…is saturated with the language of love. The root a-h-v appears in Shemot twice, in Vayikra twice (both in Lev. 19), in Badmibar not at all, but in Sefer Devarim 23 times. Devarim is a book about societal beatitude and the transformative power of love. Nothing could be more misleading and invidious than the Christian contrast between Christianity as a…
…part of the book of Shemot. Shemot is about the birth of a nation. Hence Egypt, slavery, Pharaoh, the Ten Plagues, the Exodus, the journey through the sea, and the covenant at Mount Sinai. All these things would become part of the people’s collective memory. But the Sanctuary, where sacrifices were offered, surely belongs to Vayikra, otherwise known as Torat…
At the centre of the mosaic books is Vayikra. At the centre of Vayikra is the “holiness code” (chapter 19) with its momentous call: “You shall be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” And at the centre of chapter 19 is a brief paragraph which, by its positioning, is the apex, the high point, of the Torah:…
Some commands in the Torah were understood so narrowly by the Sages that they were rendered almost inapplicable. One example is the ir ha-nidachat, the city led astray into idolatry, about which the Torah states that “you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword.” (Deut. 13:16) Another is the ben sorer umoreh, the stubborn and rebellious child,…
…journey and the prophet knows exactly where we are on the journey and which road we have to take when we come to a crossroad. So these are two different kinds of people altogether. And what is really interesting is that they speak about sin using different vocabularies. So have a look at source eight (Vayikra 16: 21-30). Can you…
Excavating the history of words can sometimes be as revealing as excavating the ruins of an ancient city. Take the English word “enthusiasm”. Today we see this as something positive. One dictionary defines it as “a feeling of energetic interest in a particular subject or activity and an eagerness to be involved in it.” People with enthusiasm have passion, zest…
Vayikra is about sacrifices, and though these laws have been inoperative for almost 2000 years since the destruction of the Temple, the moral principles they embody are still challenging. One set of sacrifices, set out in detail in this week’s sedra, warrants particular attention: chattat, the ‘sin offering’. Four different cases are considered: the anointed priest (the High Priest), the…
…blood, and notices that identical language is used: “I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people” (Vayikra 17:10) and “I will set My face against that man [who engages in Moloch worship] and his family and will cut him off from his people” (Vayikra 20:5). The expression “set My…
…dignity of a holiness we have not just received passively as a gift, but acquired actively as co-creators with God. Mikra kodesh and mo’ed as they appear in Leviticus have an extra sense that they do not bear elsewhere because they evoke the opening verse of the book: “He called [Vayikra] to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him in…
…the leather objects on which he sits, then his clothes, and eventually his skin itself. He is condemned to the humiliation of isolation: ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ he must call out… Since he is unclean, he must remain alone, and his place shall be outside the camp. Vayikra 13:45-46 Our Rabbis explained: It is because his words separated husband from wife and…