Tzav

We can learn something from studying the different types of sacrifices, even if they don’t actually apply nowadays.

The sin offering was probably the most popular individual sacrifice. If a person had done something wrong, then he or she first of all had to confess what they had done. Unlike Christian confession, this was not directed to the priest. Each person had to confess directly to God and specify what it was that they done wrong. I think the psychology of this is brilliant. It is all about recognizing for oneself what the true situation is. You can fool others, but it is much tougher to fool yourself.

Then, if you were asking for forgiveness for something you had done to another person, you had to make restitution to that person before you could bring your offering. Only after a complete restitution and confession could you bring a sacrifice. You had to face up to your actions and their consequences instead of hiding behind a ritual.

The prophets kept on complaining about problems with the sacrificial system. What they were complaining about was hypocrisy and the abuse of the system. Isaiah asks what the point of bringing a sacrifice is, if the person is a criminal, cruel to others, and insensitive to poverty and deprivation. "There but for the grace of God go I." One has to get one's priorities right.

The sacrifice was not an easy way of getting out of trouble or a way of salving one's conscience; it was a way of getting us to appreciate life. You had to do justice and right wrongs and try to make the world a better place, and only then could you turn up on God’s doorstep and ask for forgiveness.

Vayikra

A new book, and it introduces a new body of law, mainly to do with sacrifices. In those days the sacrificial system had two roles. On the one hand, it was a system for worshiping and interacting with God. People like to give, to do something, either to celebrate or to ask for forgiveness, to thank or to atone. The sacrifices enabled people, rich or poor, to feel part of the religious system, to contribute to it, and to feel closer to God. Sure there was prayer and meditation, but people seem to need to feel part of a wider community as well.

The Temple ceremonial consisted of community ceremony, daily, weekly, and throughout the year, as well as on festivals. But it also allowed individuals to come in at different times and in different ways to be part of the ceremonial. In a way it is a bit like synagogues now. You can come in to be part of the crowd, or you can come in to do something, to participate as an individual, as well.

Not all the sacrifices were animal. But they were indeed a major part of it all, for the simple reason that originally animals could only be killed for food in a special way, in a special place, and by specified people. This way killing animals became a religious ceremony rather than a dehumanizing outlet for aggression or cruelty.

So originally if you wanted to eat meat, you had to go up to the Temple, have the parts you couldn’t eat offered up and burnt together with incense, and the rest divided between you and the priest (taxation!). The whole procedure was far more dignified and restrained than the processing lines and force required in modern abattoirs, which we hide from normal view. Nevertheless, the Gemara records animals fleeing the knife only to be turned back. Perhaps once the Temple is rebuilt, Elijah will replace the animal sacrifices with the meal and vegetarian options that actually existed then too.

Vayakhel & Pekudei

Vayakhel

On the face of it there seems no logical reason to repeat all the details of the Tabernacle. The first time Moses gets instructions to build the tent of assembly, the ark with its covers and cherubs, the altars, the table, the vessels, everything in detail of form, dimension, and materials to be used. The second time Moses repeats these instructions to Betzalel (the master craftsman after whom Israel’s school of Arts and Crafts is named) and his assistant, Oholiav.

The usual explanation is that this shows the importance of accurate transmission and of Moses' refusal to alter neither a jot nor a tittle. We might have expected a minor suggestion here or a modification there, or even the chance for the craftsmen to exercise a little free expression. But no, the dimensions and the details remain the same. Perhaps there was something more to the measurements than we realize. We know that we have forgotten many of the calculations that went into Stonehenge and the amazing structures of the Egyptians, the Aztecs, and the stone patterns of the Andes. There is a mystic dimension to the Tabernacle.

Given the fact that very few people had access to the written word on those days, the importance of repetition was that it made it easier to learn, to remember, and to retain knowledge. The importance of the dimensions of the Tabernacle, and then the Temple, is reiterated in Ezekiel’s famous message to the Jews exiled in Babylon, when he again reminds them of every detail of the dimensions of the Temple as if to say, "You will be rebuilding soon, so make sure you’ve got the plans right and ready."

The message for us is that there is a whole body of material to which we are oblivious. If we really value our heritage, we owe it to ourselves to look into it a little deeper.

Pekudei

The Tabernacle was erected and dedicated in the second year of the journey through the wilderness on the assumption that shortly the Children of Israel would be invading and settling in the Land of Canaan. Its function as a community center was reiterated by the way it was used as a sort of university or yeshiva for teaching and disseminating the law, both civil and ritual. Moses would teach what he had already received, and what he continued to receive, from God to the priests and the elders, who then taught and directed the rest of the people.

But there was a clear understanding that all of the structures were temporary and in due course other structures, permanent ones, would replace them in the Land of Israel. This transience was emphasized by the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud that centered on the Tabernacle. They were signs of God’s involvement and the signal for moving or settling. Fire and cloud--the one powerful in its capacity both to destroy and to nurture, the other the source of rain and life, yet at the same time vague, insubstantial, and ephemeral.

Just as their lives wandering in Sinai had elements of permanence and of transience, so too their spiritual life combined the two. Some laws were temporary, related only to a one-off invasion or to changing conditions like leprosy or slavery, and changing times like replacing the Tabernacle with the Temple. Others were permanent and eternal.

The manna, the cloud, and the fire were there initially till the invasion, which was expected to be a year away. In the event, they lasted for forty years. All of these elements exist within our own daily lives--the permanent, the temporary, and the unexpected. Torah gives a framework for coping with them.

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Ki Tisa

Moshe is up the mountain receiving the tablets of stone. Yehoshua is halfway up attending on Moshe, and Aharon and Chur are down below. When Moshe delays returning, panic sets in and "the people" come to Aharon and ask for an idol to represent God.

The delay could surely not have been in itself the cause of the need to create a golden calf. The need for images must have been very deeply ingrained. Hardly surprising, given the many animal gods of Egypt, and the Middle East in general. There must have been a current of discontent running through the camp long before. And of course we know how fractious the people had been even within days of crossing the Red Sea.

And what happened to Chur? He is never mentioned again. The Midrash suggests that he tried to stop the protesters and was murdered. That was why Aharon was so compliant.

When Moshe hears what is going on, he immediately appeals to God to suspend judgment. He gets nearer and sees the calf and smashes the tablets in anger. In anger? Or because the covenant with God had been broken, anyway, by the calf worshippers. He then conducts his enquiry. Decides it was a minority inspired deviation. Restores order and returns to God.

Normality is soon restored. The people in general are not punished. Why is it, therefore, that later on when the ten spies come back with a frightened report on the Land of Israel, and the people are terrified, they are punished as a nation altogether and made to wander for forty years until the fainthearted are all dead?

It seems that having problems understanding the nature of God is not as problematic as actually refusing to follow God and trusting. The Golden Calf people just didn't understand the nature of God. They said, "These are the gods who took you out of Egypt." Sure, they knew they had just made it themselves. In the final, analysis behavior counts. It is not so much what you think, as what you do.