Vayikra:  Sacrifices

The common usage of the word sacrifice deviates from its etymology.  The word originates from the Latin sacer, sacred, holy. The korban ( unfortunately, not related to carbon) was the object that approached, implicitly, the holy. It was a formula for coming closer to the entity that could never be approached. 

The holy is the master over the master.  The attribution of kedusha, holiness is a concept that threatens the temporal order.  The government does not have the last word, there is a greater authority to answer.  I think that is why the third blessing of the Amidah,  "You are holy" is so short and enigmatic.  During the repetition, the expansion of this prayer , in the kedushah, clarifies that GD's power supersedes the temporal.  On Rosh HAshannah and Yom Kippur, the expansion of this blessing  and the altered ending, ascribing (temporal?) royalty to the invisible Gd, reveal the subversive nature of the holy. 

Vayikra details instructions for the approach to the sacred.  It is done by killing animals, sprinkling their blood, burning the entrails, giving portions to the Kohanim.  It is done by causing and witnessing death; and enduring economic loss.  The korban removes the donor from the usual reference frame, she moves to an alternate set of values. 

The waste aspect of the korban gives it some of its power.  Every person that brought a korban could feel the forfeiture of food to a consuming fire.  I do not know how these herders felt about the death of an animal.  I have seen animals slaughtered and the evaporation of life in the instant of slaughter is breath-taking.  I imagine that people who were closer to animals on a daily basis became (somewhat) immune to this feeling, but there was still a twinge.  Life is so important, but in the face of the sacred, it is devalued. 

From the perspective of eternity, the individual life has little value. Life  is short.  In the best of circumstances it contributes something to the human endeavor, but mostly it eats ( and often kills to eat) and sleeps and dances in circles. Poof and it is gone.  Money has even less value. It is tokens in a game , the allocation is high , then low; only  the illusion of control. 

The pandemic confers many meanings to sacrifice.  The modern  understanding of the word directs us to the economic loss.  Most people are giving  up their freedom of assembly, their freedom of mobility, their usual ways for making money.  First responders and health care providers are giving up their safety  - and sometimes their  health or their lives.  These are sacrifices,  losses without payment.  Sometimes, they are also approaches to the sacred, approahces to the surrender to the Highest Power. 

Vayakheil-Pikudei: manifestation

The second half of the book of Shemoth deals with the construction of the mishkan, the tabernacle, Gd's abode.  At the end of this repeated list of components ( sanctuary, ark, cover, table, candelabra, incense altar, partition, sacrificial altar, laver, curtains, posts, priestly garments, etc.) Gd descends and occupies the sanctuary.  A cloud is the visible manifestation of this event .  The cloud becomes the guide in the wilderness, directing the travels of the Israelites. 

To the modern Jew, this is all quite foreign. The structures,  the sacrificial rite  associated with them, the rituals associated with the table and the candelabra, are all foreign and do not conform to ethos of the prayers and customs that are purported to have originated from them. Although some of the core prayer is directed at reconstructing the temple that was destroyed 2000 years ago, it seems to be motivated more by the longing, the reminder of the persecution, and the intimation of our ambivalent relationship with Gd,  than the actual desire for the construction project. The founding of the State of Israel and the conquest of Jerusalem has made such a project physically possible.  Were that to occur, its consequences for Judaism, as we now understand and practice it, would be catastrophic. 

We preserve the details of the construction of the tabernacle in  41/2  chapters at the end of Shemoth. It is the great project of the newly liberated Israelites. Previously they were building storage cities, Pithom and Ramses.  Now they are building a sanctuary for the source of all, and by doing so, creating a community, working together for a common goal without a master.  Moses and Bezlelel and Oholiav were project managers, but the contributions of material and labor were voluntary. 

The most disturbing aspect is the end. The cloud that comes to occupy the sanctuary.  This localization of Omnipresent is a little less disturbing in the context of quantum mechanics which considers location to be a density with infinite emanations in all directions ( wherever you are, you are mostly there). But in the usual sense, it seems to violate the properties that define the deity. These characteristics, omniscience, omnipresence, eternity, etc. are later constructs. The Gd of the Torah may not be bound by them.   The attribute of Gd that is an article of faith is Unity, oneness.  That unity encompasses an understanding and direction of all things.  May we understand the crises for good. 

As we end the book of Shemoth, we say Be Strong, Be Strong and we will be Be Strong. This year, no one person has the privilege of that blessing.  My it be distributed over us all. 

Ki Thisa: Doing your best

The parsha begins with exacting a poll tax, a ransom, for every man counted in the census. 

כִּ֣י תִשָּׂ֞א אֶת־רֹ֥אשׁ בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֘ל לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם֒ וְנָ֨תְנ֜וּ אִ֣ישׁ כֹּ֧פֶר נַפְשׁ֛וֹ   בִּפְקֹ֣ד אֹתָ֑ם וְלֹא־יִהְיֶ֥ה בָהֶ֛ם נֶ֖גֶף בִּפְקֹ֥ד אֹתָֽם׃

When you take a census of the Israelite people according to their enrollment, each shall pay the LORD a ransom for himself on being enrolled, that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled.

Why does a person need to be ransomed from a count?   Counting Jews is taboo and this verse is the origin of that mysterious prohibition. 

The counting by deposit, in this the half shekel poll tax, de-identifies  the process, it makes it anonymous. In our time, we values this removal from surveillance.  This year, the US conducts its census. The census asks for details about ethnicity, household composition, etc.  Many are afraid to give these answers.  In this century of ethnic cleansing, it is very reasonable to fear how  a census containing such details  will be used.  To be identified can have dire consequences.  Short of that, data about the details of populations can be used as targets by political organizations in subversive ways. I do not think that is a paranoid idea


The repeated word  in this verse ( three times)  and in our parsha is פְקֹ֣ד  .   Onkelos, the official translator of the text renders פְקֹ֣ד  as  the Aramaic  תִּמְנֵי., count, number.  I think this is a simplification of the meaning of this very significant word.   It has a wide range of definitions
The Klein dictionary (Sefaria) lists:  פקד to attend to; to visit, muster; to appoint. as the primary definitions

The first usage is Gen 21:1:
 The LORD took note of Sarah as He had promised, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. 

  פקד is is what Gd does to Sarah in preparation for the birth of Isaac, Gd takes account of her.  Sarah enters a state if recognition before Gd in preparation for a most significant, miraculous event. 

 פקדis the word that unites the books of Genesis and Exodus. Joseph tells his bothers twice at the end of Genesis: 

פָּקֹ֧ד יִפְקֹ֣ד אֶתְכֶ֗ם וְהֶעֱלָ֤ה אֶתְכֶם֙ מִן־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַזֹּ֔את
 God will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land
The Israelites will count ( for something), they are worthy of mention and memory. 

When Gd tells  Moshe to  go  to the Elders of Israel in Egypt, he instructs Moshe to use these same words to prove his bona fides.  
פָּקֹ֤ד פָּקַ֙דְתִּי֙ אֶתְכֶ֔ם וְאֶת־הֶעָשׂ֥וּי לָכֶ֖ם בְּמִצְרָֽיִם׃
‘I have taken note of you and of what is being done to you in Egypt,
Perhaps the statement of Joseph has been passed down as a code to identify the redeemer.


This language appears in our parsha, but it comes as a warning to the Israelites who have just made a golden calf

וּבְי֣וֹם פָּקְדִ֔י וּפָקַדְתִּ֥י עֲלֵיהֶ֖ם חַטָּאתָֽם׃
But when I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins.”

This is a terrifying statement.  Gd is reserving the punishment for the great sin of rebellion for some indefinite future date.  I am sure some of that stored anger was spent on my immediate ancestors.  Who knows how much is left? 

 פקד also sullies the most mystical appeal to kindness, the 13  elements of Divine kindness.  When Gd reveals the Divine nature to Moshe, this 13 fold kindness is the communication that we quote in our  penitential (selichoth) prayer.  But we leave out the end of the sentence, the part that starts with  פקד

פֹּקֵ֣ד ׀ עֲוֺ֣ן אָב֗וֹת עַל־בָּנִים֙ וְעַל־בְּנֵ֣י בָנִ֔ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֖ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִֽים׃
 but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.”


The counting requires expiation because it reminds the ultimate counter of the potential of the individual and his accomplishments... and the gap between them.  The half shekel is enough  to cover כֹּ֧פֶר the moment of exposure. 

Make every moment count. 

Tezaveh: Kahuna

The parsha  deals with the initiation of Aaron and his 4 sons as the Kohanim (rendered in English as priests).  They were anointed as those who would minister in the sanctuary, they would perform the services for the people as a whole and for individuals in need of expiation or expression.  This is the beginning of specialization, people  relieved from the need to till the soil and raise animals because they are supported by the surplus of the community.  in our world, that describes almost everyone's work outside the home.

 The first instruction is for the people,  as a whole,  to supply clear olive oil for the Kohanim,

וְאַתָּ֞ה תְּצַוֶּ֣ה ׀ אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְיִקְח֨וּ אֵלֶ֜יךָ שֶׁ֣מֶן זַ֥יִת זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית לַמָּא֑וֹר לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד׃

You shall further instruct the Israelites to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly.

בְּאֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵד֩ מִח֨וּץ לַפָּרֹ֜כֶת אֲשֶׁ֣ר עַל־הָעֵדֻ֗ת יַעֲרֹךְ֩ אֹת֨וֹ אַהֲרֹ֧ן וּבָנָ֛יו מֵעֶ֥רֶב עַד־בֹּ֖קֶר לִפְנֵ֣ ... חֻקַּ֤ת עוֹלָם֙ לְדֹ֣רֹתָ֔ם מֵאֵ֖ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (ס)

Aaron and his sons shall set them up in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain which is over [the Ark of] the Pact, [to burn] from evening to morning before the LORD. It shall be a due from the Israelites for all time, throughout the ages.

Parshath Behaalothecha  (Numbers 8) also begins with the lighting the menorah.  There, in Bamidbar, this activity  is assigned to Aaron as compensation for the absence of a tribal temple tribute.  Every tribe, except the Levites, brought an identical offering of  silver bowls, golden spoons, incense and flour and sacrificial animals at the end of parshath Nasso. The lighting of the menorah was Aaron's redress for the absence of his tribe from this celebration of the new Tabernacle.

The lighting of the oil is a crucial act, performed daily by the Kohen.  It has a sacrificial aspect. The oil is consumed, a material that could provide human nutrition is redirected from that most fundamental task.  Instead, the oil is burned.  It provides a different service, it provides light, it allows human vision.  The light prevents bumping into the curtain that separates the ark from the rest of the world.  The light makes the layout of the sanctuary  navigable, a situation close to understanding ( but not quite there)  This kind of re-purposing scratches the surface of  the meaning of the sacrificial rite.

The lighting of the menorah requires only one person.  The person who causes the light is special. That act makes the person special. He is performing Gd's first act of creation: Let there be light.   The  daily bracha before shema begins:

הַמֵּאִיר לָאָרֶץ וְלַדָּרִים עָלֶיהָ בְּרַחֲמִים. וּבְטוּבו מְחַדֵּשׁ בְּכָל יום תָּמִיד מַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית

Who mercifully illuminates the world and those on it, and in goodness daily and constantly  renews the works of creation.

 The original Kohanim were inducted into this role with a 7 day ritual. some of which is described in this weeks parsha.  It is a ceremony of gifts: gifts to Gd via the alter, gifts to Moses, the master of these proceedings, gifts to the nascent priests.  It is a major feast; leftovers are forbidden.

Before the ritual is described, the priestly garments, the fanciest of  vestments , containing gold and jewels and engraved precious stones, is described.  The Kohen is to wear these when the service is performed. 

I live in a world that devalues ritual and cares only about the competent  performance of the task. The acts  described in Tetzaveh emphasize the trappings and the ritual.  I go through my day not knowing where the lasting value resides.    The formalities simplify the performance, they remove superfluous decisions, add solemnity, provide a checklist. Violating the formalities facilitates transgression. The task is  ritual, too.