“Leviticus aims to heighten and sanctify ordinary experience. It wants us to focus on the possibilities for love and good stored up in daily life, and tries to accomplish this through a vision of community that is symbolized, and prepared for, in ritual. Far from being irrelevant to contemporary experience, then, Leviticus concentrates on precisely the two elements [community and ritual] which many Jews find most appealing in Jewish tradition, and which are arguably most crucial to the revitalization of American Jewish life” (Arnold Eisen, Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America, 72).
According to Eisen, the central focus of Sefer Vayikra is the way the Israelite community will be centered around rituals in the mishkan. As such, our task as readers of the Torah is to translate the ancient rituals into our context, and see how each mitzvah remains essential to forming Jewish community.
In Parshat Vayikra, we open with a fairly simple explanation on how a person shall make a sacrifice before God. The Torah states that, “if his offering be a burnt offering of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it at the door of the Tent of Meeting, that he may be accepted, before the Lord.” (Leviticus 1:3). When examining this verse, our commentators argue that sacrifices provide some of the best means by which the Israelites can connect to God through immanence and transcendence. On the one hand, sacrifices provide tangible means by which the Israelites can sense God’s presence being near to them, thereby drawing attention to God’s immanence. At the same time, the very act of making a sacrifice emphasizes God being apart from humanity, thereby drawing to God’s transcendence.
In her essays on the Parshat HaShavua, Nehama Leibowitz brings a commentary from Benno Jacob, a modern German rabbi and biblical scholar, who argues that the sacrifices must be brought before the Tent of Meeting so that a person’s thought can become aware of God’s immanent presence. Jacob writes:
“Wherever man may be, he stands before the Lord. However, when “he brings an offering to the Lord,” he does so “before the door of the Tent of Meeting,” the place about which God said, “That I may dwell amongst them” (Exodus 25:8), where God commanded us to erect a dwelling place for the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) in the midst of His people, and where the Holy Ark and the Tablets are found. It is from there that God’s word reaches Israel through Moses. Here every detail remind man of his God, and nothing diverts his thoughts from God. Owing to his constitution, man needs such assistance (i.e. a “localized,” visible sanctuary).” (Benno Jacob)
Benno Jacob’s commentary emphasizes that the mishkan was built was so that a person could experience the divine presence in critical life moments. By extension, since each sacrifice is offered in moments when a person requires a deeper communion with God, one must bring the sacrifice to the physical structure specifically designed to serve as a catalyst for the immanent divine encounter.
However, while the ability to approach God and offer a sacrifice implies a degree of closeness between the Israelites and God, the command itself to offer sacrifices also indicates God’s ultimate transcendence. The Maharal of Prague describes the transcendent act of sacrifice in the following way:
"Perhaps it will seem difficult to you, if avodah (service of God) is not for the benefit of God, be He blessed, why then did He command this avoda to bring sacrifices to Him? This is no question, because even if this is not for God’s benefit, nonetheless when a person surrenders himself unto God, or even if he does not render up his soul to Him, but only his property, by bringing a sacrifice, this is still considered surrendering himself to Hashem when he gives Him his property. This is called avodah, because a servant (eved) is the property of his master... he and his property all belong to his master... When he brings a sacrifice before Him, this shows that all belongs to Him, for there is no other and He, may He be blessed, is One” (Maharal, Netivot Olam, Chapter 1).
In this commentary, the Maharal argues that by making an offering from one’s personal property, the person implicitly acknowledges that everything they posses does not belong to them, but can, and ultimately should, return to God. As a result, the act of sacrifice emphasizes the distance between humanity and God, reminding us we make sacrifices to God because God has unique expectations and requirements of us.
At any point in our lives, we are faced with the challenge of understanding what it means to pursue a divine encounter. However, while it may seem that Sefer Vayikra is the text least likely to help us pursue the divine, the above commentaries remind us that Sefer Vayikra’s emphasis on ritual sacrifice creates a framework to help draw us closer to God while also heightening of awareness of God’s uniqueness in this world. Similarly, we have the opportunity to remind ourselves and our children of our parasha’s overarching message, helping one another approach God in a way that increases our sense of closeness, while using that experience of closeness to demonstrate God’s unique place at the center of our lives. May each of embrace the challenge of experiencing God’s immanence and transcendence, letting the world of ritual sacrifice remind of what it means to pursue the divine encounter in tangible, meaningful, and powerful ways.
Shabbat Shalom!
No comments:
Post a Comment