Timeless Torah

Modern technological advances have made old-fashioned handwriting almost obsolete. Letters are typed and e-mails are downloaded. Memos are recorded on a dictaphone or scribbled on a palm-pilot. Halacha however, still requires certain Jewish documents to be hand-written. One example is the divorce document, a Get. So while a Kesubah (marriage document) can be printed for mass marketing, the Get still employs the services of a human scribe.

The Talmud questions the legal status of an engraved divorce and examines two scenarios. The first is a raised stamp that produces an engraved image. The Talmud classifies this as an act of “writing” and such a Get would be valid.

Regarding the stamp with a sunken image that leaves a raised picture, the Talmud offers two conflicting opinions. One Sage argues that as the stamp is pressed into the metal or wax, the forms being forced into the stamp’s engravings are not “written”, but appear as a by-product of pushing down the surrounding surface.

Introduced into this Talmudic discussion, is this week’s Biblical reading which describes the garments of the Kohain Gadol (High Priest). One of the garments, a thin golden plate (tzitz) worn across the forehead, had engraved upon it the words “Kodesh LaHashem - Holy To G-d.” This is understood to mean that the letters were to be embossed (raised). Later on, the Torah declares these words as “written”. This, the Talmud sees as positive proof that producing raised letters should be considered as writing!
The Talmud refutes this proof by pointing out that the words of the Tzitz were not formed from outside pressure. Instead, the headband was turned over and engraved from the backside of the band, so that on the front the words appeared as raised.
Why was the Tzitz produced in this manner? The Kohain Gadol represented the quintessential human. He was to be a role model and the paradigm of what G-d intended when He said, “Let us make man in our image.” How does such a person become the High Priest? Obviously he must be a direct descendant of Aaron. However, throughout history only a handful of men merited occupying that exalted station. The office demanded far more than Yichus (ancestry). It demanded an individual who was engaged in a never-ending process of growth and perfection.
As Kohain Gadol he would wear the ceremonial garments. Each reflected the inner sanctity of the man who wore them. A Tzitz fastened across the forehead publicly proclaimed that not only was G-d’s presence manifest within the four walls of the Mishkan, it was alive through the person of the Kohain Gadol. After all, engraved across his forehead were the words, “Holy To G-d!”
This is no small accomplishment. Such a person just doesn’t come along. Nor is one born this way. An individual of this stature spends a lifetime of concentrated devotion and perfection of one’s character that starts from the inside out.

This explains why the declaration, “Kodesh LaHashem” could not come into being by having it stamped from the outside. One doesn’t just receive this title and accolade as a gift bestowed from some external source. The process starts from deep inside (symbolized by pushing the letters from the backside of the Tzitz) and works its way out.

Still, after all the internal and personal work was done, the position of High Priest demanded a personality who could manifest that greatness externally. The words, “Holy To G-d” had to be raised and felt, demonstrating that the Kohain Gadol’s holiness was not to be limited to the person of the High Priest, but that his influence had to extend to others.

This should be a lesson to us all. Becoming the Kohain Gadol, or even becoming a good person, doesn’t occur by accident. Furthermore, outside pressure alone won’t produce very impressive, or very permanent, results.

Greatness lies within each of us is. In fact, nothing less than a potential Sanctuary is waiting to be developed. How is it realized? From within. What can you become? A breathing, walking, talking human Temple, a true “Kodesh LaHashem”.