D’var Torah for Mar 26, 2016: “Tzav” [Lev 6:1 – 8:36]
SHABBAT SHALOM!
This week’s portion, called Tzav which means command or order, repeats with additional details the laws of sacrifices that were presented in last week’s Parashat Vayikra. In this week’s portion we learn about the sacrifices for the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, and the peace or well-being offering. Each one of these has its own requirements regarding what and how the sacrifice is to be made. The details to us in the 21st century seem way worse than just antiquated and obsolete. They seem totally unrelated to our modern lives. But let me try to make some of these passages a bit more relevant to us. To prepare yourself for these ideas, think about these three questions: 1) what is the difference between the Hebrew words ‘olah’ and ‘alah’? 2) Do you know that you have an ark inside of you? 3) What is the difference between an ‘olah’ and a ‘chatat’?
Many rabbis throughout the millennia have tried to make this week’s specifications understandable, using their intellects as well as their imaginations and their creativity to make sense of these rules. Here are three examples of their wit:
The first example concerns the burnt offering rules. Many of us know that in Hebrew sometimes the slightest change in the pronunciation of a word can make a huge difference in its meaning. Rabbi Levi, who lived during the 3rd century, pointed out that the word for the burnt offering is ‘olah’, but that it can also be read and pronounced as ‘alah’ which means to behave boastfully. Rabbi Levi argued that the Torah’s statements: “This is the law concerning the ‘olah.’ It shall go up upon its burning place on the altar…” can be understood to mean “This is the law concerning the ‘alah,’ the boastful person. He shall be destroyed by fire.” Rabbi Levi supported this interpretation by citing several examples in the Torah of insolence or pretentious behavior that were punished by fire. For instance, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah suffered destruction by fire for their cruel treatment of strangers and their snobbish and arrogant behavior toward one another. And Pharaoh was punished by fire because he boastfully questioned God’s power, saying: “Who is the God that I should heed and let Israel go {from Egypt]?” By reading the word ‘alah’ for ‘olah’, Rabbi Levi avoided dealing with a discussion of the burnt offering and focused instead upon the dangers of acting in a boastful, self-centered, and prideful way. The haughty or arrogant person, Levi declared, will ultimately end up as a burnt sacrifice on his or her own altar. This is an interpretation and a warning that I think we can all comprehend.
The second example is about what Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, who died just a few years ago, taught about the sanctuary that was built by the Jewish people in the desert. He suggested that that sanctuary symbolized the sanctuary that is inside every Jew. Just as the formal sanctuary has an inner and outer altar, so each Jew, wrote Schneerson, possesses a “surface personality” and an “essential core.” And just as the fire on the altar shall be kept burning and not allowed to go out, so too should the way one practices one’s Jewish traditions and beliefs not be allowed to diminish or even be practiced only subconsciously. Schneerson said that one’s practices and beliefs should show in the face a person shows to the world. Using the symbol of the continually burning fire on the altar, Schneerson stressed that a Jew must be “involved,” bringing life and fire to the three aspects of Jewish existence: the study of Torah, prayer, and the practice of charity.
The final example I’ll give this morning is actually about two offerings: the burnt offering (the previously mentioned ‘olah’) and the sin offering (or ‘chatat’). The Torah tells us that these two offerings should be sacrificed on the same altar. This seemed strange to the Yiddish commentator Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi, a Jewish scholar in the late 1500s in Poland. He figured out an interesting explanation: he said that the Torah teaches us not to embarrass people. The burnt offering is brought by someone who is guilty of sinful thoughts. And the sin offering is brought by someone who actually committed a wrong-doing. So, reasoned Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi, the Torah commands that both people should offer their sacrifices in the same place so no one will know the difference between the person who has sinned in thought and the one who has sinned in deed. In this way embarrassment is avoided. No one could point an accusing finger and say, “There is a thief!”
I find it interesting and even endearing that the Torah, which often seems particularly rigid and obscure in many of its rules, can also be so sensitive and compassionate toward people’s sensibilities, depending on how it is interpreted. With that in mind, I wish you all a SHABBAT SHALOM!