Friday Dispatch: Chupie Day 🐾
Plus book news and a d'var Torah
I’m dedicating today’s Dispatch to my esteemed colleague, spiritual mentor, and diligent supervisor, Chalupa Jane Schwartz, Esq. Please join me in wishing Chupie a treat-filled 7th birthday.
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Friday greetings,
Below, you’ll find my d’var Torah (literally, “a word of Torah”) about this week’s parasha, which I wrote as an assignment for my preparatory independent study at AJR.
There are many, many ways to write a d’var. (Here are seven of them.) Most of all, it’s a chance to consider or teach something in the text that you want to look at more deeply and that can, ideally, spark something for the listener or reader, too. As always, I’d love to hear any thoughts you wish to share.
Before that, though, two book-related shares!
1. A Spontaneous Video
In an unscripted video Wednesday morning, I talked about how self-compassion relates to writing (and life, and everything).
Order copies for yourself and the writerly humans in your life on BookBaby (available now) or Amazon (March 18 publication date).
2. Instagram Live – Today at 2
This afternoon at 2:00pm ET, I’ll be joining Dr. Laura Vater on her Instagram for a live conversation about writing.
Laura is a writer and medical oncologist who has been working with me privately for nearly four years. We meet twice monthly to discuss her ideas, updates, drafts, revisions, and questions. It is an honor to call her a client.
Her most recent essay, How physician exhaustion kills compassion — and nurtures shame, was just published in STAT, a national journal that focuses on health, medicine, and the life sciences.
How can you join us? Hop over to Laura’s Instagram at 2:00pm ET: https://www.instagram.com/doclauravater.
Easy peasy. We’d love you to join us. Bring questions!
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As always, there’s so much more to say. Most importantly, I hope you are finding ways to come back to center, connect with kindred spirits of the human and more-than-human variety, and care for your heart. Also, keep calling your reps!
Shabbat Shalom and love,
Jena
Parashat Tetzaveh: The Invisible Makers
I tend to be someone who wears the same few articles of clothing day in and day out, according to the season. In the summer, you are likely to find me in shorts and a tank top. In the winter, I pull on my comfiest pair of jeans and a cozy, bulky fleece every morning. Because of this, when I do dress “up,” it really stands out, if only to myself. Putting on a dress for a date night or a nice jacket when I’m leading a workshop demarcates something out of the ordinary.
But what does beauty have to do with it? Is beauty superficial, or does it awaken something deeper and even holy in us? These questions whisper inside of this week’s parsha, Tetzaveh, where G-d delivers to Moses intricately detailed instructions for the sacral vestments – bigdei kodesh or “holy clothing” – his brother Aaron is to wear when entering the Tent of Meeting.
The reasons G-d offers for these elaborate adornments are twofold, l’kavod u’l’tiferet: for honor and beauty. Further, G-d tells Moses to instruct al kol hachmei lev – the wise-hearted – to make these clothes.
So not only must Aaron, in order to serve G-d on behalf of the Israelites, wear bejeweled breastplates and flowing robes, they must be made by those who have a spirit of wisdom, which is also translated as “gifts of skill.”
Now, honor is a reason one would expect; to serve G-d and the people in a priestly capacity warrants wearing something that will set Aaron apart from his fellow Israelites. Think about a judge donning a robe before officiating a ceremony or adjudicating a case. Dressing the part not only matters but is required in order to embody the seriousness and sacredness of Aaron’s role as priest. Still, I find myself curious about the equal emphasis on tiferet, beauty, and its cousin, wise-heartedness.
Sefer HaChinuch, a 13th-century rabbinic text from Spain that elucidates each of the 613 commandments, addresses this question of beauty. The anonymous author affirms, “No beauty should be lacking from any of [these] things,” e.g. including the clothing of G-d’s servants. Rambam draws connections to other writings, such as Psalm 96:6, “Strength and beauty are in His Sanctuary,” and Isaiah 60:13, “To beautify the place of My Sanctuary, and I will make the place of My feet glorious.”
In other words, the importance of beauty is not unusual and shouldn’t come as a surprise. What is striking is that even the makers of these beautiful vestments must bring wisdom and heart to their work
.The English word “skill” misses the essence and energy of the words ruach hachma. Imagine if every item of clothing we wore was made with great care. Indeed, it’s the veritable opposite of fast fashion. To don something that someone made with painstaking care, with the focus of not only skillful hands but with the spirit of wisdom, creates a link between the maker, the wearer, and ultimately, the One before whom Aaron would stand in his priestly vestments.
The makers are invisible here. We never see them or learn their names. But their presence is felt. Without them, who would sew pomegranates made of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, alternating with golden bells that would announce Aaron’s entrance into the Holy of Holies, to the hem of his robe, lest he die in the presence of יהוה?
Who would affix the four rows of stones, corresponding to the names of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, to his breastplate, so as to remember them always in the presence of G-d? Carnelian, chrysolite, and emerald; turquoise, sapphire, and amethyst; jacinth, agate, and crystal, beryl, lapis lazuli, and jasper – to work with such gems would require not only skill but wisdom and heart, perhaps even awe. In other words, these qualities are just as crucial as practical knowledge, if not more so, in what we make for holy purposes.
All of this makes me reflect on my penchant for wearing decidedly unfancy clothes. I am no Aaron, nor do we live in a time or place where such adornments remain common. I appreciate the freedom to prioritize comfort and ease of dress. But as I think about the incredible attention to detail, both of G-d in His instructions to Moses and in the makers of Aaron’s sacred garments, I am inspired to bring more intention and consideration not only to what I wear in important moments but also on how what I wear was made.
After all, no article of clothing simply appears. In a time when we may have forgotten what it is to bring wisdom and heart to our creations, Tetzaveh reminds us that what we wear and how it was made matters.
Hello Jena! I haven’t been following you lately. I guess I got distracted by…everything else! So I didn’t know about this latest book of yours. Congratulations!!! It looks fabulous and I’m already thinking of friends I want to give it to.
Excellent! The women in Academy Award dresses proclaim the genius of the designer gods who created them (both the dresses and the women as objects of our fascinated gaze).