Keeping the Lamp Lit

Shabbat Tetzaveh 5781 Sermon. It’s been a year since we were forced into a kind of exile from each other. Parshat Tetzaveh teaches us we are obligated to keep an ever-burning lamp lit in the Temple and, after the destruction and exile, the rabbis taught we must continue to light this lamp in our synagogues. This must mean that we, who are living exiled from each other, must also somehow keep a lamp lit within our own homes – the lamp of hope and meaning, and the commitment to keep going.