As we begin our third book of Torah, the book of Vayikra
or Leviticus, we transition into the subject of sacrifices in the service that
took place in the Tabernacle. And for
many, as we enter into the subject matter, it can prove to be uncomfortable
reading. We read of animals being
slaughtered and burnt as a way of praying or sacrificing to God; this whole
sacrificial system can seem rather archaic and out of touch with our modern
sensibilities.
The book wastes no time and begins as Adonai called
to Moses who spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting saying. “Speak to the
Israelite people, and say to them: When any of you presents an offering of
cattle to Adonai, they shall choose their offering from the herd or from the
flock” (Lev. 1:2). In this way, we are
situated in the place where we left off at the end of the Book of Shemot, at
the end of Exodus.
With the Tabernacle having been completed, Moses
and God are now having a conversation, and God says to Moses to tell the
Israelites that when the people want to bring an offering, they shall bring it
from the herd or from the flock. And in
the English we lose something of the meaning of the Hebrew. Because in the Hebrew, we read “ki yakriv mi kem korban.” And this word “korban” and the idea of “yakriv”
comes from the Hebrew root “karov,” with
a sense of drawing close.
The sacrificial system was a way for the Israelites
to feel a close connection to God. This
might have happened because they brought the sacrifices to the Tabernacle, the
place that was God's dwelling place amidst the community. So in making that journey there they might
have felt that they were entering into God's sacred space. But in another way, just the act of doing
something physical - taking something of their own possessions - might have given
them a sense of connection and closeness to God.
For us in theory, this closeness, this “yakriv” comes from our prayers and from
the words that we speak, but we might wonder if prayers are a sufficient substitute
for sacrifices and what other ways we might find for drawing close to God. Each one of us, made in the image of God,
possesses within us that divine spark and perhaps, when each one of us helps
another person, extends a hand to another person, and just cares or loves
someone else - in that way we draw close not just to that person but also to
the divine spark. And therefore by
extension, we draw close to God.
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