This week’s parashah, Tzav, concentrates on the offerings required of the Israelites for the daily upkeep of the temple. The first seven chapters of the Book of Leviticus can be looked at as an operations manual, as
This week’s parashah, Tzav, concentrates on the offerings required of the Israelites for the daily upkeep of the temple. The first seven chapters of the Book of Leviticus can be looked at as an operations manual, as it gives the specific instructions to the priests of how they should conduct sacrifices in ancient times.
The kohanim, the high priests, are told how to prepare and present offerings for the entire community and how to facilitate those offerings for purification, which only they can do. Tzav recounts in great detail our ancient system of daily sacrifices that were offered by the priests as proxies for the people and sets forth the procedures for the different types of sacrifice.
Since the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, the sacrifices, these offerings, were replaced by prayer, and the question is asked…do the descriptions and commandments concerning the sacrifices still have meaning to us? As they are now obsolete, is there anything to be learned from them? Tzav, with all of the details of sacrifice in the ancient sanctuary and temple presents us with challenges – how to find relevant meaning in those obsolete rituals.
The specific verses I chanted speak of the zevach sh’lamim, the sacrifice of well-being. Today we refer to it as the todah, a voluntary thanksgiving offering. And we learn that cakes of both leavened and unleavened bread, soaked with fine oil, were offered for that thanksgiving.
The rabbis taught that when the messiah or messianic time arrived, the atonement sacrifices - the burnt, sin, and meal offerings – would cease, but the thanksgiving offering would endure. In the 2nd century, Rabbi Meir taught that the Zevach Sh’laminm the peace offering, was mentioned last to emphasize the importance of peace, of Shalom. He and other rabbis of the time believed that peace is the culmination of all blessings and the most important for humans. For those rabbis, that the Torah mentions this one after all the others was proof of their claim. Today, more than ever, the prayer for peace is uppermost in our thoughts --- peace for us, for our families, for our country, and for the world.
But the Todah, the verses I chanted, is more than a peace offering. It IS a prayer of thanksgiving. In Psalm 107, we are taught that there are four types of individuals who must give thanks in public –those saved from the wilderness, those freed from prison, those who have recovered from illness, and those rescued from the perils of the sea. They were to give thanks for God’s loving kindness, to acknowledge the miracles God performed, and to make offerings of thanksgiving, recounting with rejoicing, what God had done for them.
Again we might ask - In our modern world, what meaning do those rules have for us? After all, we no longer have a temple in Jerusalem where we are obliged to make sacrifices. We do not have Kohanim to perform rituals on our behalf. Instead, it is incumbent upon each of us to form our own connection with God through prayer, righteous acts, and study.
Why shouldn’t we all give thanks – either in