitzvah but, we get extra credit for making a mitzvah beautiful. Anyone can just use a paper plate for a Seder plate on Passover but somebody who follows hiddur mitzvah, honors the mitzvah by making it more beautiful and showing that they made a proper effort to either make a beautiful Seder plate or to use their earnings to buy one.

In parashat Tetzaveh, God’s instructions were very specific. God gave extremely exact instructions to Moses for the priestly vestments, the investitures of the priests, and the Ner Tamid, the Perpetual Light. The common saying is the devil is in the details, but the actual quote by Flaubert was: “God is in the details.” He might have been talking about this parasha.  If Moses did not follow these instructions and make these details absolutely according to what God told him to do, then it wouldn’t even be a mitzvah at all. This is somewhat rare in the Torah. Normally, when God tells someone to do something, the Torah just says briefly, “Do this” and they don’t give detailed instructions on how to carry out that commandment.

        One might ask WHY God gave such detailed instructions in this case. In my view God’s detailed instructions show that God thought these priestly matters were important. This is the first time after four hundred years of being slaves in Egypt that the Jews are trying to get back on track in terms of their relationship with God. God might also have been trying to elevate Aaron and his sons to an important position so that Moses would not be the only important leader among the Israelites.

The Ner Tamid is another example of God giving more detailed instructions than usual. The Ner Tamid is a symbol of hope for Jews all over the world. It has different names including the perpetual light, the regular light and the eternal light. A Torah Commentary for Our Times says: “There is a disagreement, however, over how the original Hebrew of those lines is to be translated and understood.”  It resembles hope because it is always lit and that shows that there is always hope for the Israelites even if they have spent 400 years in slavery, 40 years roaming the desert, and, just in the last century, being persecuted and murdered by the Nazis and other anti-semites. Hope is necessary in life, for individuals, peoples and nations and I think that was what God was thinking of when detailed instructions for the Ner Tamid were given to Moses and to the People of Israel.

        I think that the Ner Tamid should be known as the Perpetual Light, as opposed to some of the other translations I mentioned earlier. The Jerusalem Bible translates it: You are to order the sons of Israel to bring pure olive oil for the light and to keep a flame burning there perpetually.

        I doubt that many have noticed that in our synagogue, we also have a Ner Tamid which is above the ark, as all Synagogues do. As one commentary says, “The Ner Tamid is part of the architecture and religious symbolism of every Jewish sanctuary.” It is not very noticeable and that is why many people may not have noticed it as they might have back when the original Hebrew Tabernacle was made, not the one here on 185th Street, or the one on 163rd street, but the one built in the desert thousands of years ago. I think that the Ner Tamid should be a more noticeable, elaborate and large light standing in front of everybody on the Lamp stand on top of the ark. That might be why God gave such detailed and important instructions for it, because God wanted the symbol of hope to be noticed by everybody so that they would realize that there is always hope in the world for not just the Jews, but for everyone.

        Another example of God giving much more detail in the instructions than usual is when Moses is given the details for the investitures of the priests, for which God gives EXTREMELY detailed instructions.

        The investitures that the Israelites performed at the time of the tabernacle were what one might call, gruesome, horrific, disgusting, inhumane, horrible, sick, bloody and terrible because of all the animal sacrifice. The commentaries help us deal with this today. The Etz Hayim book says: “For these laws do not ask for our modern approval; they address themselves to the framework of their own time, which saw in such sufferings the means of creating a sacred context for the faith of community.”

 I agree with Etz Hayim. You must keep in mind that back then, they were not trying to meet the approval of people who would live thousands of years later. They were told by God to sacrifice certain animals and do it just the way that God wanted. The sacrifice would include taking a bull without any blemish and have the Priest’s hands on its head while somebody else killed the innocent animal. To us, killing a bull and spreading the blood of its lower body around the base of the bima and pouring the blood of its upper body on specific parts of one persons body while taking out the kidneys with the fat on them and eating them with a special type of bread while burning the rest of the body outside of the tent seems completely gruesome. To the Israelites, God’s wish was their command. I doubt that God really cared that after all that work making the design of the Priestly Vestments, it would all be ruined completely as the blood from the animal they were slaughtering started to splatter all over the beautiful clothing.

The investitures were not all death, blood and sacrifice although most of it was. There was high fashion and pageantry, too. The Israelites had to be absolutely sure that everybody was wearing the correct clothing. For example, whenever Aaron and his sons entered the tent where all these meetings, services and sacrifices would take place, they had to be positive that they were wearing the correct sashes, breeches, turbans and ephods with the correct hem. If they were not wearing everything correctly down to the last detail, then the services, meetings and sacrifices would not be able to take place which would not make God a very happy God. Imagine having to stop an event that thousands and thousands of people had to travel to or prepare for, just because one of the ephods did not have crimson yarn, it had blue yarn. What a waste of time!

The Investitures were an extremely important part of the Tabernacle. If it wasn’t for the Investitures, all the hard work put into building the Tabernacle would pretty much have been a waste too!

        The main theme in parashat Tetzaveh, to me, is that in life, details and instructions can be significant. The Torah shows us this in how God instructs Moses to construct the Tabernacle. In secular life, instructions on how to build a building or a bridge would be very important because the details could make the difference between a sound structure and collapse. Over time, however, all Jews – not only Reform Jews – have adopted different ways to carry out God’s instruction without following them literally. For instance, prayer took the place of animal sacrifices as an offering to God. Regardless, the details we follow are the essence of these commandments.

        The details are important in the parasha for many reasons. One reason is that Moses would not know how to perform the investitures and ordination if God had just said, “Hey Moses! Go ordain Aaron and his sons.” God would have to put many details into the instructions and have them in a good order and then the investitures would be done the way God wants. Without all the details, everybody would go developing their own opinions and actions on the matter of how and when to slaughter the bull and where to pour its blood and then everyone would be disagreeing and then it would cause controversy and make total chaos. Luckily, for this extremely important matter, God gives details because this time, God wants every detail done precisely; down to the last hem on Aaron’s Ephod.

        I think that in today’s society, we should follow some of God’s detailed instructions literally. For instance, we should give tzedakah and we should treat people fairly. There are many other mitzvot that we can choose to keep, like lighting the candles on Shabbat, conducting the Passover Seder, and lighting the Chanukah candles. Some Jews choose to follow all the Jewish dietary laws. Others follow none of them. And some take a middle road, respecting prohibitions against pork and shell fish.

        Even if we don’t observe all the mitzvoth, it is interesting to learn about them and think about their significance. For example, the Ner Tamid is a powerful symbol or perhaps it is a symbol of the eternal presence of God. We no longer have priests today but, it is possible to perpetuate this practice in modern times. However, rabbis took the place of priests and, no offense to Rabbi Wiener, but his rabbinical clothes are not as fancy as the vestments that God said should be worn by Aaron and his sons.

Prayer replaced animal sacrifice. It is hard to imagine High Priests slaughtering a bull in a very specific way while wearing their elaborate vestments and having to make new fancy vestments after every slaughtering. Instead of practicing these things, we can do something else that symbolizes what we used to do, but doesn’t copy it. For example, the Rabbi told me about how when one Rabbi is ordained, another Rabbi puts his hands on the about to be ordained Rabbi’s head to, in a way, “pass on the holiness” as the high priests did with all their holy sacrifices that would be passed on to God. This is a good example of echoing something that people did thousands of years ago, but not doing it literally.

        There are many examples of when it is important to have the details exactly correct. For example, when our choir sang today, each musician had to sing his or her assigned part in the correct key, in the correct tempo. If one person had slowed down or sung in the wrong key, the other singers would have been confused. Another example is in a play, when everyone must stay with the script because if someone messes up their line, then the next person who is supposed to speak will miss his or her cue and will not know what to say and everyone will be confused.  

        Today, we can still stick to many of the Torah’s details as Jews in our society. We should feel that our services today are just as holy and worthy as the ones our ancestors had thousands of years ago. Even though we don’t sacrifice, performing mitzvot with as much love today as we did back then is still important.

All of this talk about following details and performing mitzvoth well is all just the beginning of me becoming an adult and developing my own opinions on what Judaism should be to me today. Now that I am a bar mitzvah, I can finally make decisions for myself as a Jew and what I believe to be necessary for my life as a Jew. I can decide now what things I want to do as a Jew and I can decide how I want to do it. Being an adult now in my Jewish community, I believe, will benefit me because I will finally be able to speak like an adult and have my own opinions on Jewish matters like an adult. I know many wise adults in the Jewish community who say that the journey is just beginning here. Before, all the Jewish details were decided for me. Now, it is up to me to study the details and implement them for myself.

         I would like to thank a few people for helping me get to my special day. First off, my brother Lev. He’s been my comedian/entertainer/sports analyst/guy who punches me a lot/brother throughout my life. And a great friend, too. Second, I thank my friends for supporting me whenever I needed them.  I also thank my relatives for coming from distant places including Cleveland, Minneapolis, Boston, Maryland, California, and Cape Cod.  Of course, I thank my parents. If it wasn’t for them, you guys could be at home right now relaxing, and sleeping in (don’t hate them, it’s just ONE Saturday). I also thank Rabbi Weiner who has been one of my main teachers of Judaism for a long time and helped me with my d’var Torah. I thank Cantor Ruben for meeting with me before my Bar Mitzvah and showing me what it would be like when I was really on the Bima. And, of course, my tutor, Margot Fein. Margo, you have taught me everything I need to know for this day. My parasha, my haftarah, the prayers and so much more.  Last but not least, I’d like to thank all of you for coming today. Shabbat Shalom.           

Ben's father's comments:

Dear Ben,       

          Today you are being entrusted with one of the world’s oldest and greatest treasures—the treasure of Jewish tradition. Freedom to observe it is a tremendous privilege many of your ancestors dreamed about and fought for. Now it is your honorable duty to keep the tradition alive and pass it to the next generation.

         Your Bar Mitzvah is a cause for celebration for many people who are here today: your family, relatives, friends and members of this congregation. We would like to thank everyone who came to support you. This event is also important to some people who could not make it to this service and we can only imagine what a joy it would have been for those relatives, who are no longer with us, to watch you on the bimah of this temple today.

          Think of your German-Jewish great-grandparents who perished in Nazi concentration camps during the WWII. Think of your Russian great-grandfather who died as a Jewish victim of Stalin’s purges in the 1930s. Think of your American great grandfather David Greenberg, who over a period of time signed hundreds of affidavits of support to facilitate the escape of European Jews from Nazi-occupied countries. In the 1940s both he and your great grandmother Marian Greenberg provided support to groups and organizations fighting for the establishment of the state of Israel. Subsequently, as a vice president of Hadassah, Marian Greenberg interacted with many Israeli dignitaries, among them David Ben Gurion and Moshe Dayan.

         You remember your grandpa Felix who was only 13 when the Nazis came to power and as a Jewish boy was forbidden to give a violin recital in his native German town of Altenburg. The closure came 69 years later: after 45 years of playing in the Cleveland Orchestra and just a few months before he passed away Felix did perform that recital. His life journey took him to Prague, Palestine and eventually to the United States. Both Felix and grandma Joan, a brilliant lady and a great navigator to our entire family, who outlived Felix less than four months, loved you dearly and were very proud of you. We are happy to have with us today Joan’s brother, Uncle Jonny, with Aunt Alice.

          Your Russian grandfather Lev after whom your brother was named did not live long enough to know either of you. However, he will always be remembered as a torch bearer of Jewish tradition under the highly restrictive Soviet regime and for giving his family the major inspiration and the push to immigrate to America. As a gifted engineer of classified projects Lev Pakman, Sr. was for a long time denied permission to leave the Soviet Union. After almost ten years of despair, hope and a fierce struggle on both sides of the Iron Curtain, your grandparents and your father, their only child, reunited here in New York. Lev Pakman, Sr. felt that the goal of his life was fulfilled and passed away in peace just eleven weeks after he came to this country. To watch you reading from the Torah would make him feel happy and rewarded for all his years of effort and sacrifice. 

            It is great to have with us your grandma Marianna whom you call in Russian “babushka”. You know her life has not always been a picnic, but today at the age of ninety three and a half she admits that you and your brother Lev bring her joy and hope.

            It is also important to remember your Russian great uncle Meir in whose memory you received your middle name. He was reserved and taciturn (a unique case in our family), but very kind and warm. In the late 1920s, when Stalin decided to crack down on small business owners (many of them Jewish), your great grandparents were about to be imprisoned. Taking a great risk they fled their home town in Ukraine, came to Moscow and miraculously saved their lives. Unable to find the parents, outraged town authorities imprisoned their 16-year-old son Meir, a teenager, who was innocent even according to their standards. As an adult, Meir fought in two wars. His legendary self-possession saved his life. I remember him, the shortest man in a crowd, who made tall men look up to him, when he was winning all the chess and checkers games. He was incredibly kind, tactful, patient and delicate. Late in his life, dying of cancer, he made inhuman efforts to be self-sufficient in all his physical needs till the very last day. All his life Meir quietly observed Jewish tradition. Having no children of his own, he loved me, his only nephew, and he would be very happy to know that you bear his name.

            The story of your family proves that freedom to be openly Jewish can not be taken for granted. This freedom came to you through the efforts and sacrifice of many people, including your father, grandparents and great grandparents. Please, cherish it.

            Dear Ben, when you were born, your brother Lev was three years old. Mommy and I thought we were experienced parents who knew everything. However you proved to us that we knew very little. A very cute and affectionate baby, you demonstrated a strong character very early on. You were very clear about your needs and, if necessary, successfully raised hell long before you could talk. In fact, you began to speak when you were three and a half. Who could imagine that at the age of six you would be featured as a soloist in the Metropolitan Opera production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the baton of James Levine? A year later you sang in Baz Luhrmann’s LaBoheme on Broadway through its entire run and took part in the show’s Tony Awards presentation at the Radio City Music Hall.

            A younger sibling to a gifted and popular brother you admirably managed to pave your own way in the family. Even though Lev and you love each other, both of you feel a need to fight for attention. Your natural wit and common sense, the important tools in this “fight”, drastically sharpened when you became a “professional” TV viewer. As a result, you developed into a special, likable person with a great sense of humor. One day mommy asked you at 9:30 in the evening: “Ben, how is your homework going?”  “Great!” you said, “I almost started.”

           It feels rewarding and entertaining to spend time with you and Lev, even though frequently I learn more idiomatic expressions than I would like. There are many common memories and interests you and your brother share: same schools, Metropolitan Opera, sports and Shakespeare camp, where last summer Lev played the role of Macbeth and you played Macduff. The scene of your fight was a big success thanks to your artistic gifts, hard work and years of practice at home.

             You’ve been a good student at strong schools; you seem to know how to fight your fights, be a good politician, be practical, get and do what suits you best. You are a kind, warm, person, able to understand people and be sensitive to them. You made very good friends.

             Over the last few months you did a lot of hard work in preparation for your Bar Mitzvah, which culminated in today’s successful presentation. We are very proud of you. Now you are entering a mature stage in your life and all your good qualities will become more and more important. We wish you a lot of happiness and success. However we love you not because of your achievements even though we encourage them for your own sake. Mommy and I often call your bedroom the Treasury, especially when both our treasures, you and Lev, are quietly asleep.