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Parasha Vayikra: Leviticus 1:01-5:26
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC;Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
"Teach Your Children Well"
This Torah portion brings us to the beginning of the Book of Leviticus. It was so named by church leaders, as it is full of the laws and rituals incumbent upon the priesthood. Its Hebrew name however is Vayikra, meaning, "He called." If you take a moment and open your Chumash (Five Books of Moses) you will note that the Aleph, which is the last letter of the word Vayikra, is written in a smaller font than the other letters.
Rabbi Bunam, a leading Chassidic rebbe at the turn of the nineteenth century in
As we read through this portion we note that it is about sacrifices. Again, we are given a mistranslation of the Hebrew. The Hebrew word is korban, or offering. It comes from the root word meaning "coming near." Offerings were the means to bring one closer to God. But if God is omnipotent and lacking in form, what does God need of our farm animals? Was it just to keep the priests on a high-cholesterol diet? Was this the original high-protein weight loss diet?
Of course God has no need for offerings. Maimonides (the Rambam-Rabbi Moses ben Maimon) in his Guide for the Perplexed says that we had become accustomed to this ritual dependency from other pagan sacrificial rites we had witnessed. He posits that the Torah amended these rites into something more palatable. But why would these laws continue into the days of the
Nachmanides (the Ramban-Rabbi Moses ben Nachman) writes that these korbanim relate to various aspects of our need for exoneration for various sins that we as humans commit regularly. The ultimate ritual of spilling the blood of an animal is to remind us of how precious life is and how close we are to having our own lives taken without warning.
When modern Jews do teshuvah for our sins, do we "return" and come closer to God? What do we offer? What is our korban? What is our sacrifice? Rabbi Samson Hirsch says a sacrifice implies giving up something of value to for the benefit on another. An offering is a gift that satisfies the receiver.
Since we now understand that God does not need our offerings, we come to the realization that the offerings were to our own benefit. The giver was also the receiver. Offerings were needed to deal with emotions from private and communal sinning, guilt, and dishonesty. We also needed korbanim to ask for peace. But did we then and do we now?
"I desired Chesed-kindness, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." (Hoshea 6:06). The writings of the prophets give us another way of coming closer to God. The rabbis in the Talmud do as well. But this way takes a lot more effort, sacrifice, and offering than did bringing prize livestock to the priests. Returning and claiming Judaism via Jewish Spiritual Renewal also takes a lot more effort than today's "checkbook Judaism" requires.
"The human being who only does good and never sins does not exist on earth." (Ecclesiastes 7:20). We are continually making errors. It is part of the human condition. It would be wonderful if we could always learn from our mistakes, fix any problems we caused, and not repeat them. Better still, it would be grand if we could teach others of our errors, so that they would not make the mistakes that we have made. If this actually worked, the 11 o'clock news would be a half hour of weather reports.
In Deuteronomy Chapter 11, Verse 13, in what we call the Shema, we read that we are to "love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul." In the Talmud Bavli (Tractate Ta'anit 2A), the rabbis ask, "What is the service of the heart?" And they answer, "prayer."
Many of us think we know what prayer is. Again, we are saddled with a mistranslation. Tephilah comes from the root of hitpallal, to judge one's self. We are not praying to God, asking for things to be given to us, although at times, that is what is seems like. True prayer, with full kavenah, intention and concentration, should be like an intensive psychotherapy session. We need to take a daily (if not twice or three times daily as we traditionally did) accounting of our blessings, actions, good deeds, and errors. Even the Hebrew word for sin means to miss the mark, as an arrow that has not made contact with its target.
In archery we know that with time, patience, and practice we will hit the target more often than not. If when we pray, we do real tephilah, real self-judging, and learn from our errors, do teshuvah and try to fix the harm we have caused others, we will have made a modern korban and will have come closer and more intimate with God and our own souls.
The holiday of Purim occurs in the month of Adar just about two weeks ago. In Talmud Ta'anit (29a) the rabbis write, "When Adar arrives, we increase our joy." They teach that Adar is the best month to try to remove personal barriers to holiness. The rabbis counsel that true happiness is not achieved by satisfying our corporal needs, but rather is achieved by using the wonderful pleasures of this world to gain spirituality.
Adar's zodiac sign is the fish. I am a Pisces and I am known to be a bit spacey and sometimes out of touch with the nuts and bolts of daily existence. Fish do not have eyelids. Our eyes are always open. We see what is, and we also see what can be. We are always doing hitpallal, self-judging. We swim in an ocean of spirituality held buoyant by Talmudic values. I never thanked God for my blessings when younger. I took it for granted. I finally appreciate what I do not have anymore, and I thank God every day for the many blessings I still am given.
One final point before this d'var Torah ends. Three weeks ago was Shabbat Zachor. We are commanded to remember Amalek. We fulfilled this mitzvah by reading three verses from Deuteronomy, in addition to this parasha (Deut. 25:17-19). Amalek was a tribe that snuck up on the rear of our camp, killing women and children. We were told by God to always remember them.
This special Shabbat precedes Purim, as Haman, we are taught, was a descendant of Agog, king of the Amaleks. Most of our sages interpret this to mean we should always be on guard for anti-Semites who are set out to destroy us. Unfortunately, the disease of Amalek is not confined to those outside of our religion. Each of us has the capacity to be Amalek. Thank God most of us keep that part of us, our yetzer ha ra, our evil inclination, in check.
But there are those of us, many who have positions in our very synagogues, temples, and shuls that engage in murderous behavior. The Chofetz Chaim (Rabbi Kagen) teaches that one who does lashon ha ra, gossips, bad mouths, even if the information is true, murders three people: the subject, the person they speak to, and their own self. The Talmud Bavli (Tractate Beracoth) also says that one who snubs or does not respond to a greeting in a similar matter is also a murderer as they cause the blood to drain from a person's face and cause intended good will to be destroyed.
Our temples, which house our sanctuaries, were meant to be places of refuge from the sinful behavior that is found on the streets. If we go to our synagogues to do offerings with the service of our hearts, to study to gain closeness to God, to do kavenah- filled tephilah so we can become better people, can we truly accomplish this while witnessing Amalek-type behavior? Yes, but we have to add prayers for these spiritually deficient people. Perhaps this Shabbat when we are continually reminded of Amalek, we cannot only pray for those people outside our synagogues' walls that practice hurtful behavior, but those among us, inside our sanctuaries, as well. Remember we are to self-judge, not judge others. And treat everyone you meet with kindness no matter how they treat you. That is Judaism.
Shabbat Shalom:
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC;Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA
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Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us. This companion to The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew brings the Torah alive with daily relevance to the Modern Jew.
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(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal
In The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality.
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(002) A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud
A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us.
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The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal and A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud. Purchase both books as a set, and I will donate a portion of the sales price in your name to the tzadakkah of your choice. -- Rabbi Segal
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