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SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OF
(Vayikra 1:2)
Adam ki yakriv mikem [When a man from [among] you brings]: This may be read as allowing for human sacrifice, since it could have
been formulated less ambiguously as Adam mikem ki yakriv. However, Scripture
has avoided this and prohibited it [human sacrifice], and so the verse should
be rendered: When a man
from [among] you brings a sacrifice to the Lord; from animals, from cattle or
from the flock you shall bring your sacrifice, but
not humans. And that is what
the prophet said: Which I never commanded, never decreed, and which never
came to My mind (Jeremiah 19: 5). And that is why the section regarding
sacrifices begins with the word adam
["human being"], to tell you that humans will be the sacrificers and not the sacrificed.
(Rabbeinu
Behayeiy on Vayikra 1:2)
When a man from [among] you brings - When he brings something of his own, with words of confession and
submission, in the manner expressed by the verse our lips shall offer bulls,
and as it says the sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, for there is no
interest in fools who sacrifice without first submitting themselves.
(Seforno
Vayikra 1:2)
Adam ki yakriv mikem korban la'Hashem
min habeheimah [When a man
from [among] you brings a sacrifice to the Lord] One must understand why the word adam
appears several times in Vayikra. In my humble
opinion, it appears that if Adam had not sinned, sacrifice would be practiced
in a completely different way, in the spiritual manner of angels, as God said,
"I want words" (Shemot Rabbah 38:4). That is why it begins with the word adam, as if to say that Adam's sin made this form of
redress, i.e., the presenting of an offering of cattle, necessary.
(Yodei
Binah, pg. 57)
Harm to the Other: a
Social or a Religious Transgression?
And Exactly Who is the "Other"?
Yosef Bengio
In memory of
Hannah, z"l,
A brave woman
of valor, beloved mother and
grandmother
Whose days were cut short
too soon.
The book of Vayikra, which is also called Torat
Kohanim, open up a new dimension in the story
told us by the Torah. The chain of events described by
the two earlier books is interesting. Bereishit
describes figures who serve as paradigms of values and
principles that are shared by humanity in general and by Judaism in particular.
In contrast, the second book - Shemot - concentrates
on the creation of one particular branch of
humanity, i.e., the Israelites who are later to be known as the Jewish People.
That is to say: Bereishit treats the general while Shemot treats the particular; and now in the third book the
text interrupts the story and enters into the inner, religious, and even ritual
aspect of this story of formation.
Our parasha begins
with the sacrifices. Shabbat Shalom has dealt with this topic often, devoting
an issue to it almost every year, so I shall not go into it at length. However,
I will point out two concepts that are hinted at by the sacrifices. On the one
hand, there is sacrifice [hakrava]: we are
called upon to cede part of our property, of
ourselves, in order to become closer [le'hitkarev]
to the Creator. This coming closer is achieved together with and thanks to this
abstraction, and we are all obligated and privileged to perform this
commandment. However, on the other hand, the sacrifice is an act of repair,
atonement, and erasure of sin designated for those who transgress the law. This
contrast comes to light in the order of the various sacrifices: first the burnt
offering and meal offering of the general public, then, separately, the sacrifices
intended to repair sins. This apparent contradiction can be overcome by the
fact that in as much as sacrifice [korban] is
drawing near [hitkarvut], unification,
cleaving to, and the like, it first requires that the one who sacrifices find atonement
and purity, since in this world good and evil are intermingled; in order to
rise up above the natural condition we must purify ourselves and erase the evil
within us. Thus, every sacrifice involves both of the above functions.
Various
sins are mentioned in the continuation of the parasha.
Two conditions must be fulfilled in order that the sacrifice
atone for them:
1)
The transgression involves the commission of a forbidden act (a negative
commandment), as if the sinner decided criteria of permitted and forbidden and of
good and evil by himself. It is a very serious thing when we permit things to
ourselves which are forbidden by the Torah - this is reminiscent
of Adam's sin; therefore this is the original sin, the source of all
transgressions.
2)
The second condition comes to soften the first: the transgression was committed
inadvertently. The act is wrong in itself but the intention remains good. There
is no abandonment of principle here, there is no
problem of conscience or morality. Here it is possible to see the Torah's
fundamental optimism...
The
next verses discriminate between different categories of transgressors. As
expected, the Torah differentiates between the individual and the group when
the transgression is common to the entire community. However, the Torah also
introduces a third category which we may define as belonging to both of the two
previous categories; it is called the prince's sin. It refers to an
individual person who acts in the name of the entire community; his
responsibility is obviously different from that of a private individual.
Somewhat
surprisingly, at the end of the parasha the Torah
presents a category of transgression which is not "religious," but
rather what we would call "social,"
such as theft, exploitation, breach of contract, etc. It should be pointed out
that social concern is reflected in the Torah's taking care that every person
be able to perform his duty and privilege of offering sacrifice. The economic
value of the sacrifice changes in accordance with the relative wealth of the sacrificer. I would like to dedicate some thoughts
regarding the social aspect of the sacrifices to all those people who, each in
his own way and inspired by the Torah, are trying to correct the social distortions
they find around them.
Let
us then read Vayikra 5: 20-26 together.
20) And
the Lord spoke to Moses, saying - This verse follows a line-break [parasha petuha] in
the Torah, as if to say that a new, different topic is being broached. It is
worth mentioning that the word va'yidaber ("spoke,"
rather than va'yomer: "said") hints
that hard words were said; the previous use of the word va'yidaber in 4:1 begins the passage on
transgressions.
21)
If a person sins, betraying the Lord - The verse begins with the word nefesh ["person," literally "soul"].
Why doesn't the Torah write If a person [adam] (or a man - ish)
sins when speaking of inter-human relations? In his commentary, Or
Ha'Haim, Rabbi Haim ben Atar explains that social
transgressions harm the soul just as religious transgressions do. When a
person sins, his soul loses some of its light and status. A social
transgression causes the soul to be spoiled. R. Atar's
comment explains the continuation of the verse - betraying the Lord.
We expected to find the list of social transgressions here, but the Torah
wanted to teach us that the harm he causes to his friend is also an offense
against God.
The
Torah lists a number of situations involving insult to the dignity of one's
fellow:
by
falsely denying to his fellow concerning a deposit: A gave B money or property as a deposit,
and when the time came for it to be redeemed, B refuses to return the deposit,
claiming that he had never received it.
or money given in hand Rashi explains
that this refers to a case in which two people joined together in some
transaction without witnesses or formal agreement. A human court cannot
intercede in such a situation, but there is a third party who is aware of the
deal and who can intercede - the Holy One blessed be He. The ShLaH HaKadosh supports Rashi's view, and writes: "How serious is the sin of
one who disavows business dealings? Even though it is merely a business matter,
he is a heretic against the blessed Lord."
or an object taken by robbery - this is self explanatory.
or he withheld funds from
his fellow[amito] The case itself is understood, but we shall
underscore the word fellow. The harm is perpetrated against
someone other than yourself, even though he is like you ("fellow" = amit = im =
connected). This is Saadia Gaon's
opinion; he defines amit as ra'ehu; his neighbor or kinsman. He adds that theft
involves a double harm: a) the theft itself b) the harm to the person as someone
bearing the divine image, which explains the phrase betraying the Lord.
The Or HaHaim goes even further in his
exegesis of the word amito in the phrase falsely
denying to his fellow as implying that he had cheated the entire
Israelite community.
22)
or he found a lost article and he denied it, etc. - All
of these examples are similar in that they all involve transgressions against
others, or more precisely, against their wealth or property. Neglecting the
other's outer presence (his external property: his home, money, fields, etc.)
appears to be more serious than harm to his inner self. "Beautiful souls"
will claim that property is unimportant and that the important thing is to
respect each person's spirituality. The Torah returns us to thoughts of this
world, to tell us that material matters must also be respected.
23)
and it shall be, when he has sinned and is guilty
- The sinner recognizes his transgression and confesses it. Rashi
emphasizes that without confession there can be no sacrifice or atonement. The confession
does not come to humiliate the sinner, but rather quite the opposite; it exalts
him and adds to his importance in that he expresses his spiritual freedom to
recognize his sin and confess to it. that
he shall return the article which he had robbed - The Zohar states that the tikkun
["repair"] for the act (i.e., the return of the stolen object, etc.)
is a necessary precondition for confession and completion of the atonement. It
might be thought that return of the stolen object constitutes the tikkun for the act of theft, but here the Torah
points to the social damage; in addition to returning the stolen object, its
owner must also be reconciled. To that end the Torah requires that the thief
add further compensation to stolen object he shall pay it with its
principal, adding its fifths to it. The Hizkuni
explains that if the thief admits to his crime he must pay an additional fifth
of the value of the object when he returns it. If he only confesses after being
forced to do so in light of other testimony brought against him, he must pay
yet another fifth of the additional fifth. The Hizkuni
adds that the sacrifice is brought to the priest in conjunction with the return
of the stolen object. All of these details come to emphasize the human aspect
surrounding this category of transgressions. The Seforno
compares the need to placate the victim of theft to the placation of Yom
Kippur: "The sacrifice does not atone unless he placates the injured party
before bringing the sacrifice."
25).
He shall then bring his guilt offering to the Lord - After his fellow
is satisfied, and only then, the sinner can bring his sacrifice to the priest. Why
doesn't he bring his sacrifice directly to God against whom he has sinned? This
comes to teach us about the place of the priest and about the name of the book
- Torat Kohanim
- the Law of the Priests - that the priest is considered to be a mediator
between the individual and God.
26) And
the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be
forgiven - The completion of the whole process closes the circle. The
transgression is repaired and the message becomes clear that a social
transgression bears the same weight as a religious transgression. The fellow,
the other, is the same other.
A
social transgression is actually a religious transgression - Doing evil to one's fellow means doing
evil to God. The "other" is always the "other"
whether he be my neighbor or God. My encounter with
the other, whether it be the divine "Wholly Other" or my neighbor or
my spouse involves a positive motivation that is my desire and ambition to draw
near to the other, to know him, to connect with him and cling to him. Friction
between the two does bring about mishaps, injuries, and transgressions. The
moral of our parasha is that all transgressions of
this type can be repaired and atoned for, and that this is the challenge
offered us by the Torah.
Dr. Yosef Bengio is a sociologist and
educator
Who is the Adam (Person) Who Offers Sacrifice?
Adam includes converts who take the covenant upon themselves as does
(Hizkuni
Vayikra 1:2)
The Torah's Intention: Instructing the People in the Ways of Justice
I saw fit to briefly express my opinion regarding sacrifices. The
sacrifices did not originate with a command, but rather with human choice. When
people decided to offer Him thanks for His kindnesses towards them, or to bring
Him a gift in order to calm His anger so that He might fulfill their wishes,
they could only treat their God as they would a king of flesh and bone. When
they came to offer a gift to God they could do nothing but burn it in fire, for
by burning it they removed it from their possession and from the possession of
other human beings, and from possession by beasts and birds. Also, when it
burned the smoke rose up, seeming to them as if it ascended to God. That which
was burned in God's honor was called kodesh
["sanctified"] from the expression yekod
aish ["burnt by fire"]. Later the term kodesh was borrowed in Hebrew to refer to other matters
in the Divine Torah, which were not aimed at teaching the people wisdom and
knowledge but rather at instructing them in the ways of justice. It was within
the Torah's power to discontinue sacrifice, but it did not do so, because that
practice is not evil in itself; it does not hurt people or their moral
characters. Rather, it does them good, for if the
Torah would have announced to the people that God does not want sacrifice,
later they would say: "What does God care whether we are just and what is
there to lose if we behave badly?" Since the belief that God oversees
human acts - loving those who do good and hating the wicked - is one of the
Torah's foundations, it was necessary that God not be portrayed in the full and
true degree of his exaltedness. Rather, His status was - so to speak - lowered
to be portrayed in human thought as a great king who understands all their
actions, hears their cries, and receives their gifts... if, instead of
sacrifices, God would have commanded prayer, hymns, reading of the Torah, and
moral preaching without commanding sacrifice, God's greatness and the fear of
Him would not have been impressed on the heart of the masses, for it would seem
to them that the foreign gods, whose devotees served them with sacrifices, were
greater and more honored than our God, who is served with mere words.
(ShaDaL
Vayikra 1:2)
But the custom which was in those days general among all men, and the
general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up, consisted in
sacrificing animals in those temples which contained certain images, to bow
down to those images, and to bum incense before them; religious and ascetic
persons were in those days the persons that were devoted to the service in the
temples erected to the stars, as has been explained by us. It was in accordance
with the wisdom and plan of God, as displayed in the whole Creation, that He
did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service;
for to obey such a commandment it would have been contrary to the nature of
man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used; it would in those
days have made the same impression as a prophet would make at present if he
called us to the service of God and told us in His name, that we should not
pray to Him, not fast, not seek His help in time of trouble; that we should
serve Him in thought, and not by any action. For this reason God allowed
these kinds of service to continue; He transferred to His service that which
had formerly served as a worship of created beings, and of things imaginary and
unreal, and commanded us to serve Him in the same manner; viz., to build unto
Him a temple; comp. And they shall make unto me a sanctuary (Shemot 25:8); to
have the altar erected to His name; comp. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me (ibid.
(Guide for the Perplexed,
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