A.
וידבר ד' אל משה לאמר צו את אהרן ואת בניו לאמר זאת תורת העלה הוא העלה על מקדה על המזבח כל הלילה עד הבקר וגו' (“And Ha-Shem spoke to Moshe to say, This is the Torah of the ‘ola; that is the ‘ola on the fireplace upon the altar all night long until the morning....”). So begins our parasha.
It was pointed out last week that our parasha recounts the sacrificial service, the ‘avoda, of the Mishkan (and later, of the Béyth ha-Miqdash) from the point of view of the officiants, the kohanim who had been assigned the task of serving there.
With this in mind, our attention is drawn to an observation in the Talmud: "שיר המעלות הנה ברכו את ד' כל עבדי ד' העומדים בבית ד' בלילות" מאי בלילות? א"ר יוחנן אלו ת"ח העוסקים בתורה בלילה מעלה עליהן הכתוב כאלו עסוקים בעבודה (“‘A song of ascents, behold, Bless Ha-Shem all the servants of Ha-Shem who stand [ha-‘omëdim] in the house of Ha-Shem during the nights’ [Psalms CXXXIV, 1]? Said Rabbi Yohanan, 'These are talmidei hachamim who engage in Torah at night; Scripture considers them as if they are engaged in the ‘avoda'”; מנחות ק"י.).
The Maharsha asks: דלפי פשוטו דקאי אעבודת בית המקדש מאי "בלילות"? הא עיקר עבודה בימים הוא ולא בלילות (“Since, according to [the verse’s] simple meaning it refers to the ‘avoda of the Béyth ha-Miqdash, why [does it read] ba-léyloth [‘during the nights’]? After all, the essence of the ‘avoda is during the days, not during the nights....”), and responds that it is this which brings Rabbi Yohanan to see in the term ba-léyloth an allusion to talmud Torah at night. But this, it seems to me, still begs the question: Certainly it refers to some sort of activity at night, but what in the verse points specifically to talmud Torah? What really motivated Rabbi Yohanan to suggest this explanation?
B.
It seems to me that the key to Rabbi Yohanan’s thought process here may be discerned in the participle ha-‘omëdim.
Elsewhere in the Talmud (מגילה כ"א.), the gëmara learns from G-d’s instructions to Moshe on Mt Sinai, ואתה פה עמד עמדי (“And you, here, stand with Me...”; Deuteronomy V, 28) to instruct him in Torah, that one may not read the Torah publicly seated; rather, out of respect for the Torah, it must be read standing (עיי' רמב"ם הל' תפלה פי"ב הי"א ושו"ע או"ח סי' קמ"א סעיף א' ). Thus we see that the concept of ‘amida, of “standing,” is linked to the learning and transmittal of Torah.
In yet another place in the Talmud, we learn that אין שירות כשר אלא מעומד (“Service is not proper unless it is [performed whilst] standing”; זבחים כ"ג:), linking ‘amida to the concept of service, in a similar way to that in which it was related to Torah. Thus, the concept of ‘amida serves a sort of logical bridge, connecting talmud Torah and limmud Torah with ‘avoda. It is this, I believe, which enabled Rabbi Yohanan to connect the two ideas together, and tell us that talmidei hachamim involved in Torah may be considered as if they are involved in the ‘avodath Béyth ha-Miqdash.
But the Maharsha says that Rabbi Yohanan saw the remez, the allusion to talmud Torah specifically in the word ba-léyloth, and quite correctly noted that ‘avoda proper takes place by day, when the sacrifices per se are offered on the altar; the nights are reserved for “cleaning up”, as it were, burning the fats and limbs left over from the day (עיי' ברכות ב. במשנה ומגילה כ"א.).
We attest to this in our thrice-daily tëfilloth, even in the present intermediate age when we have no Béyth ha-Miqdash. It is only Shaharith, the morning service, and minha, the afternoon service, which are preceded by the reading of qorbanoth; Ma‘ariv, the evening service, contains no reference to the sacrificial service.
So that said, our question returns: Granted the logical link between Torah and ‘avoda provided by ‘amida, the same link could be applied to other mitzvoth, e.g. tëfilla, whose core is recited standing. The Maharsha tells us that allusion is to be found in ba-léyloth; how does ba-léyloth close the deal?
C. Ma‘ariv, the evening service, provides the clue. During Ma‘ariv we attest that divrei Torah are חיינו ואורך ימינו ובהם נהגה יומם ולילה (“our lives and the length of our days, and we review them day and night”). Here we could profitably ask: Why mention the day in the evening prayers?
The answer is that herein lies the ascendancy of Torah over the ‘avoda which, from our point of view, results from Torah, since without Torah the kohanim would not know how to be ‘ovéd. Talmud Torah takes place round the clock; it is the בריתי יומם ולילה, the “covenant by day and by night” which the prophet tells us justifies the world’s existence and the laws of nature (cf. Jeremiah XXXIII,27).
Hence, the verse’s reference to activity by night by ‘avdei Ha-Shem, ha-‘omëdim bë-véyth Ha-Shem, is an allusion to talmidei hachamim engaged in the activity which truly continues into the night; the béyth Ha-Shem is surely the béyth midrash as much as it is the Béyth ha-Miqdash.
If we now look at the second clause of our parasha’s initial verse, we see that it, too, can be read as an allusion to this vital ascendancy of Torah.
Zoth Torath ha-‘ola...Note that it does not read, as we might expect, zoth huqqath ha-‘ola, “this is the law of the ‘ola”(cf. e.g. Exodus XII,43; Leviticus XVII,7; Numbers XIX,2; XXXI,21). This suggests that we may learn something of Torah and its nature; and what is that? Hi’ ha-‘ola ‘al moqda ‘al ha-mizbéah, that it is ‘ola, “ascendant”, over the fireplace, over the altar (for so the preposition ‘al may also be read), the reason being that it is an occupation which continues kol ha-laila ‘ad ha-boqer (“all night long until morning”), unlike the ‘avoda, whose sacrifices must at least be laid upon the altar by day.
D. Next week we celebrate another Passover. In those periods of our history when we have merited the existence of a Mishkan or Béyth Miqdash, the centre-piece of the séder is the qorban Pesah, a form of shëlamim, as was explained in last week’s parasha. But whether we have the qorban or not, we recite the Haggada shel Pesah, which tells the story of the moral courage of our ancestors in rejecting the Egyptians’ gross idolatry, and thus – barely – meriting their miraculous redemption from that land.
The Haggada also tells us the secret of Israel’s survival throughout the long and bitter exile which has now characterized so much of our history. The passage reads: והיא שעמדה לאבותינו ולנו שלא אחד בלבד עמד עלינו לכלותנו אלא שבכל דור ודור עומדים עלינו לכלותנו והקדוש ברוך הוא מצילנו מידם (“and it is she has stood [she-‘amëda] for us and for our fathers, for not only one has stood upon us to destroy us; rather, in each and every generation they have stood upon us to destroy us; and the Holy One, Blessed is He, rescues us from their hand”).
The feminine pronoun’s antecedent is Torah. It is the merit of Torah, its study and appli-cation, which has stood by us and kept us in existence despite everything. It will be the merit of Torah which will bring about our eventual redemption and the reëstablishment of the ‘avoda, as the prophet tells us: והביאותים אל הר קדשי ושמחתים בבית תפלתי עולותיהם וזבחיהם לרצון על מזבחי כי ביתי בית תפלה יקרא לכל העמים (“And I shall bring them to My holy moun-tain, and I shall make them rejoice in My house of prayer, their ‘oloth and [other] sacrifices acceptable on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”; Isaiah LVI,7).
May it happen speedily in our time.
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