Abayei and the Morning Chaos

amother

Mon, Jun 12 2023, 1:17 pm

Something I noticed in davening today...

It would seem that the ideal Avodah in the Beis Hamikdash should be calm, orderly and logical.

First the large Mizbeiach should be cleaned and prepared. The morning Tomid should be properly slaughtered, sprinkled, and sacrificed.

Then we should move on to the Mizbeiach Haketores. Once it is prepared properly and the sweet smell is filling up the whole Beis Hamikdash, we can move on to the Menorah.

We then call upon the Kohen Gadol to bring his daily Chavitin.

Finally, the regular morning Avodah complete, we bring the special Korbanos of the day, if any.

My heart feels settled just thinking about it.

But the picture painted in Abayei is very different!

Start preparing the wood for the big copper Mizbeiach. Don’t finish the whole thing, run over to take care of the wood on the smaller golden Mizbeiach. Now go back to the big Mizbeiach to put on two new large logs. Then go back quickly to the small Mizbeiach and take off the old ashes. Hey, the Menorah isn’t lit! Go over to the Menorah and clean five of the lamps. Run back over to the big Mizbeiach and sprinkle the blood of the morning Tomid offering. Go back and finish the last two lamps of the Menorah. Now go get the Ketores started! Burn the Ketores on the small Mizbeiach. Now go back to the big Mizbeiach, you still need to put the Korban Tomid itself there to burn! Okay, now bring the Musaf flour that goes along with the Korban Tomid. Now tell the Kohen Gadol to bring his Chavitin. Oh, and go pour the Nesachim wine on the Mizbeiach from the Korban Tomid. Finally finished the Korban Tomid! Okay, now on to the Musaf (if any) for today. And don’t forget the spoons of Levonah from the Shulchan! Those need to get on the Mizbeiach before the afternoon Tomid. Aaaaah! Where did the day go?

Obviously it wasn’t that chaotic. It may not have been straightforward, completing one part of the Avodah before moving on to the next, but it was planned and calm.

And maybe, just maybe, my own morning is the same?

From waking up myself and trying to get dressed and oh no the baby is up early and wake up the kids and breakfast and go get dressed and sign the forms and where is your shoe and eat your breakfast and oh no the lunches and WHERE IS YOUR SHOE and I still didn’t get my coffee and OH NO WHERE ARE MY SHOES? and there is honking outside and the laundry and goodbye dear and the dishes and work and baby and... hey? Where did the day go?

It may feel like a frenzied rush, jumping from one thing to another and never quite finishing, but it doesn’t have to be chaotic. Maybe I can do it all calmly, because that’s just how the Avodah is supposed to look.