Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Judeo Talk. The Torah portion for this week is Vayikrah, Leviticus 1-5.
At this point in the Tanakh, the tone and the format changes significantly. Much, but not all, of what follows from Leviticus through Deuteronomy is a recitation of specific laws. In essence, the epic poem of the Jewish people's origin has concluded. Only a few closing scenes remain and they will be scattered throughout these next three books. From this point on, the Torah is a document of everyday spiritual practices and civil laws.
In Vayikrah, God is explaining to Moses some more details concerning the act of sacrifice. The instructions list what animals or other materials are to be used, what counts as a suitable sacrifice and some of what the priests are supposed to do upon an offering. As always, modern Jews tend to skim these parts of the book because we no longer perform ritual sacrifices. That doesn't mean there aren't still relevant lessons here, just that we have to stretch some of these concepts to place them in a modern context.
The most striking idea here is that sacrifice is supposed to work on a sliding scale. The Torah recognizes that many people won't have the means to sacrifice a large head of cattle every time they commit a sin or wish to pray for peace. There are provisions here for people of many different economic standings. Those who can't afford cattle can sacrifice sheep, goats, doves, or even pigeons. People can give meal offerings, essentially sacrifices of grain. The message here is fairly overt. No one will be excluded from the full services of the faith just because they're poor.
The class-consciousness of these passages continue with a comparison between the sacrifices of rulers and the sacrifices of common people. There is no appreciable difference between the two. Rulers are not exempt from any of the duties of repentance and common people are not excused for their relative powerlessness. As far as faith is concerned, one's social station doesn't matter.
There is a seemingly out-of-place passage among all of these laws of sacrifice that addresses what people are to do in civil disputes. Basically, when people sin against other people they are obligated to make recompense to the person they wronged. There are certainly guilt sacrifices involved, but a person doesn't just have to get right with God if the crime has a human victim. This is one of the central morals of Judaism. Being sorry isn't enough to repair the damage done to the living world, one must take an active role in setting things right in proportion to one's crimes.
Because some of the parshiot in these remaining books contain similar laws and related lessons, I'm going to be adding an occasional feature to these Shabbat entries. When I think it's appropriate, we'll take a look at a selection from one of the texts outside the Tanakh in addition to the weekly Torah portion. It may be a poem out of Psalms or a particularly interesting story from Prophets, or some other item that doesn't normally come up in Shabbat Torah study. If any of you readers would like this blog to take a deeper look into a specific item, feel free to mention it in the comments section and I'll be sure to get to it. Until next week, Shabbat Shalom and thanks for reading.
