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Parashat TZAV
Leviticus 6:1-8:36
"Get a little (or a lot) closer. Now don't be shy."
(right about now you should be humming the Arid Extra Dry commercial from the 90's)
First off, a Hebrew lesson. Stop rolling your eyes. I'm not going to ask you to open a workbook and circle "lah", "lay", and "li".
korbanot; plural, most common translation is "sacrifices"
korban; singular
comes from the Hebrew root koof, reish, vet
connected to the Hebrew word karov which means "close"
In English we often associate sacrifice with giving something up.
"What is the connection between korban and karov?" (Thank you for asking.)
Korbanot were offered up to God. Korbanot were THE way people could get karov/close to God.
And now back to Torah:
This parasha explains the offering of six different sacrifices; burnt, meal, sin, guilt, peace and initiation. God, tzav et Moshe/commands Moses (in pretty significant detail) to teach the Priests all the ins and outs of the various sacrifices. The Levites would prepare the sacrifices and the Priests would have the privilege and responsibility of offering them up to God. Various parts of the animal would be eaten by various people or burnt all the way depending on the offering.
"What is the deal with all of these sacrifices? Why couldn't it just be one kind of sacrifice?And what is the deal with all of the details for how all of the sacrifices should be prepared, offered and consumed (or not)?" (Thank you again for asking.)
Remember; God is doing something no other God has ever done before, EVER! God is breaking away from the whole multiple God/multiple people construct and launching a brand new model - ONE GOD/ONE PEOPLE. THIS IS RADICAL!!!!
The Book of Exodus is all about God demonstrating supreme power over everything and everyone through the act of liberating the Israelites from slavery with the promise of bringing them to a new land, their own land.
The Book of Leviticus is all about God forging ONE PEOPLE/ONE COMMUNITY to serve ONE GOD. The sacrifices are the vehicle for worship, praise and gratitude. They are the vehicle for establishing a closeness between God and the people.
Perhaps there are different kinds of korbanot with different instructions to teach the people that different actions require different responses? Perhaps it's to make a distinction between "right" and "wrong", "good" and "bad". Afterall, the Israelites are not used to making decisions. They don't know how to choose a path. God is their teacher.
Perhaps there are different kinds of korbanot with different instructions because they are in the middle of a dessert, making their way to this "Promised Land" Moshe told them about, and they have a lot of time and not much else to do? Carrying out all of the instructions from selecting the animal, cleaning it, setting up the altar and the Priest actually offering it up to God took a lot of people a lot of time to complete (sometimes days). This was a way for God to teach boundaries around behavior while at the same time establishing relationships within the community.
The Torah places a huge emphasis on getting close to God. Does God really need closeness? Isn't that impossible anyway? Or is it the closeness between people the Torah is really after?
What do we do to bring ourselves closer to God? Perhaps more importantly, what do we do to bring ourselves closer to one another? We are more independent and self reliant than ever before. With all of our technology we don't ever have to engage with people. Social media, invented for the purpose of bringing us closer together, has actually created real distance. Instagram, FB and texting have replaced phone calls and face to face. We no longer have to make the effort to visit because we can SKYPE. Eventually, we'll just need to think about the other.
Think about all of the effort, energy, time and strength the people had to exhibit in order to complete a sacrifice. I'm not advocating for the building of a third Temple. But, I think it would be fantastic to go through the motions (with a faux animal). In a matter of seconds, we can just hit a couple of keys and send a message to hundreds of our "friends". We may have more people we can reach, but did we sacrifice real closeness as a result? What are we willing to sacrifice/give up in order to get close?
Mekor Ha'Chayiim, Source of Life, as we move into Shabbat, let us reclaim closeness. Let's give our technology a rest (a Shabbat if you will), and let's DO CLOSENESS. Maybe reclaiming a closeness with one another will rekindle a closeness with something greater? It's worth a try. "Get a little closer. Now don't be shy."
Shabbat shalom u'mevorach,
Laurie
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