…seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. Vayikra 19:19 Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. Do not practise divination or sorcery. Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. Vayikra 19:26-28 And so the list goes on. What have these…
…its name: vayikra, meaning “to be summoned in love.” A mikra kodesh is not just a holy day. It is a meeting to which we have been called in affection by One who holds us close. Much of the book of Vayikra is about the holiness of place, the Mishkan. Some of it is about the holiness of people, the…
The twenty-sixth chapter of the book of Vayikra sets out, with stunning clarity, the terms of Jewish life under the covenant. On the one hand, there is an idyllic picture of the blessing of Divine favour: If Israel follows God’s decrees and keeps His commands, there will be rain, the earth will yield its fruit, there will be peace, the…
The Summary This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks. Parshat Vayikra devotes an extended section to the chattat, the sin offering, as brought by different individuals, including the Kohen Gadol, other leaders, and various community members. The whole passage sounds strange to modern ears, not only because korbanot have not been offered…
…and the verb lehakriv, which mean “to come, (or bring) close.” The name of God invariably used in connection with the sacrifices is Hashem, God in His aspect of love and compassion, never Elokim, God as justice and distance. The word Elokim occurs only five times in the whole book of Vayikra, and always in the context of other nations….
The Parsha in a Nutshell Vayikra is the third book of the Torah. This one is quite different from the previous two books. The book of Vayikra does not really tell a story or describe a journey like the other books of the Torah. The entire book takes place only at Mount Sinai, over the course of just one month!…
Something fundamental happens at the beginning of this parsha and the story is one of the greatest, if rarely acknowledged, contributions of Judaism to the world. Until now, Vayikra has been largely about sacrifices, purity, the Sanctuary, and the Priesthood. It has been, in short, about a holy place, holy offerings, and the elite and holy people – Aaron and…
The Summary This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks. Chapter 19 of Vayikra is about the right, the good, and the holy. It contains some of Judaism’s greatest moral commands. But it’s also surpassingly strange. It contains what looks like a random jumble of mitzvot, many of which have nothing to do…
…the traditional name Vayikra, “And He called”, seems merely accidental. Vayikra just happens to be the first word of the book, and there is no connection between it and the subjects with which it deals. The truth, I will argue here, is otherwise. There is a deep connection between the word Vayikra and the underlying message of the book as…
Our parsha, which deals with a variety of sacrifices, devotes an extended section to the chattat, the sin offering, as brought by different individuals: first the High Priest (Lev. 4:3-12), then the community as a whole (Lev. 4:13-21), then a leader (Lev. 4:22-26) and finally an ordinary individual (Lev. 4:27-35). The whole passage sounds strange to modern ears, not only…