Vayikra / ויקרא

Vayikra

With this week's portion, and the beginning of a new book of the Bible, we enter into the densely detailed and slightly nauseating world of animal sacrifices.

As people in the 21st century, imagining the setting of a grand house of worship where we bring animals to be burned on an altar is not exactly an easy jump to make. This world seems so foreign and remote it is challenging to relate to in any meaningful way.

One way to get a grip on this issue is to focus on little details in the text that say a lot. For example, the very first phrase of our portion, and the book is Leviticus, is eye catching:

וַיִּקְרָא אֶל מֹשֶׁה וַיְדַבֵּר יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֵלָיו מֵאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לֵאמֹר:

And He called to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying...

We are used to different words to describe God speaking to Moses -
וידבר (spoke)
ויואמר (said)
ויצו. (commanded)

ויקרא , called, is less formal than the above. Perhaps now that God has revealed part of God's self to Moses on the mountain, God feels closer to Moses, and can relate to him in a different way.

This is also the same word that we find during the Kedushah section of the Amidah, referring to the Angles and how they called to each other, "וקרא זה אל זה ואמר"

It is as if G-d is letting Moses in on an intimate secret, after the bombastic announcement at Mt. Sinai. There is definitely an added degree of trust here - God is telling Moses what makes God happy in the physical, sensual world.

We read over and over again that the sacrifices provide a רֵיחַ נִיחוֹחַ, a pleasing fragrance to God.

In a way, this is similar to how we tell things to our loved ones that we would never tell to strangers. God lets God's guard down a little with more informal phrasing.

In fact, a very important aspect of the sacrifices is to increase the intimacy of our relationship to God, strange as that may seem. The Hebrew word for sacrifice, קררבן, comes from קרב or closeness.

This brings us to the second verse of the portion:

דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם, אָדָם כִּי יַקְרִיב מִכֶּם קָרְבָּן לַי־הֹוָ־ה, מִן הַבְּהֵמָה מִן הַבָּקָר וּמִן הַצֹּאן, תַּקְרִיבוּ אֶת קָרְבַּנְכֶם:

The English is a bit clunky here: "A man who shall bring near of you an offering to G‑d, from the beast, from the cattle and from the sheep, you shall bring close your offering . 

According to Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the verse does not say, “a man of you who shall bring near an offering,” but “a man who shall bring near of you an offering”—the offering brought is “of you.”

The offering that we are bringing is not some fancy trinket purchased on the way to the temple - rather it is a piece of our farm or our home - our livelihood.

There is great flexibility in what is allowed to be sacrificed. For an עולה offering, which is completely burnt on the alter and not consumed by man, one can bring a cow, sheep, goat or even a pair birds (turtle doves or young pigeons). For the minchah sacrifice, made up of something like high quality matzah meal, סולת, we can bring it in the form of a challah or wafers, or in a frying pan or a deep pot.

This goes along with the idea of creating closeness. God does not want a goat farmer to all of a sudden have to purchase a cow so he can sacrifice it. The sacrifice of something that is close to us, that we encounter in our daily lives, is much more meaningful than simply following a procedure that is the same for everyone.

In other words, there is great flexibility, within the system, for serving God in one's own way. This is an important teaching that we can bring with us today. We are all individuals, created by God with individual attributes, skills, personalities, hangups, etc.

We should embrace own individuality and use that as a vehicle for increasing God's presence in the world.

As we see from the sacrifices, God wants us to bring the most intimate and unique parts of ourselves to come closer to him.

Furthermore, we do not sacrifice anything with leaven or honey, symbolizing luxury and pleasure. These are surface elements - God wants the real thing that can only come from deep down inside all of us.

Because we are all created in God's image, yet totally unique, the way that I come closer to God categorically CAN NOT be exactly the same as the person next to me, even if we say exactly the same words during tefillah.

There are some in the Jewish world who believe that they have a monopoly on Jewish practice and halachah. To be a "Real Jew" one needs to follow exactly the practices that they have established. I am proud to be a part of the Conservative/Masorti Jewish Community, which is pluralistic and accepts the idea that different interpretations of Halacha are not necessarily contradictions, and that we should embrace this variety in our view of Judaism.

I want to bless everyone here today with the inspiration to find a new, unique and personal way to bring more holiness into this world and the perseverance to make it happen.