In Parshat Tetzaveh, meaning “You shall instruct,” Moses receives directions for how to light the ner tamid (the eternal lamp) ¹ in the Mishkan (Tabernacle) with olive oil, how to make the garments for the high priest, and, finally, how to offer the korbanot (sacrifices). 

One of these sacrifices is the korban tamid, the twice-daily offering to God. Exodus chapter 29 reads: 

You shall offer the one lamb in the morning, and you shall offer the other lamb in the evening. ²

Our word korban refers to sacrifices, but a more specific meaning is “something which draws close.” And tamid here means something like “continuously” or “regularly.”

Take a second to think about why we’re being commanded this right now, at this point in the Torah. The Jewish people have just left Egypt, and now we’re in the desert. So we have a few parashot ³ relating to how we’re going to bring God’s presence into the Tabernacle. And one of the first practices God initiates in this new, more intimate relationship with the Israelites is the korban tamid, a continual offering.  

While we no longer have a sacrificial system in place, a lesson we can take from this is the value of temidiyut, the virtue of consistency—consistently offering what’s demanded of us in our task of bettering the world. 

The origin of our prayer services is a debated topic in the Jewish tradition. However, the most common position is that the morning and afternoon services derive from the korban tamid. 

The Jerusalem Talmud teaches:  

They inferred prayers from daily sacrifices. The Shaharit (morning) prayer from the daily sacrifice of the morning: “The first lamb you should present in the morning.” ⁴ [The] Minḥah (evening) prayer from the daily sacrifice of the evening: “And the second lamb you should present in the evening.” ^5,6 

And today in our synagogues, we have a replica of the ner tamid, in front of (or perhaps next to) the aron, the Torah ark. The ner tamid is not a miracle in the way we think of the Hanukkah light. Instead, it is the responsibility of humans to ensure that the light inviting God’s presence never goes out. 

Through these institutions, we see that the imperative of persistence in our relationship to God lives on.   

Our section of Exodus further explains the continuous sacrifices by saying: 

And you shall offer the other lamb in the evening, repeating with it the meal offering of the morning with its libation… a regular burnt offering throughout the generations, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting before the Lord. For there I will meet with you, and there I will speak with you, and there I will meet with the Israelites, and it shall be sanctified by My presence. ⁷

The medieval commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra comments that God’s promise of “there I will meet with you” is why the Mishkan is also referred to in the Torah as an Ohel Mo’eid, a “tent of meeting.” ⁸ And Rashi interprets the words “and it [the ohel mo’eid] will be sanctified by My presence” in the ensuing pasuk as saying, “for My shechinah [God’s ‘feminine’ presence] shall rest there.” ⁹

Perhaps the Torah is telling us that it’s only through this repetition, through this consistently showing up and doing our part, that we come into contact with the Divine. 

Our service of others requires us, like the ner tamid, to constantly be on: The schoolteacher has seemingly ceaseless long days doing the crucial work of caring for and educating our children. The nurse tasked with tending to the sick or elderly spends all day, every day, delivering physical comfort to those who need it most, no matter how difficult or unglamorous the task. The greatest activists, rather than engaging in little, one-off activities, take on the daily grind of organizing and agitating and advocating, even in the face of challenges that appear unsolvable. 

No matter what we’re called to do, the demands of consistency are overbearing for all of us. We all struggle with the daily obligation of rising to the task. No matter what work we’re called to do, it is hard to get out of bed, to show up, and repeat what we did in the previous days.  

And the work ahead of us also remains constant because there is an equal consistency that the vulnerable among us have in their needs. An impoverished child requires three meals a day. A person suffering from homelessness needs shelter every night. We perpetually need to ask ourselves, “How do we muster up the courage and temidiyut necessary to meet the needs that the other consistently has?”

Sources

1. For a more precise translation of the word tamid, see further on in this essay. The term “eternal lamp” is used here as that is the general English term used for the ner tamid.
2. Exodus 29:39
3. Parashot is the plural form of the word parshah (Technically, the correct pronunciation is parashah, while we are following the more common usage of parshah throughout these essays.)
4. Numbers 28:4
5.  ibid.
6. Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 4:1. The Ma’ariv (nighttime) service is not based on a korban. It is also interesting to note that, unlike Shaharit and Minhah, Ma’ariv does not include a repetition of the Amidah prayer by the cantor, perhaps for the reason mentioned here. It has further been suggested that since the repetition of the Amidah was instituted solely for the sake of the illiterate among the worshippers who could not pray themselves, it was omitted from Ma’ariv because, in pre-electricity times, most people did not go out to the synagogue (or closest outdoor site) at nighttime.
7.  Exodus 29:41-43
8. Ibn Ezra on Exodus 29:42:2
9. Rashi on Exodus 29:43:3