Parashat Tzav The Great Shabbat – Waiting in the Wings for Freedom
What is so great about this Shabbat?
It is the Shabbat before Passover—the Shabbat when the Israelites took the idols of Egypt, the lambs that the Egyptians worshipped, and set them aside to be slaughtered four days later. Moses pleaded with Pharaoh not to harden his heart and to let the people go.
It was the Shabbat when the Israelites began to break free even before they were released. In life we encounter different kinds of people. There are bad people—those who will never let you go and will destroy themselves before they allow your freedom. There are mediocre people—those who stand aside and say, “Stay out of it; I don’t want to get involved.” And there are good people—those who seek freedom for others and are willing to sacrifice themselves for it. Shabbat HaGadol—the Great Shabbat—takes its name from the words of the prophet Malachi, that God declares He will send back Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the Messiah. Elijah signals that redemption is near—that freedom is approaching even before the chains are fully broken.
Just like that Shabbat in Egypt before the Exodus, we must learn to hold the hand of God in freedom even before the doors open. We must free ourselves before others free us.
We should always be standing in the wings for freedom, waiting for the moment when the curtain rises and redemption begins.