The Torah addresses Aharon and his sons to teach them additional laws relating to their service. The ashes of the korban olah — the offering burned on the Altar throughout the night — are to be removed from the area by the kohen after he changes his special linen clothing. The olah is brought by someone who forgot to perform a positive commandment of the Torah. The kohen retains the skin. The fire on the Altar must be kept constantly ablaze. The korban mincha is a meal-offering of flour, oil and spices. A handful is burned on the Altar and a kohen eats the remainder before it becomes leaven. The Torah portion describes the special korbanot to be offered by the Kohen Gadol each day and by Aharon’s sons and future descendants on the day of their inauguration. The chatat, the korban brought after certain accidental transgressions, is described, as are the laws of slaughtering and sprinkling the blood of the asham guilt-korban. The details of shelamim, various peace korbanot, are described, including the prohibition against leaving uneaten until morning the remains of the todah, the thanksgiving-korban. All sacrifices must be burned after they may no longer be eaten. No sacrifice may be eaten if it was slaughtered with the intention of eating it too late. Once they have become ritually impure, korbanot may not be eaten and should be burned. One may not eat a korban when he is ritually impure. Blood and chelev (certain animal fats) are prohibited to be eaten. Aharon and his sons are granted the breast and shank of every korban shelamim. The inauguration ceremony for Aharon, his sons, the Mishkan and all of its vessels is detailed.

PARSHA INSIGHTS

The Food of Faith

“It shall not be baked leavened…” (6:10)

The Torah says: “You shall guard the matzot, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt.” (Shemot 12:17).

The connection is not immediately clear: Why is the command to ‘guard the matzah’ linked specifically to the Exodus from Egypt?

Another question:

The Zohar* teaches that matzah is called “michla di’m’heimnusa” — the food of faith. Where is this idea of faith hinted to within the matzah itself?

Consider ordinary bread. When a person prepares dough, he mixes flour and water, kneads it and sets it aside; his active involvement ends at that point. Yet the dough does not remain static. The dough “takes over”; through fermentation, it begins to change on its own.

The natural yeasts begin to act. Gases form within cause it to expand. The dough rises, swelling in all directions. Its texture becomes softer and more elastic. Air pockets develop. The surface begins to subtly stretch and lighten in color.

This all happens after the maker has removed his hand from the dough. The dough seems to be “doing something by itself.”

Matzah is the exact opposite.

From the moment the dough is mixed, it is handled continuously and baked quickly. There is no stage where it is left to arise, to “develop” on its own.

Bread, Chametz, represents a world where nature appears to operate by itself—where processes continue on their own, without direct involvement of the craftsman.

Matzah represents a world where nothing happens independently of the Master Craftsman.

Emunah, faith, is the recognition that there is no true autonomy in existence. Nothing unfolds by itself. Everything is continuously guided by the will of Hashem. A person does not add or detract from what has been decreed—except in one domain alone: his choice to follow Torah and mitzvot.

The mazalot—the constellations and the signs of the Zodiac—have no independent power. Though they appear to influence nature, they are merely tools. Hashem directs them completely, at every moment, without interruption. They have no autonomy whatsoever.

This was the fundamental error of the Egyptians, who attributed power to the stars.

Egypt was associated with the constellation of the lamb - Aries (taleh). Because Aries is the first of the constellations, it is regarded as the king of the zodiac signs (as the Zohar explains in Chelek III). To demonstrate that even this “King” constellation has no independent force, Hashem commanded the Jewish people to take ‘Aries’ —the god of Egypt—and slaughter it as a korban.

And this was done specifically in the month of Nissan—when Aries’ influence is strongest, and on the 15th of the month, when the moon is full and the power of the month is at its zenith.

At that very moment of supposed maximum strength of the Lamb, of Aries, Hashem showed it had no strength at all without Him.

The constellations, the Zodiac, do nothing by themselves. Nature does nothing by itself. Everything is entirely directed by Hashem.

Matza testifies that nothing in this world does anything by itself, and that at every moment the Divine Craftsman is acting alone; because Matzah undergoes no change once it leaves the hands of its maker, and thus it is “the food of faith”.


Source: Bnei Yissaschar

*Zohar Chelek II, 183b (אבל ע"ש) as cited by Sod Hachasmal Chelek I HaLachma Anya