Priests vs Clerics - Tzav - Mythic Torah

http://patrickmcevoy.deviantart.com/

"Magic User, Fighter, Thief, Ranger, Bard or Cleric?"

I may have let the cat out of the bag in the last few weeks about some of my geekier interests and hobbies, but for parashat Tzav it's time to delve into another - Dungeons and Dragons (and other tabletop role-playing games).

D&D is a fantasy role-playing game in which each player creates a character to be their avatar in the game world, each character is defined by statistics, abilities, level, alignment and, most crucially for our discussion today, a class. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses - a fighter would be good at hand to hand combat but not best at sneaking past foes unseen, while a Magic User could draw on a potent range of spells but were weak if caught in combat.

Clerics were an interesting bunch. They had combat potential and could wear armour, they could call on their deities to banish the undead, and most importantly, they could always be relied on for healing spells. As long as a cleric was true to the strictures of their god (whichever god that might be), their powers were essential for keeping the party alive and in one piece, while a party without a cleric might struggle to make it to the final encounters with only a few hit points to spare.

And of all the stats that a D&D character has, it was Wisdom that was the Clerics most important characteristic.

As a student Rabbi, I like the idea that a cleric's main role is in wisdom (though I suspect Intelligence, Charisma and Constitution are also pretty important). A rabbis role is to learn our sacred texts and bring them to the people so they are accessible, meaningful and transformative.

But what about the Cohanim?

God of Fire and Forge - Pekudei - Mythic Torah

Purphoros, God of the Forge by Eric Deschamps, from Magic: The Gathering

 "Purphoros is the god of the forge, the restless earth, and fire. He rules the raw creative force of heat and energy that fills the souls of sentient beings. His energy emerges as chaos, something to be harnessed and shaped by labor and passion. For this reason, Purphoros is also the god of artisans, of obsession, and of the cycle of creation and destruction."
 -Planeswalker's Guide to Theros

As much time as I spend thinking about Sea Monsters, I probably spend more thinking about Magic: The Gathering, the awesome collectible card game published by Wizards of the Coast. While I love games of all kinds, Magic has the amazing combination of endlessly varied gameplay, the opportunity to experiment and be creative, and unbelievable fantasy art, that it has become my absolute favourite.

The idea behind Magic, and other collectible card games, is that every few months a new set of cards comes out, giving you hundreds of new possibilities for building your decks, and each year the game is set on a different fantasy world.

Now given everything you know about me, you can probably imagine my excitement when I discovered that this year would be set on a world inspired by Greek mythology, a world called Theros. This rich fantasy world has an equally rich pantheon, and one of the major gods is called Purphoros, god of the forge.

As the quote above shows, Purphoros is both the god of fire and destruction, and the god of artisans and artistic creation, the god who creates powerful enchantments and artefacts, and the god of violent rage and consuming fire.

This combination of art and fire marks the end of this week's parasha of Pekudei. We've spend much of the last month reading about the plans and construction of the mishkan, the mobile tabernacle in the wilderness, and after we've read about all these artistic and creative works, God finally manifests in the holy sanctuary:

Sleeping Giants - Reflections on Parashat Shelach Lecha

Gigantomachy, war of the giants, is my new favourite word.

Originating from Greek mythology, the idea that in primeval days great battles were fought against Titans and Giants is common to both Classical and Norse myth - but it also occurs in the Biblical tradition.

The Bible has a three-fold tension with giants, recurring at three key moments in the history of Israel - Gen 6 that discusses the Prediluvian Giants (pre-flood and another of my favourite words), Numbers - Deuteronomy, that deals with the giants of the land, and the story of King David and his followers in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, that show his great warriors slaying the last of these foes.

But there is a key difference between our wars with the giants and those of other mythologies. The Greek Titans were defeated by Zeus, the Frost Giants were constantly fought by Thor and Odin. Yet in our stories, the giants are fought by normal human beings.

Or were they also giants?
 

Mirror, Mirror - Reflections on Parashat Vayakhel/Pekudei

    “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”

    The image of the evil queen from Snow White, standing before her magic mirror, has become a fundamental part of western culture, from Disney’s classic cartoon to Charlize Theron, in Snow White and the Huntsman, and Julia Roberts, in Mirror Mirror. The evil step mother, obsessed with her own reflection, her own beauty lasting forever, has become a key part of our idea of what mirrors mean.

    We might then be surprised to find mirrors at the heart of the tabernacle, the mishkan, whose construction we read about this week as the conclusion of the book of Exodus.

    Exodus 38:8 tells us about Betzalel making the basin, the kiyor, with which the priests would wash themselves before beginning the service:
   
    8] And he made the basin of bronze, and the base thereof of bronze, of the mirrors of the serving women that did service at the door of the tent of meeting.

    We know that the mishkan was constructed from the offerings of the people, whatever their hearts moved them to give, but why construct the basin out of mirrors? What place do mirrors have in our most sacred places?