1
March 12, 2011
PARASHAT VAYIKRA
(“AND GOD CALLED”)
1ST Aliyah (P. 410, verse 1)
The Hebrew name “Vayikra” refers to God’s summoning Moses and
giving him the instruction to maintain a well balanced and holy
community. This third book of the Torah, named after the priestly
tribe “Levi”, reflects the perception that God’s created world is
fundamentally harmonious, good and orderly. To preserve God’s
orderly world, where everything has an assigned place, Leviticus
specifies what must be done whenever boundaries are wrongfully
crossed. In this book’s worldview, anyone who breaks God’s
ordained harmony can—and must—repair it. Rituals, including animal
sacrifices, serve to cancel or neutralize damage done to the created
order and, thereby, restore the equilibrium. In this way, holiness and
purity are relevant to all aspects of Israelite life, including the
Sanctuary, a person’s body, the home and the community. In today’s
world, many Jews use the principle of tikkun olam, to help repair what
is out of balance, in the community or the world. This concept begins
right here in Leviticus. It is our Jewish obligation to restore the
balance by giving to charity and by initiating projects to help the less
fortunate. When God’s plan breaks down, especially on the individual
level, the harmony has to be repaired. In ancient times, the sacrificial
system was used to maintain this harmony. Today, however, since
the restoration vehicle of the Sanctuary or Temple is no longer
2
available, the Rabbis have substituted the sacrifices with prayer,
moral obligation, study and mitzvoth. When Rabbi Yahan ben Zakkai
was passing by the ruins of the Second Temple, he said to a
colleague, “Be not grieved. There is another equally meritorious way
of gaining atonement even though the Temple is destroyed. We can
still gain atonement through deeds of loving kindness. For it is written
(in Hosea6:6), Loving kindness I desire, not sacrifice.” As Jews we
have to determine how we fit into God’s plan of holiness.
2nd Aliyah (Sha ne) (P. 413, verse 14)
Leviticus is a difficult book for a modern person to read with full
appreciation. Its main subject—animal sacrifice and ritual impurity—
seem very remote from our own world. Yet almost half of the 613
mitzvoth of the Torah are found in Leviticus. The modern reader may
be turned off by the sacrificial descriptions and rituals. As a matter of
fact, modern men and women tend to be more spontaneous and less
ritually orientated. Yet there is something deeply moving about
performing a rite, especially one that has ancient origins and comes
down to us from our ancestors, grandparents and parents. It is
important for us to know that we are “doing it right”. Rituals, including
proscribed prayers, tell us how to act and what to say when we
cannot rely on ourselves to know what to do. Ritual is a way of giving
a voice to our ultimate values. Each of us needs a sense of Holiness
to navigate through the relentless secularity of our lives. For the
Israelites of Biblical times, it must have been gratifying to know what
to do when they wanted to approach God at crucial moments of their
lives, in need or in gratitude. For us, too, it is equally gratifying to
know how to cope with life’s events, struggles and life cycles.
3
Judaism has given us, a world view to use and follow so that our own
lives can be meaningful. For the ancient Israelites and for much of
the ancient Near East, the way to please God was through animal
sacrifice. There is no need to apologize for these rituals since they
were valid expressions of their times. Using the ideas behind these
ancient rituals, Judaism has continually updated itself to live and
thrive in the modern world, but its roots are right here in Leviticus—so
pay attention to its pages!
3rd Aliyah (Shileshe) (P. 414, verse 7)
The first portion discusses “olah”, which is the Hebrew name
meaning, “to go up” and it expresses the idea that the entire offering
“goes up” to God as smoke, the substance into which the animal has
been transformed by fire. The burnt offering is unique because all of
it must be burned, except for the skin. The English term, “Holocaust”
originally referred to this sacrifice. The text makes no mention of the
purpose of the ritual. The idea, however, seems to be that this gift of
life belongs completely to God—who gives life. It may express a
recognition that a part of what one has received from God must return
completely to God. The fact that the burnt offering usually appears
first in a series of sacrifices suggests that its purpose may be to open
up communications with the Divine. If so, then that goal would be
accomplished by showing generosity—giving part of one’s wealth to
God. Some of our present views of tzadakah originate in this part of
Leviticus. This section also mentions the mincha or meal offering. The
mincha offering includes: semonola or the choice sifted granules from
ground wheat kernels, olive oil, and frankincense. A poor person can
substitute this offering for more costly offerings. In matter of fact, the
4
Talmud comments “that when poor people bring an offering, however
meager, God credits them as if they offered their own souls.”
Abraham Kook, a chief Rabbi of Palestine, envisioned a time when
the Temple would be rebuilt and only the grain offering would be
brought, so that no animal would be slaughtered in God’s name. That
sounds good to me!
4th Aliyah (Rivee) (P. 415, verse 1)
This chapter deals with the third type of offering or zevah, in the
Israelite worship. It is the offering of “sh’lamin” or well-being. The
zevah sh’lamin is always given by an individual and never communal.
It is an offering of gratitude and well-being. It is called “sh’lamin” from
“shalem”, which means “whole” and from “shalom”, which can mean
“harmony”. It is motivated not by guilt or obligation but by a sense of
wholeness in the donor’s life or a sense of being at peace with one’s
family, with the Priests of the Temple and with God.
One
commentator believes that the name derives from the fact that “it
brings peace between the individual and neighbors who are invited to
join the feast”. Not all the sacrifices were meant to atone for guilt.
The first major categories of offerings were motivated by profound
reverence and overflowing happiness. Later injunctions of the Torah
imposed the rule that the sh’lamin had to be eaten on the day that it is
brought or the following day, at the latest, and that it must be
discarded by the morning of the third day. This was to encourage the
donor to invite more friends and to allow poor people to join the
celebration.
The sense of joy increased with the number of
participants. Many of the sacrifices were social events and served to
unite not only the family but the community itself. During holiday
5
celebrations the sanctuary was crowded with thousands of pilgrims,
who brought their animal and grain sacrifices. These sacrifices were
popular with the people. Not only did it offer the people a way to
communicate with Adonai (nigh) but it became a social event, in
which people met and shared not only food but news and stories with
each other. It was an expression of their world.
5th Aliyah (Ha meshe) (P. 417, verse 1)
The name of the sacrifice, mentioned in this portion, is “chatat”. It
derives from the same root as the word, “chet” or “sin”. It means,
“That which cancels out sin”. The chatat is for any accidental—not
deliberate—violation of certain ethical or ritual prohibitions. The
person who brings the chatat then shall be forgiven. This offering
takes different forms depending upon the social status of the
transgressor. The different steps indicate greater degrees of
responsibility and culpability, with infractions by Priests being subject
to the most stringent procedures. The rules emphasize accountability
rather than privilege. Impurity of the Priest in charge of sacrificial
rituals puts everyone at the greatest risk because his impurity infects
the Sanctuary most directly. This concept of greater culpability based
on a person’s position, is needed in today’s world, especially in our
own country. The decisions of our political, religious, industrial and
economic leaders have great impact on the lives of the community.
When they sin, the entire nation if not world is affected. This has been
quite apparent in the lives of many Americans, who are suffering from
the greed of the bankers, stockbrokers and politicians. If the Temple
were in operation today, there would be an overabundance of bulls
being sacrificed to God. The most current terminology replaces the
6
terms “sin” and “guilt” with the words “purgation” and “reparation”. The
terms better capture the function of these offerings—the purgation
offering clears away the damaging substances and the reparation
offering reconstructs or restores the system to its harmonious
wholeness. Our political, economic and business leaders have to be
willing to bring chatat to the altar of God and be willing to admit their
responsibility in creating spiritual and even physical danger to the
community.
6th Aliyah (She she) (P. 419, verse 27)
Sublimation of aggression, according to Janet Marder of the Women’s
Commentary, may, in fact, underlie the entire sacrificial system of
worship. A korban, an offering to God, is more than an act of
violence. It is violence transmitted into something higher; it is God reshaping a destructive human drive into productive creative energy.
Through bringing offerings to the altar, the fierce passions of the ego
are not indulged but controlled and transcended. Animals, valued
possessions and markers of wealth, are given selflessly to God—and
thus the worshipper learns gradually to overcome greed. Animal
blood is dashed on the altar, but human blood may not be shed.
Substitution trains the worshipper to restrain his/her own innate
savagery. A Chasidic commentator once said, “One who wants to
become close to God—must bring an offering—that is from oneself”.
What is the offering? It is the beast within ourselves—the part of
ourselves that is capable of cruelty and brutality, even to those we
love. The ritual of animal sacrifice, understood symbolically, conveys
the struggle of flawed human beings in order to attain closeness to
the Divine—to experience what we, today, would call spiritual
7
elevation, a consciousness of being lifted up to something higher than
themselves. From the rituals of worship set forth in Vayikra, we learn
that our yetzer hara may be channeled into constructive directions
and be employed for the good. If we closely read the seemingly dry
instructions and bloody details of animal sacrifice, we learn that
through the discipline of our faith, we can redeem what is broken and
flawed within ourselves, transforming barbaric urges into opportunities
for blessing.
7th Aliyah (Shive e) (P. 421, verse 11)
You are the Open Door
That beckons me in;
Peeking around the door frame
I begin to enter into your glory.
(The first stanza is from a poem by Debbie Perlman)
In the ancient world, the way through the Open Door was the
sacrificial system. It was the expected and accepted method to reach
out to God. The system was done with respect, seriousness,
communal awareness, satisfaction and great joy. Today, Judaism
has changed and has developed different methods to open “the Door
to God”, as the poem states. New ways, prayers, celebrations
developed to communicate with God and to repair the world. For us,
going back in time is not acceptable; but re-shaping ancient Judaism
to fit the modern mindset, while still keeping with traditional values, is
8
an on-going process. Sacrifice was appropriate for its time but we
now are in a new era, in which we have re-shaped Judaism, based on
its past sacred traditions, for the benefit of ourselves and the world.
What are some of the ways we can “Open the Door to God”?
To continue with the poem:
You move me forward, O Eternal
To step beyond self- made boundaries;
Lift my foot over the threshold
That I might abide with You.
In the house of the Eternal,
I found my questions;
Waiting to be posed,
They fill me with wonder.
Through the doorway of the Eternal
Jumbled sounds and mingled scents;
Warm sunlight falls across my lap:
All this, Your creation.
Sit with me Eternal Teacher,
Encourage my seeking;
AS I fill my hours with Your mitzvoth,
9
So shall I be filled.
Then send me through Your door
Stretching up to honor Your Name,
Sharing out this wonder,
Enriching myself in the giving.
Maftir (P. 423, verse 24)
Haftorah (P. 424)
Ya-amode, ya-mode, Ben ben Moshe, Maftir Chazak
or:
Ya-amode, ya-amode, Ele-e-zar ben Daveed v’Shrona, Maftir Chazak