Tzav: Zemer of The Week - The Ramaz School
Source: http://www.ramaz.org/the-ramaz-difference/torah-mitzvot/zemeroftheweek/parshat-tzav
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:11
Tzav: Zemer of The Week - The Ramaz School
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Tzav: Zemer of The Week
“Toda” – Thank You
Benny Friedman:
https://youtu.be/MScVEbVjAVc?si=z7cN5Igyw7BLgYQh
תודה לך על חושך ועל האור הטוב
Thank You for the darkness and for the good light.
פותח את ידיך ומשביע לכל חי
You open Your hand and satisfy every living being.
על הכל, תודה לך ה׳
For everything, thank You, Hashem.
Parshat Tzav includes the Korban Todah – the Thanksgiving Offering.
The Korban Todah was not brought only when life was perfect. It was brought after a person survived a dangerous situation: illness, travel, imprisonment, or war.
Which means,
Judaism’s model of gratitude is not gratitude for perfection. It is gratitude for survival, for growth, for life itself.
That is the message of this song.
The most striking line in the song is: “Thank You for the darkness and for the good light.”
Not
תודה על האור – thank You for the light.
But
תודה על חושך – thank You even for the darkness.
Because in Judaism, gratitude is not a reaction to when everything goes right.
Gratitude is a way of seeing the world.
If you want a traditional zemer:
The zemer for this week:
מה ידידות
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZhjPs3VAJo
The author of this zemer, Menachem, modestly hid the acrostic of his name at the beginnings of the second, third, fourth, and sixth stanzas. The zemer begins and ends with praise for Shabbos and Shabbos observers, and the middle stanzas cover a wide variety of Hilchos Shabbos. The zemer first appeared in 1545.
A central element of this parsha is the wide variety of Korbanot that various types of people would bring from Bnei Yisroel.
Some of the zemer’s connections to the parsha:
· 2
nd
line of 3
rd
stanza:
“ויכבדוהו עשיר ורש”
(“Both the rich man and the pauper will honor it”) – At multiple points, the parsha stresses the roles that both rich and poor can play in bringing Korbanot.
o For instance,
Rashi
(Vayikra 1:17) explains that the feathers were supposed to be left on bird sacrifices to bring greater honor to the poor who brought them as sacrifices.
o To achieve atonement, the poor could bring an offering of a tenth of an ephah (Vayikra 5:11), but the rich were prohibited from bringing the same offering (according to the Gemara in Kereisos 28a).
· Chorus and 2
nd
line of 2
nd
stanza:
“
ברבורים ושליו
”
and “
תרנגולים מפוטמים
” (“fatted fowl and quail” and “fattened chickens”) – The centrality of birds to this zemer mirrors the centrality of birds to the Korbanot (e.g., Vayikra 1:14, Vayikra 5:7).
Skip To Main Content
my
Login
Tzav: Zemer of The Week
“Toda” – Thank You
Benny Friedman:
https://youtu.be/MScVEbVjAVc?si=z7cN5Igyw7BLgYQh
תודה לך על חושך ועל האור הטוב
Thank You for the darkness and for the good light.
פותח את ידיך ומשביע לכל חי
You open Your hand and satisfy every living being.
על הכל, תודה לך ה׳
For everything, thank You, Hashem.
Parshat Tzav includes the Korban Todah – the Thanksgiving Offering.
The Korban Todah was not brought only when life was perfect. It was brought after a person survived a dangerous situation: illness, travel, imprisonment, or war.
Which means,
Judaism’s model of gratitude is not gratitude for perfection. It is gratitude for survival, for growth, for life itself.
That is the message of this song.
The most striking line in the song is: “Thank You for the darkness and for the good light.”
Not
תודה על האור – thank You for the light.
But
תודה על חושך – thank You even for the darkness.
Because in Judaism, gratitude is not a reaction to when everything goes right.
Gratitude is a way of seeing the world.
If you want a traditional zemer:
The zemer for this week:
מה ידידות
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZhjPs3VAJo
The author of this zemer, Menachem, modestly hid the acrostic of his name at the beginnings of the second, third, fourth, and sixth stanzas. The zemer begins and ends with praise for Shabbos and Shabbos observers, and the middle stanzas cover a wide variety of Hilchos Shabbos. The zemer first appeared in 1545.
A central element of this parsha is the wide variety of Korbanot that various types of people would bring from Bnei Yisroel.
Some of the zemer’s connections to the parsha:
· 2
nd
line of 3
rd
stanza:
“ויכבדוהו עשיר ורש”
(“Both the rich man and the pauper will honor it”) – At multiple points, the parsha stresses the roles that both rich and poor can play in bringing Korbanot.
o For instance,
Rashi
(Vayikra 1:17) explains that the feathers were supposed to be left on bird sacrifices to bring greater honor to the poor who brought them as sacrifices.
o To achieve atonement, the poor could bring an offering of a tenth of an ephah (Vayikra 5:11), but the rich were prohibited from bringing the same offering (according to the Gemara in Kereisos 28a).
· Chorus and 2
nd
line of 2
nd
stanza:
“
ברבורים ושליו
”
and “
תרנגולים מפוטמים
” (“fatted fowl and quail” and “fattened chickens”) – The centrality of birds to this zemer mirrors the centrality of birds to the Korbanot (e.g., Vayikra 1:14, Vayikra 5:7).