In this parsha, Tzav, we find something fairly unique, a Shalshelet, which is a very long repetitive trop (chanting) note, it wavers up and down three times. This musical note appears four times in the Torah. The first is when Lot, Abraham’s nephew, is told to leave Sidom. The Torah records that Lot “tarried,” and on the word tarried we have a shalchelet. The second place it appears is when Eliezer the servant of Abraham goes to find a wife for Isaac. The third shalshelet is in the story of Joseph and Potifar’s wife. She asks him to sleep with her and he “reisists,” and it is that word “resisted” that we read with the shalshelet. The fourth place is in our Torah portion – Moshe slaughters an animal to use to inaugurate his brother Aaron as the High Priest, and over the word, “and he slaughtered,” the shalshelet appears.
What do these four places have in common? In all of them there is hesitancy and equivocation reflecting the wavering sound of the note itself. Hesitancy here is the product of internal conflict. The individuals are drawn toward two opposite poles.
Lot was once upon a time on his way to Cannan, the promised land with Avrohom his uncle, but now he lives a different life in Sidom, the center of cruelty and degradation, where he ended up for economic reasons because there was good grazing land for his sheep. We can imagine the depths of his identity conflict. Is he Abrahamic or is he a Sodomite? A man of the spirit dedicated to the larger idea of the Jewish people’s mission, or a man of the flesh with business interests at heart?
The next shalshelet belongs to Eliezer the servant of Abraham. To be a lifelong, loyal servant presents one of the greatest internal identity conflicts there is. You are within your master’s family….and yet, not fully a part of it. Finding a wife for Isaac is the crux of Eliezer’s internal conflict because it’s about his future legacy. Will he inherit his master’s path? Will his future be part of the Jewish people’s or not? As the Medrash puts it: “Isaac said to Abrham, “Perhaps the woman will not come with me, then can Isaac marry my daughter? But Abraham refused Eliezer’s request.””
The third instance is Yosef. His is one of the greatest identity challenges faced by anyone in Tanach. He is of course a child of Yaakov, one of Bnei Yisrael, but he becomes the supreme Egyptian. He is about to sin with the wife of Potifar and, according to the Medrash, he sees the image of his father in the window. I don’t think Joseph’s challenge is just one of sexual desire this sinful act is his ticket into Egyptian society on the arm of a society woman, and so the conflict is about his past and present. The woman represents an aristocratic Egyptian future, but his father, whose image he sees at that moment in bed with her, represents his Israelite identity.
The fourth shalshelet is found in our parsha. Moshe slaughters the animal to make a sacrifice with which to inaugurate his brother Aaron as high priest. Moshe’s internal conflict is between the spiritual person he himself is, who goes up on the mountain to receive the Torah and does not eat for 40 days and nights. His face shines and he is the chosen one, the spiritual prototype. And yet here he must let go of that position. In the era of the Temple which they now enter, it is the High Priest, not Moshe, who will have access to the holiest of places.
In each of these cases our ancestor is successful. Lot leaves Sodom, Eliezer brings a wife for Yitzchak, Yosef stays an Israelite, and Moshe sacrifices his own spiritual level for God’s will.
What are our own internal conflicts that challenge us? Perhaps we feel at times conflicted about our own identities as Jews and Americans, or our loyalty to the United states and Israel.