Vayikra 5771

Parshah Vayikra
Leviticus 1:1-5:26 Isaiah 43:21-44:23

Vayikra means "and He called" which is from the first verse, "And the LORD called unto Moses, and spoke unto him out of the tent of meeting" Many comment on the question of why it states both he called and he spoke.

The word for "happened upon"--vayikar--is just one letter different from the word for "called to"--vayikra. [Rabbi Shimon Felix]

The Torah is written with this aleph smaller here to emphasize this point. It is said to have been an endearment.

Central to the book of Vayikra are the operations of the priests, the laws of ritual impurity, and the laws of purification. Vayikra is also called "Torat Kohanim, or the "Instruction of the Priests." [R. Neal J. Loevinger] Though the special obligations and duties of the Kohanim and Levites fill the book, it must be remembered that Israel is to be a nation of priests. Since the destruction of the temple, sacrifice is practiced by all Israelites in acts of tzedakah, prayer, and atonement.

Parsha Vayikra consists almost completely of the manifold laws for sacrifices. The laws describe different types of offerings as well as when and how they are to be performed.

I have appropriated this list of commandments in Parsha Vayikra from Wikipedia as it cited its source and the Torah Citations are useful.

According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 11 positive and 5 negative commandments in the parsha:

• To carry out the procedure of the burnt offering as prescribed in the Torah (Leviticus 1:3.)
• To bring meal offerings as prescribed in the Torah (Leviticus 2:1.)
• Not to burn honey or yeast on the altar (Leviticus 2:11.)
• Not to omit the salt from sacrifices (Leviticus 2:13.)
• To salt all sacrifices (Leviticus 2:13.)
• The Sanhedrin must bring an offering when it rules in error. (Leviticus 4:13.)
• To bring a sin offering for transgression (Leviticus 4:27.)
• Anybody who knows evidence must testify in court. (Leviticus 5:1.)
• To bring an offering of greater or lesser value (if the person is wealthy, an animal; if poor, a bird or meal offering) (Leviticus 5:7-11.)
• Not to decapitate a fowl brought as a sin offering (Leviticus 5:8.)
• Not to put oil on the meal offerings of wrongdoers (Leviticus 5:11.)
• Not to put frankincense on meal offerings (Num. 5:15.)
• One who profaned property must repay what he profaned plus a fifth and bring a sacrifice. (Leviticus 5:16.)
• To bring an offering when uncertain of guilt (Leviticus 5:17-18.)
• To return the robbed object or its value (Leviticus 5:23.)
• To bring an offering when guilt is certain (Leviticus 5:25.)

Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 2:3–73. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1984. ISBN 0-87306-296-5


The word “sacrifice” in English denotes making something holy. The primary sacrifice in European thought is that of Christ on the Cross. This greatly obfuscates the idea in the parsha. Therefore, "offering" is a more useful term.

In Hebrew the word for offering is "korbanot" from the root "to come close." Some Korbanot are voluntary offerings and others atone for transgressions of the commandments. The voluntary offerings mean that sacrifice is not just about maintaining equilibrium with our imperfections and our good deeds. I would argue form my experience that the 'distance' from G*d does increase if we allow our consciousness and our values to over-individualize. "Sin" to me is not the reason but the result of putting our self before G*d (and often others.).

The offerings described in Parsha Vayikra are of five types:
Burnt offerings ('olah)
Meal offerings (minchah)
Sacrifices of well-being (zevach sh'lamim)
Sin offerings (chattat)
Guilt offerings ('asham)

Each type of offering is elucidated in the Mishna, Tosefta, and Talmud at length. It is beyond the scope of my essay to summarize the law in full.

The Haftorah (Isaiah 43:21-44:23) relates Isaiah admonishing the Israelites for many iniquities including failing to perform sacrifices.

The subject of sacrifices is hard to relate to and often met with revulsion by modern sensibilities. I separate this into two levels of discomfort, the physical and the psychological. Physically, we now live in a world that leaves us removed from the constant massive slaughter required for our obsession with food. How many animals a day die to feed the population of the world? Our ancestors would not have been removed in this way; in the desert they were all husbandmen leading their animals.

There is value in comparing ourselves to this and asking what other 'masks' we are wearing. I am not psychiatrist but I think that the aversion some people feel is a displacement of the guilt for a lack of consciousness or denial of the source of our meat (or boots, belts, perfume etc.)

Other's however recognize this and still object to the sacrifices as archaic or unjust. Setting aside my personal belief that the G*d gave us the Torah and it tells us, we don’t tell it what is Just, it is interesting to examine.

First, people today don't like to be told certain people do this and other can only do that. Although, society was largely structured along very strict orders until the last 200 years or so, the idea we need someone to act for us is easy to rebel against. Reading about adolescent development recently, I came upon the familiar idea that many feel "It doesn't count if I don't figure it out or do it myself." Applied to our misdeeds that can only be amplified. Yet the sacrifices really represent an ordering of the chaos so that a community can share in something greater. We have similar systems of fines and fees to atone for violations of our agreements and entitle us to 'qualify' for different roles in society. These act to prevent dysfunction in the group and strengthen it. That is what the Israelites had to do after Egypt. They had to form and define a society.

Yet, when one thinks of killing a pigeon for a misdeed. It feels wrong.

If the sacrifice were some automatic payment, this would mean people with the most material could expiate the most sin. We have to reject that premise. European culture has been conditioned by many examples of greed like that of the Borgia popes whose simony lead to the blood soaked protestant reformation.

Sacrifices are not an automatic atonement. G*d does not 'gain' from it in a sense of a barter. The sacrifice must be something more. If we sacrifice for a lie without intention we redouble our iniquity.

Ritual is often accused or attacked because it can become ‘going through the motions’. In the face of such claims we must strongly defend ritual. Our actions are more important than our motivations. After the temple ethics evolved to replace ritual that could not be performed. This has informed the best in mankind. However, doing good is not meaningless because it lacks conviction. Conviction without doing good is meaningless. In the context of ritual we can examine and change our feelings. If we destroy ritual in principle we have no context but those we project from within. Systems without ritual can be completely positive (Daoism, etc). Leviticus has a strong focus on ritual.

For me the discomfort is that an innocent animal is killed for something we have done. I know that pagans practiced this all over the world since time immemorial. What bothers me is that we are taught that no one but ourselves can atone for our imperfections. It does seem idolatrous. However, if you think about war we can relate. We do understand that others can die for us and it honors them. (Sadly we honor them very little, and we ask them to sacrifice too easily for too little.)

Perhaps, if we identified with our flocks as our anscestors did and acknowledge that without them we would die, we might see sacrificing them as giving of ourselves. Perhaps it takes a recognition of the interconnectedness of life; with G*d as its source and center which can allow us to change from iniquity. In that way, offerings serve not only a ceremonial and symbolic function but directly move us 'close' to G*d.

Death is the primary source of ritual impurity, yet sacrifice (often death) can purify. It is a paradox. Yet neither is all sacrifice about purity or atonement. I can also be given in joy like the Shabbat offerings.

Strange as some offerings seem, it is important not to simply gloss them when studying Torah. First because it is the word of G*d, what he commanded. Second, we cannot simply view our past as ignorance and ignore the reality of the present. Finally, although prayer can serve the purpose of sacrifice and can even be done by anyone anywhere, so much of the Torah is devoted to the subject of ritual sacrifice that it must not be dismissed.

Some argue (Or cite Rambam) that sacrifice was a way to transition from the culture of idolatry. Yet Noah sacrificed and presumably there were no Idolaters to worry about for him!!!

Some go far as to say that sacrifice channels our inappropriate destructive drives into something higher. That the beast offered is the beast within us. This could be a constructive principle but it is our higher nature that is troubled and confused. I do not subscribe to a war against drives like those of animals. What other animals are 'destructive inappropriately'? Our base drive is the pride that sets us before G*d and others. The Torah teaches that one way G*d manifests, the way that makes it easiest for us to be conscious of his ever constant light, is in treating others justly. G*d is ever present but in Justice (As in real love) we experience greater awareness of that truth.

Mankind alone can be cut off from G*d by our actions. Our actions are dictated by our beliefs and our ideas of ourselves. I see no sin in animals but so much in man. G*d have mercy. G*d who authored the power and glory of nature yet transcends it.

Thy will is just, thy will be done. Help us to reject pride and serve justice. Help us to be close to you.

This is refrain as I have said it before in other contexts but to sacrifice we have to have something to offer. All we have is given and belongs to G*d. Therefore sacrifice or tzedakah is a recognition of G*d's loving-kindness.

It is G*d's mercy that spares us and provides for us. I hate "if only" but if only the world could respect this miracle. On that day his name will be one. Amen.