Vayikra
Summary of the Parashah:
At the end of last week’s Sidra, the Tabernacle (Mishkan) had been completed; Moses had anointed it and blessed the space and also the priests who would be the officiants within it. A cloud now covers the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of God fills the Tabernacle.
God called to Moses from the Tabernacle and told him the laws of the sacrifices (korbanot). There were to be diverse sacrifices offered to God for various purposes. The major sacrifices were 5 types – the Burned offerings, the Meal Offerings, the Sacrifices of Wellbeing, the Sin offerings and the Guilt offerings.
Burned offerings ('olah) could be bulls, rams or male goats, or turtle doves or pigeons, which the priest burned completely on wood on the altar. They were an offering made by fire in an expression of compliance to God and to make atonement before God.
Meal offerings (minchah) were of choice flour with oil, from which priest would remove a token portion to burn on the altar, and the remainder the priests could eat. Meal offerings could not contain leaven or honey, and had to be seasoned with salt. (Hence we add salt to the Challah on Shabbat). Meal offerings of first fruits had to be new ears parched with fire, grits of the fresh grain.
Sacrifices of well-being (shelamim) could be male or a female cattle, sheep, or goats, from which the priest would dash the blood on the sides of the altar and burn the fat around the entrails, the kidneys, and the protuberance on the liver on the altar.
Sin offerings (chattat) were for unwitting sin by the High Priest or by the community. They required sacrificing a bull, sprinkling its blood in the Tent of Meeting, burning the fat around the entrails, the kidneys, and the protuberance on the liver on the altar, and burning the rest of the bull on an ash heap outside the camp. Sin offerings were required for cases of betrayal of trust, such as when a person was able to testify but did not give information, or if someone touched a ritually unclean thing, or uttered an oath and then forgot to fulfil it. In such cases, the person had to confess and sacrifice a female sheep or goat; If he could not afford a sheep, two turtledoves or two pigeons; If he could not afford the birds, then he could offer choice flour without oil.
Guilt offerings (asham) for unwitting sin either by a chieftain or a lay person. A chieftain was required to sacrifice a male goat, putting some of its blood on the horns of the altar, and burning its fat. Guilt offerings for unwitting sin by a lay person who had forgotten to do something in the ritual of sacred things required sacrificing a female goat, putting some of its blood on the horns of the altar, and burning its fat.
Similarly, guilt offerings were required when a person dealt deceitfully in the matter of a deposit or a pledge, through robbery, by fraud, or by finding something lost and lying about it. In such cases, the person had to sacrifice a ram and make restitution plus 20 percent to the victim.
D’var Torah
A modern mind may look at the book of Leviticus and feel the distance. The world of ritual purity and impurity, of worship through sacrificial system etc is not one we instinctively understand and indeed are likely to find problematic. How can it be possible to come closer to God through such acts of ritual sacrifice?
Traditional Jewish practise dictates that young children are introduced to bible by studying Leviticus, based on the statement by Rav Assi who said that young children began their Torah studies with Leviticus and not with Genesis because young children are pure, and the sacrifices explained in Leviticus are pure, so the pure should study the pure. (Leviticus Rabbah 7:3.) I find it fascinating that our children begin not with the narratives that we find so often in books of bible stories for bedtime, not with the great dramas of exodus or Sinai, but with texts that do not pretend to have any historical interest, but are filled with rules and regulations about how to worship in the Sanctuary. The heart of Leviticus is that we have to learn how to encounter the God who dwells amongst us –remember that the Mishkan was built to remind people of the presence of God within and among them.
As we learn a series of rituals in order to approach God and come closer to an encounter with the divine, it becomes normative to think of God as a being who is in relationship with us. Leviticus teaches us that we can approach God, that God is open to our searching, indeed wants us to search. Leviticus also teaches that people do wrong things, both deliberately and unwittingly, and in either case forgiveness is not only possible it is waiting for us. What forgiveness requires is for us to know and acknowledge the wrong, and to do something about it in order to be absolved from the guilt.
Children, who have no difficulty believing in a divine being and who indeed often seem most at home in a world of searching for meaning, are indeed well able to begin to look at the texts in Leviticus that might be off putting for their more world weary parents. Children understand that bad behaviour has bad consequences, and that doing something to mitigate the behaviour will lead to better consequences. They believe that they will be forgiven no matter what they do, that they are loveable and acceptable even if their actions may not be.
So as we read the book of Leviticus, let’s remember it isn’t JUST a rule book for the priests, but a philosophy that says – approaching God is very easy, and if we do it thoughtfully, appropriately and mindfully then we will achieve what we want. The word used for sacrifice (korban) and for nearness share the same root k-r-v. Coming closer to God, having God come closer to us is what the ritual system is all about. We have replaced the structure with prayer and liturgy, but the underpinning understanding is the same. All we have to do is approach with a willing heart, and God will find us.
Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild