…enter the Land (of Israel, occupy yourselves first with planting – and thus it says (Vayikra 10:23), ” When you enter the land and plant all fruit bearing trees. (Vayikra Rabbah 25:3) Of course, the trees are symbolic of man’s contribution to this world, to nature -something which is planted by human agency, rather than something which appears spontaneously. A….
…been in Shemot, or on sacrifices as it was in Vayikra, but rather on the laws in their social context. He spoke about justice, care for the poor, consideration for employees, and love for the stranger. He set out the fundamentals of Jewish faith in a more systematic way than in any other book of Tanach. He told them of…
…pair, telling the story of the present – Israel’s journey from Egypt into the desert and to the brink of the promised land. This leaves Vayikra as the central and therefore the most important book (not by accident was it the Jewish custom for many centuries to begin teaching Torah to children by starting with Vayikra). At the centre of…
…new way. No longer was the emphasis on the Divine encounter, as it had been in Shemot, or on sacrifices as it was in Vayikra, but rather on the laws in their social context. He spoke about justice, and care for the poor, and consideration for employees, and love for the stranger. He set out the fundamentals of Jewish faith…
…The Psalm (51:19) says “the sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit.” From this the Sages inferred that “if a person repents it is accounted to him as if he had gone up to Jerusalem and built the Temple and the altar and offered on it all the sacrifices ordained in the Torah” (Vayikra Rabbah 7:2). A fifth approach was…
…someone I should thank? Is there a prayer I should be saying? Is there a text I should be learning? Is there a mitzvah I should be doing?… Sometimes the really difficult times are the times of growth. They don’t seem so at the time. But when we look back, we see they were. Online shiur on Vayikra in the…
…Chag (A Quick Quiz) Succot in a Nutshell The Torah tells us to: “Live in succot for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in succot so that your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in succot when I brought them out of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Vayikra 23:42-43). There are two opinions…
…not speak a peaceful word to him.” Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz points out that the unusual Hebrew phrase “Velo yachlu dabro le-shalom” (“they could not speak a peaceful word to him”) indicates a deep failure of communication. He connects this to the command in Vayikra 19:17, which states, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely reprimand…
…five Books of Moses, which book would you expect to find it in? Vayikra, which deals with Torat Kohanim, with korbanot, with avodat haMishkan. If I didn’t know, I would have said that’s where you would find it. Instead, we find it as the last third of Sefer Shemot, which is the birth of Israel as a nation. And that…
The strangest and most dramatic element of the service on Yom Kippur, set out in Acharei Mot (Lev. 16:7-22), was the ritual of the two goats, one offered as a sacrifice, the other sent away into the desert “to Azazel.” They were to all intents and purposes indistinguishable from one another: they were chosen to be as similar as possible…