…sacrifices. The Sages realised that sacrifices were symbolic enactments of processes of mind, heart, and deed that could be expressed in other ways as well. We can encounter the will of God through Torah study, engage in God’s service through prayer, make financial sacrifices through charity, create sacred fellowship through hospitality, and so on. The great question raised by Tzav,…
This sedra, speaking about sacrifices, prohibits the eating of blood: Wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. If anyone eats blood, that person must be cut off from his people. Lev. 7:26–27 This is not just one prohibition among others. The ban on eating blood is fundamental to the Torah. For example, it…
Among the sacrifices detailed in this week’s sedra is the korban todah, the thanksgiving offering: “If he offers it [the sacrifice] as a thanksgiving offering, then along with this thanksgiving offering he is to offer unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and loaves of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil.” Lev. 7:12 Though we have been…
Among the sacrifices detailed in this week’s sedra is the korban todah, the thanksgiving offering: “If he offers it [the sacrifice] as a thanksgiving offering, then along with this thanksgiving offering he is to offer unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and loaves of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil.” (Lev. 7:12). Though we have been…
The laws of sacrifices that dominate the early chapters of the Book of Leviticus are among the hardest in the Torah to relate to in the present. It has been almost two thousand years since the Temple was destroyed and the sacrificial system came to an end. But Jewish thinkers, especially the more mystical among them, strove to understand the…
…need that shock to help them change their lives. VAYAKHEL & PEKUDEI: The highest achievement is not self-expression but self-limitation: making space for something other and different from us. FROM THE BOOK OF VAYIKRA: VAYIKRA: For each of us God has a task. Discerning that task, hearing God’s call, is what gives a life meaning and purpose. TZAV: The more…
…today. Rabbi Sacks: The truth is, as Isaiah said, tzav letzav kav lekav (Isaiah 28:10), little by little. Don’t expect it to happen immediately. Even kibush ha’aretz in the time of Yehoshua was not instantaneous. Great movements take time. Already something that anyone would have said would have been impossible just a few decades ago, that Israel should have the…
Good leaders know their own limits. They do not try to do it all themselves. They build teams. They create space for people who are strong where they are weak. They understand the importance of checks and balances and the separation of powers. They surround themselves with people who are different from them. They understand the danger of concentrating all…
…by its alignment with the will and word of its Creator. Vayikra Tzav Shemini Tazria Metzora Acharei Mot Kedoshim Emor Behar Bechukotai Bamidbar (Numbers) The central theme of Bamidbar, the book of Numbers, is the second stage of the Israelites’ journey: physically from Egypt to the Promised Land, mentally from slavery to freedom. It is among the most searching, self-critical…
…to build that future. Then we can go back and think about the past, but not now, not yet. That is not the tzav hasha’ah, the command of our time. First, let us build that future. Let us repair everything that has been damaged. Let us build something even more beautiful in place of that which has been lost. May…