The Remnants of Holiness
First person in the door of the sanctuary
The person to turn on the lights
To survey the mess left from the night before
Was a young priest -
Before the city was awake
Before pilgrims stood in line to offer their sheep and wheat
He would immerse himself in the mikveh
Put on special linen garments
And prepare himself to become a sacred custodian
His one job-
To sweep the ashes up from the altar
These ashes were what had been left of the olah - the burnt offering
The remnants of yesterday’s holiness
Gently wiped away - in order to do the same thing again today
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Unlike all the other commandments in this Torah portion,
Which outline all the steps for what and how and when to sacrifice
This is the only commandment that speaks not of the sacrifice itself, but of something else. Of cleaning -
And presumably there are other things that need to be scrubbed in the sanctuary-
It is, afterall, a bit of a gory game -
But this is the only cleaning task that gets special mention -
It is the thing that happens first - before anything else in the morning
No one sees him
There is no reward
No gratitude
No thanks - after all, no one is there to see it happen
But without it, the day can not happen
Why? Yesterday’s ashes would pile up too high
making no room for the new sacrifices
They would fall over the edge of the altar - and clog the fire
This kind of work -
Torah is trying to tell us
Is holy work
So it is a task that is specially assigned, by lottery each day
Not only holy work - but holy material
The ashes are not only to be swept away as trash, but actually lifted up -
The act is called, Trumat HaDeshen - the elevation, the lifting of the ashes,
Even the remnants of the sacrifices, the Sages explain, are still holy
They are lifted up to show, that “what was holy yesterday must be treated with respect today as well”
In the words of Hasidic Master Simcha Bunum.
What was holy yesterday -
Even if it no longer serves us
Even if it has no discernible purpose
Is still holy
The words and actions and hopes that we put into the world yesterday
Are still holy
Still worth holding on to --
Still worth Holding up
Even as we might need to move them aside to make room for what is next
This is about care -
About the kind of care that ethicist Nel Noddings describes as “natural care.”
Natural care is what we often mean when we talk about “caretaking.” Historically tasks assigned to women - nurses; teachers; assistants; housekeepers; cooks
Still considered “menial” by some-
Instead of demeaning these tasks of natural care, Noddings lifts them up:
“Human caring and the memory of caring and being cared for…form the foundation of ethical response.”
This is a gentler ethic - not commanding, but relational
When I experience care - then I am able to care for others
When I remember having been cared for - then I am less likely to act with anger and violence in the future
Care is love expressed -
When I experience love - then I am able to lead from a place of love
Care is empathy expressed
When I remember having experienced empathy - then I am able to open my heart
To care, Noddings writes, “is to act not by fixed rule but by affection and regard.”
As in the humble, seemingly quotidian, custodial work by those who are the very highest up on the social hierarchy - the priests. Actively desiring to be those chosen to lift up the ashes, they performed the task with the kind of care that only comes from a place of love and concern.
The kind of care that connects them back with their community - that humbles them- that reminds them of their humanness
Hebrew intuits this relational nature
There is no single Hebrew word for “care” like we have in English
There is only דאג- to worry about
Or even better - Tasim Lev -
To place your heart - your attention
On the person or thing for which you care
The kind of care - the bestowing of attention or concern - creates connection is made without an expectation of reciprocity
This, Rabbi Shai Held explains -
Is Judaism’s most radical idea- we are created with love, for love. And what is true about love is true about worth. [We act ethically] not to earn our worth but to live up to the worth we already have.”
The simple task of caretaking -
Of sweeping the ashes of yesterday’s sacrifices
Is an act of care and love that is given unconditionally - the priest receives no praise
Serving as a reminder that we are never above these sort of tasks
They are foundational to who we are and want to be in the world
It is this kind of care that grounds each human in both the most basic and the most advanced moral behaviors
It is the practice of paying attention -
Of placing our heart on the needs of others
So that we can act on our worries about the world
To earn the worth we have been given
And plant the seeds of care.