Parshat Tzav: Exodus 6:1 - 8:36

This week our Torah portion is the second portion of Leviticus, Parshat Tzav. The Torah text continues to describe the many different kinds of burnt offerings for the Mishkan, the Tabernacle.
At the beginning of our portion however, is a bit of housecleaning! Perfectly timed this year for the week before Pesach when we too must clean out the chometz anything with leavening from our homes and prepare our homes and ourselves for the great Festival of Passover.

The sacrifices made in the Mishkan and in the ancient temple were messy business. The meat for any animal sacrifice was slaughtered, blood dashed sometimes on the altar, wine poured in libations and lots of smoke and fire. This is not the nice neat cellophane wrapped Kosher rib steak that you get at the Kosher mart. And we post moderns are generally not accustomed to the inner workings of meat preparations for consumption. Thus the Mishkan and the Temple were not pristine places. There were sections that reminded us of the back rooms of kosher butcher stores! Once the offering was prepared and brought on the altar and offered as the olah offering a burnt offering it remained on the altar all through the night. It would be completely consumed by the fire and turned to ash. But in the morning the altar had to be cleansed and the ashes removed. These ashes of the olah--of the burnt offering were not just any ashes. These were sacred ashes. Ashes and embers of holiness that helped transform the one who offered it as well as the relationship between the the individual and God.

And so our portion describes in the opening verses of Parshat Tzav what is to be done with these sacred and holy ashes. They are not treated in a caviler manner. These ashes were removed by the priest in his sacred garments and then the priest would change clothes and remove the ashes from the sacred precincts. The ashes were not dumped just anywhere. They were not just dumped on the trash heap outside the camp or city. These special and holy ashes of the burnt offering were to be placed in a clean place. The ashes and their sacred purpose was honored.

We are reminded by this act that the olah offering --burning the sacrifice in total is sacred not just as we would offer it. But the remnants as well. We treat them with respect for the power of transformation it provided for our souls and for the way in which it furthered our realationship with God. This is a powerful concept if we translate it to our world today.

We live in such a disposalable society. We throw everything away. We toss it in the garbage, throw it down the disposal, and toss people out of our lives for the smallest transgressions. Not allowing an opportunity for reconciliation. The ashes of the olah offering helped to bring a kind of reconciliation between an Israelite and God.

We don 't always think about the consequences of this behavior as our landfills have no more room and we are a world drowning in our own garbage. Both on a physical realm and a spiritual realm as well.
Last year's clothes can be used for those without clothing. We must recycle and not be casual about the need to do so. We must honor the uses of the things that have brought us pleasure or joy and even when we it is time to discard the remnants of our dinner--is there a clean place, we might use it? Composting? Food that just sits in our cupboards--can we give it to a food pantry?

Especially as we clean for Pesach--tradition told us to sell our chometz so it isn't in our possession. And there are many Jews who observe this halacha. They create legal documents to sell any chometz in their possession to gentiles for the duration of the holiday. Only to buy it back at the end. But is this the legal fiction God intendend? If we are really to clean out the chometz--perhpas we ought to give this food away as our sacrifice to those who need it so much-especially this year as the numbers of those who are hungry in our city and our country rise. Then just like the priests of old who dressed in their sacred garments to take away the remnants of the sacrifices, we too might take the remnant of our kitichen cupboards and let that be our sacrifice to rebuild our spirits and someone else's as we look forward to the Festival of Freedom.

Posted by Tom at March 30, 2009 11:43 AM