* TORAH WEEKLY * Highlights of the Weekly Torah Portion and Haftorah. Plus Ani Ma'amin - The Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith. Parshas Vayikra (Parshas Zachor) For the week ending 9 Adar Sheini 5755 10 & 11 March 1995 =========================================================================== Summary The Book of Vayikra (Leviticus) which we start reading this week, is also known as Toras Kohanim -- the Laws of the Priests. It deals largely with the korbanos (offerings) that are brought in the Mishkan (Tent of Meeting). The first group of offerings are called "Olot", burnt offerings. The animal is brought to the entrance of the Mishkan. Regarding cattle, the one who brought the offering sets his hands on the animal. Afterwards it is slaughtered and the Kohen sprinkles its blood on the Altar. The animal is skinned and cut into pieces. The pieces are arranged, washed and burned on the Altar. A similar process is described involving burnt offerings of other animals and birds. The various meal offerings are described. Part of these are burned on the altar, and the remainder is eaten by the Kohanim. Mixing leaven or honey into the offerings is prohibited. The peace offering, part of which is burnt on the Altar and part eaten, can be either from cattle, sheep or goats. The Torah prohibits eating blood or "Cheilev" (certain fats in animals). The offerings that atone for inadvertent sins -- committed by the Kohen Gadol, by the entire community, by the prince and by the average citizen -- are detailed. Laws of the guilt-offering, which atones for certain verbal transgressions and for transgressing laws of ritual purity, are listed. The meal offering for those who cannot afford the normal guilt offering, the offering to atone for misusing sanctified property, laws of the "questionable guilt" offering, and offerings for dishonesty are detailed. =========================================================================== Commentaries "When a man from among you will bring an offering..." (1:2). The root of the word to `bring an offering' in Hebrew is the same as the word `closeness'. Closeness and distance are not necessarily measured in meters or miles. People can be close even when they are on different sides of the world, and distant even though they be sitting next to each other on a bus or living in the same house. The spirituality of the Beis Hamikdash created a palpable closeness which a person felt when he brought an offering. The physical realm is divided into four parts: Mineral; Organic; Animal; and Man. The Mineral world is devoid of life, increase and motion; the Organic world is that of growth and activity; The Animal world -- of instinct and awareness. Man is the `speaker' -- his is the power of intellect and reason. The purpose of the korbanos (offerings) was to bring close all of these parts of creation and to elevate them. When an animal was offered -- `brought close' -- this brought close all animal life in the world. Similarly, the offering of the menachos and the nesachim -- the flour offerings and wine-libations -- `brought close' all organic life. And with every offering there had to be salt -- the representative of the mineral world -- which elevated and brought close all inorganic life. In the above verse, the expression "a man from among you will bring an offering" can also mean "a man will bring an offering from himself." Man offers himself up, brings himself close, by putting his very soul into his offering. Today when we no longer have the closeness to Hashem that the Beis Hamikdash gave us, we still have its substitute -- prayer. When we pour out our hearts in prayer, when we offer ourselves up to Hashem, we bring close both ourselves and the world with us to our Father in Heaven. (Adapted from Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin) "Vayikra..." (1:1). The first word of the Book of Vayikra/Leviticus is "Vayikra" (And he called). It is written in the Torah with a small Aleph. The Aleph is the letter that represents the will, the ego. It is the first letter of the word for "I" -- "Anochi". When a person sees himself as being very small, like that small Aleph, then he makes it possible for the Divine Presence to dwell in him. Moshe Rabbeinu was the humblest of all men; he, as no man before or since, saw that there is only one Aleph in all of creation -- Hashem. Moshe made his ego -- his Aleph -- so small, that he merited the Torah to be given through him. (Based on Reb Bunim of P'schiske) "Vayikra..." (1:1). The word "Vayikra" implies that Hashem called to Moshe with affection, just as the angels call to one another. Hashem called, and Moshe came. But when Bilam, the Midianite prophet, wanted to curse the Jewish People, the Torah says that Hashem went to him. If Moshe went to Hashem, surely all the more so Bilam should have gone to Hashem. The answer is that when you receive an important guest, he is ushered into the sitting-room, but when the garbage man comes to the door, you go out to him so that your home doesn't smell like a trash-can! =========================================================================== PURIM Special The name that the Torah uses for Yom Kippur is Yom HaKipurim -- which can be understood as Yom, a day, Ki-Purim, like Purim. What could be the link between Purim, the most lighthearted day of the year, and Yom Kippur, the most serious? On Yom Kippur, a person stands before the Almighty, beating his breast in contrition; vowing that next year he will be a different person. He stands in shul and looks at those around him and thinks `Next year I'm going to be the Rabbi; next year I'm going to be the Rosh Yeshiva; next year I'm going to be one of the great Torah sages of the generation!' That's not doing Teshuva -- that's `pie-in-the-sky'. Teshuva means returning to one's essence, being the best version of yourself that you can be. A person tends to compare himself to others -- I'm brighter than he is. I'm kinder than him. He's a bigger tzadik than me, etc. but in reality Hashem places each of us on our own `monorail', our own track, as the Path of the Just says "No man can touch the portion of his fellow even by a hair's breadth." In other words, the only valid comparison is between who a person is and who he ought to be. But how do we know who we ought to be? That's the job of Purim. When our drinking on Purim is for the sake of the mitzvah, we are accorded a snapshot of who we really are. As our rabbis teach us "Enter the wine, exit the secret." The wine reveals to us the secret of who we really are, unrelated to other people. That's why Yom Kippur is a Yom Ki-Purim -- a day like Purim. With the knowledge of who we really are that Purim can give us, we are able to do real Teshuva on Yom Kippur -- a Teshuva based, not on comparing ourselves with others, but emanating from our very foundation and essence. (Rabbi Michoel Schoen) =========================================================================== Haftorah: The special Haftorah reading for Parshas Zachor, the Shabbos preceding Purim, is Samuel I 15:2-34. =========================================================================== Ani Ma'amin The Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith Principle #12: "I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Mashiach, and even though he may delay, nevertheless I anticipate every day that he will come." "Poor, and riding a donkey." Zecharya 9:9 "You say your Mashiach will come riding upon a donkey," said the Persian ruler Shvor Malka in jest to the Sage Shmuel. "Perhaps I should send him my beautiful horse." "Do you have a horse of pure white color?" responded Shmuel. Chazal teach us that a donkey seen in a dream is always a good omen. With a horse, it depends if it is white or red. If it is red, it denotes strife and blood. Shmuel thus communicated to the mocking Persian ruler that the animal which will be the vehicle of redemption must be one symbolic of total good fortune. The difference between the horse and the donkey is that the former is used as an instrument of war, while the latter, a beast of burden, symbolizes the capacity of the Jewish People to carry the burden of Torah and mitzvos. Similarly, Yaakov Avinu described his son Yissachar as a donkey capable of bearing Torah responsibility. Maharsha on Sanhedrin 98a =========================================================================== Where do YOU find TW*? Ashira Hirsch @ ccMail-Link.NMMC.Com writes "Since joining the list on the InterNet, I have read each week's parsha faithfully. It has provided me with an easy way to learn while in my office. The family reviews it every friday night at the shabbat table, along with the parsha questions the kids bring home from school." TW finds its way all around the globe. 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