A summary of parshas Tetzaveh:
God instructed the Israelites to bring Moshe clear olive oil for Aaron and his descendants, the High Priest, to kindle lamps in the Tabernacle. Detailed instructions included sacred vestments such as the breastpiece, Ephod, robe, frontlet inscribed "holy to the Lord," fringed tunic, headdress, sash, and linen breeches. The breastpiece held Urim and Thummim for decisions. Pomegranates and gold bells adorned the robe's hem to signal the High Priest's movements. An ordination ceremony for priests involved sacrifices and rituals, signifying God's presence among the Israelites. This included slaughtering animals, blood rituals, and an incense altar made of acacia wood overlaid with gold.
Notes on parshas Tetzaveh
A Midrash taught that the lights of the Tabernacle Menorah were replicas of the heavenly lights. The Midrash taught that everything God created in heaven has a replica on earth. Thus, Daniel 2:22 reports, "And the light dwells with [God]" in heaven. While below on earth, Exodus 27:20 directs, "That they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light." (Thus, since all above is below, God dwells on earth like heaven.) What is more, the Midrash taught that God holds the things below dearer than those above, for God left the things in heaven to descend to dwell among those below, as Exodus 25:8 reports, "And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them."
A Midrash taught that God instructed Moses to cause a lamp to burn in the Tabernacle not because God needed the light but so that the Israelites might be able to give light to God as God gave light to the Israelites. The Midrash likened this to the case of a man who could see, walking along with a blind man. The seeing man offered to guide the blind man. When they came home, the seeing man asked the blind man to kindle a lamp for him and illuminate his path so that the blind man would no longer be obliged to the seeing man for having accompanied the blind man on the way. The seeing man of the story is God, for 2 Chronicles 16:9 and Zechariah 4:10 say, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." And the blind man is Israel, as Isaiah 59:10 says, "We grope for the wall like the blind, yea, as they that have no eyes do we grope; we stumble at noon-day as in the twilight" (and the Israelites stumbled in the matter of the Golden Calf at midday). God illuminated the way for the Israelites (after they stumbled with the Calf) and led them, as Exodus 13:21 says, "And the Lord went before them by day." And then, when the Israelites were about to construct the Tabernacle, God called to Moses and asked him in Exodus 27:20, "That they bring to you pure olive oil."[49]
According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are four positive and three negative commandments in the parashah:
To light the Menorah every day
The Kohanim must wear their priestly garments during service
The breastpiece must not be loosened from the Ephod
Not to tear the priestly garments
The Kohanim must eat the sacrificial meat
To burn incense every day
Not to burn anything on the incense altar besides incense