פרשת ויקרא

As we begin reading Sefer Vayikra this week, our focus for the next few parshiyot will be on the issue of the korbanot, the sacrifices that Bnei Yisrael were commanded to bring as the central part of their service to Hashem.  While we are unfortunately no longer able to perform the rituals associated with the korbanot and the Beit HaMikdash, there are many messages to be learned from them that are eternal and relevant to us today.

There is a famous dispute concerning the reason for animal sacrifice with Jewish law.  Rambam writes in his Moreh Nevuchim that the entire system of sacrifices was meant as a strike against idolatry, most notably the Egyptian idolatry that the Jews had been surrounded by for centuries during their years of slavery.  Rambam writes that it would have been too difficult for the Jews to worship Hashem using rituals that they had never before encountered, and thus Hashem allowed them to do what they had seen in Egypt.  However, to make the point that these rituals were not similar to the idolatrous rituals of the Egyptians, Hashem instituted a wide variety of very detailed laws that had to be followed in order to offer an animal sacrifice.  Furthermore, the very animals that were selected to be brought as sacrifices included the very animals that the Egyptians revered, and thus our korbanot have an aspect of sacrificing the very deities of the pagans whose society we were rejecting.

By contrast, Ramban sees the korbanot as having a much more personal aspect to them.  He notes that the fact that Hashem allows us to achieve atonement via animal sacrifice is a tremendous act of mercy.  In truth, someone who sins should have to pay with his own life; instead, we are given the opportunity to offer an animal in our stead.  However, the korban is only effective if we can look at the animal who is taking our place, if we can see his flesh and blood on the altar, and think to ourselves that, but for the mercy of Hashem, that should have been us.  One who brings a korban has to consider that he should really bring himself as a sacrifice.  

This lesson of the Ramban should resonate for us as well as we begin the month of Nisan this Shabbat.  At the Pesach seder, we are commanded to tell over the story of יציאת מצרים.   Rambam famously comments that we do not only tell over the story, but we have to see ourselves as if we were actually redeemed from slavery.  Both with regard to korbanot as well as with regard to the telling of the story of the Exodus, we are called upon to not merely go through the motions of a ritual act, but to internalize the message behind that act.  Only by doing so will the mitzvot be able to make an impact on who we are as Jews and the relationship that we are able to develop with Hashem.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov,

Rabbi Dr. Aaron Ross