This
week, we begin a new book of the Torah, Vayikra. Also known as “Torat Kohanim”, “Instructions
for the priests”, the book focuses on instructions for Aaron and his sons as
they learn to perform the sacrifices that God has prescribed on behalf of the
Israelite people.
This
week’s portion, also called Vayikra (Lev. 1:1-5:26) mostly consists of listing the
practical components of the sacrifices in detail. We might think that these words have little
to do with our modern world. The sacrifices
we offer to God come from our hearts and minds rather than from our flocks and
herds. But while the concept of animal
sacrifice may be foreign, the reasons for which our ancestors brought the sacrifices
are entirely comprehensible. Those
outlined in this parashah are the shlamim,
the offering of well-being, the hattat, for
the unintentional commission of a sin, and the asham, offered for a sin of omission.
The
medieval text Sefer ha-Chinuch asks
why it is necessary for a person to make an offering for an iinadvertent act,
and the text’s anonymous author reasons as follows: “Perhaps we must atone for
inadvertent sins because the misdeed, though inadvertent, weighs on our
conscience until we do something to atone for it. Because verbal regrets do not strike us as
adequate, we must give up something to show our remorse.” This 13th century analysis of a
ritual, as well as the ancient text that prescribes the ritual, shows that
although times and rites may change, the human conscience remains remarkably
the same.
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