Shabat Table Talk
This week’s teaching commentary was prepared by Jack Driscoll, CFC, PhD 
Week of 21- 27 March, 2010
Torah Portion: Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36
Haftarah: Mal 3:4-24
Readings for Sunday
You are reading the biblical texts themselves, right? Not just this or any other commentaries? To read commentaries only without the demanding work of digging into and making your own effort to interpret the text is akin to being sustained with pureed vegetables, nourishing, but not adequate fare for an adult. Yes, being candid, sometimes these texts can be trying, even wearying, repetitious, so distant from our 21st century realities. We might think: oh sure! the PhD people and the graduate school scholars with their academic sources and their ability to read Hebrew and to appreciate corresponding references in the literature of the Ancient Near East, they can interpret these texts to some extent But what about my havrutah partner and me, with our busy schedules and other demanding concerns? Isn’t the Torah meant to be a lamp unto our feet, too, and a light to our paths as well? (Ps. 119:105)
The answer is Yes, a resounding Yes. The challenge is to find our way into the search process. During these weeks of our engagement with the Book of Leviticus, we want to keep in mind the moment that launched us into these digs. “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: let them make me a Holy-shrine that I may dwell amidst them” (Fox, Ex. 25: 1,8.) And for 13 of the final 16 chapters of the Book of Exodus the Lord has provided the construction plans for the Holy-shrine, the inventory of building materials, the color selection for decorations and cloths, the list of furniture. Then He directed the choice of priest servants, their special clothing and adornments, and their ordination. We would never know how to entertain the Divine in our midst, so He left little to chance: He instructed us. And now we enter the next phase: we have the sanctuary, we have the furnishings, we have the priests; what’s next? Well, what’s it all for, of course: the sacrifices themselves.
Our Torah portion this week continues the detail of some of these sacrifices which the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron and the Israelites. The burnt offerings of food stuffs like grains and of selected livestock, along with a concentration on the function of blood in these rituals can become a repetition that bores us, or, worse still, threatens our intention to read the Torah in the manner in which our Jewish ancestors in the faith first understood these words and have ever since sought to interpret them. Who may eat of these sacrifices; the distinctions among the offerings of well-being and thanksgiving, safe childbirth, atonement for guilt and sin, these and myriad prescriptions were essential understandings to some degree in the wilderness and later in much higher profile in the days of the 1st and 2nd Temple periods. These sacrifices were known as korbanot, from the Hebrew word that means to come closer, so that the sacrificial system provided the Divinely sanctioned program for the peoples’ safe approach to Him, the Holy Lord God, who wanted this Holy-shrine so that He would dwell amidst them.
Boring details for some of us? Arcane? Repetitive? Yes, certainly. But that repetition is the clue for us to do archeology of the Word, to study the concept of sacrifice, not only in the ‘plain reading’ of the scripture, but also the nature and place of sacrifice in our own lives. Yes, for our faith ancestors, blood had ritual uses, but in what ways, for example, is blood not a major part of our symbols and sacrifices today: the Eucharist, blood donor drives, the principal carrier of the traces of our well-being or illnesses, the accompaniment of the consummation of marriage, the birth of a child, the flowing of the life force of heroes and martyrs. The first time I studied the Book of Leviticus, the rabbi startled me by saying that the Torah education of the youngest children begins with Leviticus, partly because Genesis had such an emphasis on troublesome family life, and in Exodus there were too many scary episodes of rebellion against Moses and grumbling against God. The midrash collection of stories, (Leviticus Rabbah,) organized in the 5th century, offers a tender reflection. The Sages taught “Young children have not yet known sin, so let these pure minds busy themselves with the study of acts of purity.” Even though the Temple has been destroyed and sacrifices are no longer presented, the midrash continues, “If children study the system of sacrifices, the world will survive.”
“Rava said: He who occupies himself with the study of Torah needs neither burnt offering, nor meal offering, nor sin offering, nor guilt offering. R. Isaac asked: What is the proof for such a statement? And replied: Scripture’s saying ‘This Torah is for a sin offering’ (Lev. 6:18) and ‘This Torah for a guilt offering’ (Lev. 7:11). The two verses imply that he who occupies himself with the part of the Torah that details the sin offering – it is as though he brought a sin offering; and he who occupies himself with the part of the Torah that details the guilt offering – it is as though he brought a guilt offering.” (B. Men 110a.)
Sacred words and their interpretation have replaced stones and burnt offerings. Just as the Holy-site was once created according to the Divine economy, so now we are called to be co-creators with Him through interpretation of His Words, in havrutah when possible for us, by use of our own life experiences, and through access, if available, to precious commentaries. But first and pre-eminently, we must be engaged with the WORD itself. Interpretation is continuing revelation of the Divine Will for us. Cult and ritual, as appropriate as they can often be, are not the litmus test of spirituality. Pondering the past is not yearning for its return. Telling the story grounds our feet in an earlier reality that must now be transfigured in the idioms and appreciations of our days. This is incumbent on us. Torah invites our conversation. The Bat Kol speaks first. We may not remain mute.
For Reflection and Discussion: And while we may yet toss and turn about concerning many of the details of this week’s Torah portion – and there are yet eight more weeks of this ahead of us, and some magnificent lessons to be learned therein – the words of Micah (6:6-8) will always help us to keep our compass headings straight: With what shall I approach the Lord, Do homage to God on high? Shall I approach him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for my sins? Man has told you what is good. But what does the Lord require of you? Only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God.
Bibliography: Babylonian Talmud, Menahot, Bialik and Ravnitsky, The Book of Legends (New York, 1992), Plaut, The Torah A Modern Commentary (New York, 1962), Schorsch, Canon without Closure, (New York, 2007,) Light of Torah issue #24, 2010 (www.lightoftorah.net.)
