Tetzaveh - Clear Illuminating Oil For Menorah
The letters of the Name of God, which means, “I will be”, alef-hey-yud-hey (אהיה) can be expanded, that is, spelled out, in this way: alef = alef-lamed-pei (אלף), yud=yud-vav-dalet (יוד), and so on. Thus we get the expansion that consists of ten letters (אלף הי יוד הי).
In its turn, this expansion can be further expanded, and we will get a Name that consists of twenty-seven letters (אלף למד פי - הי יוד - יוד ויו דלת - הי יוד). Note that when given a choice of how to spell a vav, we spelled it with a yud, that it is vav-yud-vav (ויו). However, we could also spell it with alef, vav-alef-vav (ואו). If we do that, we will arrive at a different expansion of the Name of God, with alef (אלף למד פי - הי אלפ - יוד ואו דלת - הי יוד), and it, too, will have twenty-seven letters.
These twenty-seven are the same gematria as the word “clear”, “zach” (זך). The two-thirds division is found in many places. It indicates to us that we are dealing with an entity that has three parts. For example, the Jewish people are composed of three groups, Kohanim, Levites, and Israelites. The Tanach is composed of the Torah, Prophets (Neviim), and Writings (Ketuvim). The Kohanim give people a three-fold blessing. And every week one should repeat the Torah portion of the week three times: two in the original Hebrew, and one in the Aramaic translation of Onkelos.
The two-thirds here, represented by the two expansion of the Name of God, and also by the words “clear,” hint to the two-thirds of the Beauty of the Cosmic Man, Zeir Anpin, which are revealed to his female counterpart, the Cosmic Woman. When they are made known to the Cosmic Woman through his Foundation, which acts as a seal of their union, the purpose of the oil, “to bring out the light” becomes known, and “Light” is the Cosmic Woman. The phrase “clear illuminating oil to bring up the light (in the Menorah)” is thus a hint to their supernal union.
Art: John Frederick Kensett - New England Sunrise