The ashes carried out in the morning reveal as much Light as the greatest sacrifice.
Weekly study · Monday to Friday
✦ All insights are drawn from articles by Karen Berg and Michael Berg published on onehouse.kabbalah.com.
The priest's first task, every morning, was to remove the ashes from the altar and offer them. Michael Berg teaches that the first action of the morning influences the whole day, and that this seemingly low action reveals as much Light as the costliest sacrifices.
One of the greatest illusions is thinking we are separate: from Rav Shimon bar Yochai, from who we are on elevated days, from those who are better than us. These differences of level are illusory, and they make us diminish our work on days we feel low.
Karen Berg tells that Rav Berg, on arriving to study with Rav Brandwein, was told to pack boxes of books. The lesson: a master does not only teach, he does. The higher the spiritual level, the greater the responsibility to take up the shovel and serve.
The priest began the day removing ashes, and that was not janitorial work.
Every offering, costly or simple, reveals the same amount of Light.
What we do first in the morning shapes the hours that follow.
Karen Berg: it is behavior that makes us spiritual, not what we believe.
The higher the level, the greater the responsibility to act and serve.
Tzav details the work of the priests, and Michael Berg dwells on the simplest task: carrying the ashes from the altar and offering them. It was not cleaning. It was a teaching against the illusion of separation, the idea that there are higher and lower offerings, connected days and weak days. Every act reveals as much Light as the greatest, and so the first action of the day, which shapes all the others, must be done that way.
When the Negative Side whispers that today our connection can be smaller, we must remember the elevation of the ashes: the Light can be revealed at any moment and from the lowest place, to the same degree as the greatest soul at its greatest level.
Karen Berg completes it with the same scene from another angle. Why did Aharon's sons, of such elevated consciousness, take out the garbage? Because the higher the level, the greater the responsibility to act, as Rav Berg learned packing books with Rav Brandwein. To be spiritual is to be, not only to speak about spirituality.
Do the first action of the day with awareness.
Choose the first act of the morning, even the simplest, and do it as an offering to the Light.
Elevate the task that seems low.
Choose a task you avoid because it seems small. Do it with the same care as a greater offering.
Do not diminish the work.
If you feel disconnected today, do your connection in full anyway. Remember the elevation of the ashes.
Turn what you know into action.
Choose something you already know about kindness or patience and take one concrete action today, rather than just speaking of it.
Serve more, speak less.
Write which humble action changed your week most. Thank the Light and choose one to repeat daily.
Each action of mine can reveal the whole Light.
I begin the day by serving.
May this week of Tzav help you do each action, the smallest too, as an offering to the Light. Shavua Tov!
If someone you love thinks their work is worth little, this portion shows the opposite.
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