Parshat Vayikra: Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26

Everyone who has had a Bar or Bat Mitzvah no matter at what age remembers some or all of their Torah or Haftarah portion. Perhaps they have forgotten how to chant it or a word or a verse but many can tell you what portion it was. This week’s portion Vayikra was “my” Torah portion. We begin the book of Leviticus this week with parshat Vayikra.

This portion begins by describing the various offerings to be made in the newly built Tabernacle. Designed by God, built under the supervision of Bezalel, dedicated for worship by Moses the Tent of Meeting will now be the place where Aaron and his sons offer sacrifices to God. This portion tells us of some of the basic offerings. They are described in detail.

Leviticus is often a difficult book for the contemporary reader because of the details of the sacrifices. Today we offer no sacrifices to God like those described in Leviticus. With the destruction of the Temple this form of worship of the ancient Israelites stopped. And rabbinic Judaism grew out of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in the year 70 C.E. So when we read even in this week’s portion about the olah - the burnt offering, or the mincha offering, a grain offering or the zevach shelamim, the offering of well - being these seemingly have no relationship to our lives today.

And yet, if we look at the idea that these sacrifices were brought to the Temple or even an earlier time, these were something that was pleasing to God, something that we had to give up, something that mattered. These offering sometimes were sacrifices that made atonement for sins or asked for certain blessings and bounty. The first of these described the olah or burnt offering were the standard offering made on Festivals but also could be brought by individuals as a voluntary offering.

The mincha or grain offering is to bring the person before God in thought. The zevach shelamim is an offering of well being or sometimes called a peace offering. This offering was used to make peace with someone who has been offended or to bring wholeness and happiness to those offering it. The chatat offering is a sin offering. It is brought to expiate the sins of either the people, the priest or it can be the king or individuals. The details of how the chatat offering is handled are different in these differing cases. The last section of this Torah portion reviews additional rules of the chatat offering and the asham offering which is guilt offering. The chatat offering mentioned in Chapter five deals with inadvertent sins and the asham offering for deliberate sins.
Additional sacrifices are reviewed in later portions of Leviticus.

For us today even though much of the details of the text seem arcane. The ideas behind them are not. Even as we ourselves miss the mark, or are guilty of an offense against others or God we still need some way to work through our process of atonement and expiation of our sins. Today we offer prayers as part of the formula for this atonement and expiation. In addition the giving of tzedakah—of charity helps add to this cleansing and healing process. Sometimes it is also the addition of community service or volunteering that will indeed help us erase the sins and errors we committed against others or ourselves or God and help us restore a sense of balance and equilibrium to our own lives.

Indeed that was the role of the sacrifices- to make it all right with the world, with God, and with ourselves and those whom we hurt or offended. Today these ought to be our own impulses as well—making things right in the world, with God and with ourselves and those whom we hurt or offended.

Posted by Tom at March 23, 2009 01:18 PM