Remaining solidly consistent: Am I a ‘tamid’?
I am writing this at 4:30 in the morning because my kids got up and are watching Torah videos. I grumpily tell my wife that they need to get back into a routine. Where is that red-light green-light clock we bought months ago?
Does anyone else find that discipline is harder in the summer? Routine relaxes when school lets out. There is more flexibility, more travel, more late nights. In many ways that looseness is healthy. But for those of us who require structure, summer can be genuinely hard.
Discipline gets a bad rap. A quick Google search turns up quotes about how it stifles creativity, kills spontaneity, boxes people in. There is truth to the value of stretching and experimenting. But being tamid, being consistent no matter how circumstances change, is one of the most important principles in all of Judaism.
It is no coincidence that this principle frames the entirety of Jewish law. The Rema opens the Shulchan Aruch with the words “Shivisi Hashem l’negdi tamid” (Rema, Orach Chaim 1:1). The final siman of Orach Chaim concludes with the word “tamid” (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 697:3).
• • •
From the very first ruling to the very last, Jewish life is bookended by the same ideal. Consistency. When halacha anchors your life, wherever the summer takes you, however relaxed the schedule becomes, there is still a day-in and day-out connection with G-d.
That is precisely what the Korban Tamid was. Every morning and every evening, without interruption, an offering was brought in the Beis HaMikdash (Bamidbar 28:3–8). Next Thursday (July 2), on Shiva Asar B’Tammuz, Jews around the world will fast.
The Mishnah in Maseches Ta’anis (4:6) records five tragedies that occurred on this date — one of them is that the Korban Tamid was discontinued. That consistency was broken. And it made the list of why we mourn.
A remarkable Midrash, quoted in the introduction to the Ein Yaakov, records a debate among the Tanaim about the most fundamental verse in the Torah (Hakdamah to Ein Yaakov). Ben Zoma points to Shema Yisrael. Ben Nanas argues for V’ahavta l’reiacha kamocha. Then Shimon ben Pazi offers a surprising candidate. “Es hakeves echad ta’aseh baboker v’es hakeves hasheni ta’aseh bein ha’arbayim (One lamb in the morning and one lamb in the afternoon).”
Imagine you are stranded on a desert island and can bring a single verse on a parchment. I can assure you that the daily lamb offering would not be the first thing to come to mind. Yet the conclusion of the Midrash is that the halacha follows Shimon ben Pazi. Because when you build real consistency into your life, the breathtaking big ideas, the oneness of G-d and the love for your fellow, follow naturally from it.
In Parshas Balak (23:10), Bilaam declares, “Tamos nafshi mos yesharim (Let me die the death of the righteous).”
The Ohr HaChaim explains that Bilaam wanted to go on living a life of greed and immorality and simply die righteous, collecting the reward of a tzaddik without ever having lived as one.
The Ohr HaChaim then adds a striking personal observation. He knew people who told him that if he could guarantee they would die one moment after doing teshuvah, they would repent immediately. What they could not imagine was waking up the next morning and continuing to live as righteous people. They wanted to die righteous. They did not want to live righteous.
What a tragedy to miss the point so completely.
• • •
Rav Elyashev was once offered the honor of serving as sandek at his great-grandchild’s bris, with the reminder that this carries a segulah for reaching great heights in Olam HaBa. He smiled and declined. He said he did not want to enter Olam HaBa through a back door. He wanted to arrive through his consistent daily connection.
Next Thursday, Shiva Asar B’Tammuz asks us something pointed. When summer disrupts the schedule, when no one is watching, what still gets done? Which mitzvah, which commitment, which act of growth remains nonnegotiable? What is the one thing that stays tamid?
By asking that question and answering it honestly, we do not only mourn the Korban Tamid that was lost. We reach, in our own small way, for the consistency that once filled the Beis HaMikdash every single day.
Am I a tamid?
Rabbi Benny Berlin is spiritual leader of BACH in Long Beach www.bachlongbeach.com.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
