Dvar Torah Parsha Tzav 5783

Vayikra 6:1-8:36

This week our parsha is Tzav. The sacrifices were described in Vayikra, and now in Chapters 6-7 we learn of the rituals associated with those sacrifices. It also provides a glimpse into participation of sacred meals to the priests. These latter chapters are addressed directly to the priests rather than the people. For this reason, the order of offerings is switched beginning with the offerings of highest sanctity.

A bit of semantics here. The Hebrew word “Torah” is derived from to “Cast, shoot” an arrow for instance. It also means “to aim, direct forward” i.e., to show the way, instruct. Building on that, an interesting observation is that 6:2 begins with the Hebrew Torat, meaning “ritual of” as “Torah for.” The Babylonian Talmud, Menachot 110A suggests that study of Torah replaces animal sacrifice after the destruction of the second temple. More on that later.

In my mind’s eye, I visualize the sacrificial process. People are lined up with their animal or grain offerings. Bullocks mooing protests as those bringing them must keep them on tight leash lest they try to fight with each other. Sheep and goats offering their opinion as they make their way to the tent of meeting, and then in later generations, to the temple. Children playing as they move along, and a cacophony of human voices along the way. Most looking down lest they step where they would rather not. Then at the sacrificial site, the noise of fear by the animals as they approach their death. The smell of smoke and heaven knows what else is felt by all. The closest I could come to it all was my experience as a child when my dad would take cattle we had raised to market. The animals herded into the corrals, then the bidding, followed by directing them in many cases to the slaughterhouse. I’m rather horrified by that whole process now, but growing up in East Texas, that was just what we did.

Another side note here. In the Christian Bible, they speak of the money changers at the temple. What is left out however is… the rest of that story in my mind’s eye. Imagine if you would, having to lead those sacrificial animals from well north of Yerushalayim? Rather a market was set up providing sacrificial animals that could be purchased that met all the conditions for a good sacrifice. It would sure make that long journey much easier and more pleasant.

Why sacrifice animals? It’s easy for our 21st century selves to condemn this practice. The prophets often railed against it as well. In their case for a different reason. The issue was why someone made this sacrifice. Did they bring it to try to buy off Hashem or was it a true act of love. For example, per R. Yitz Greenberg at Hadar, after the destruction of the second temple according to Avot de-Rabbi Natan, a panicked student asked R. Yochanan how people could gain forgiveness now that they could not bring sacrificial offerings, R. Yochanan responded there is a more efficacious method to obtain forgiveness, the practice of chesed or loving kindness. To support his point, he cited Hosea 6:6 quoting Hashem, “I want covenantal love (chesed) and not sacrifices.”

So why animal sacrifices in the beginning. First, virtually every religion in the region used animal sacrifice. If that was what people of the time needed to show their love of Hashem, that was fine. In a world where countless gods in physical form were there to tempt the Israelites, we had the temple, the ritual, all to help give the people a focus for their love towards Hashem. Animals and grains were what they had to offer, of their own free will, to say thank you to the G_d who delivered them from Mitzrayim (Egypt) and who was with them all along the way, dwelling in the physical tabernacle.

Unlike many religions of the time, the Jews did not focus obsessively on sacrifices as some others did. Per Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory, we found substitutes for sacrifices. First was gemilut chesed, acts of loving kindness. Second was Torah study. Third was prayer, and forth was teshuvah (repenting for the wrongs we do). Fifth was fasting and sixth was hospitality. Berakhot 55a says “As long as the temple stood, the alter atoned for Israel, but now a person’s table atones for him.” Rabbi Sacks goes on to suggest that the rabbis understood that sacrifices were symbolic enactments of processes of the mind heart, and deed that could be expressed in other ways as well.

Finally, why do we sacrifice? The short answer is, we love what we are willing to make sacrifices for. Rabbi Sacks again, “To love is to thank. To love is to want to bring an offering to the Beloved. To love is to give. Sacrifice is the choreography of love.” I deeply appreciate the wisdom of the Rabbis, who took the destruction of our temple and our dispersal throughout the middle east, Europe, and Africa, relying on the nature of sacrifice to weave a Judaism that is today as vibrant as it has ever been. Our sacrifices made a difference then and they do now. Our parsha described the beginning of religious expression and practice for a people, my people.

This parsha is read on Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Pesach, when we remember the liberation of and beginning of our people. Shabbat Shalom! Chag Paseach Sameach!