This week’s parshah was Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26), in which the Lord gives Moses the detailed instructions for karbanot, sacrificial offerings. Different kinds of offerings (lambs, goats, birds, meal) are set out for different reasons and different levels of affluence. There’s no story, here; it’s just law.
The thing I found most interesting was Chapter 5, where a variety of different situations are described where a person may be in doubt if a transgression occurred, or may have unknowingly transgressed. The person making atonement brings a lamb, unless he can’t afford a lamb, in which case he brings two turtledoves, or two pigeons, or a sack of fine-milled flour. Imagining myself in Temple times, I was struck by how affordable that could be. And, after all, there are lots of times when a transgression might have occurred. I’d be inclined, honestly, to just assume that no transgression had occurred. And, as the Rabbis tell us, that’s allowed, depending on how likely it was (although it’s a better choice to err on the side of caution). But the more expensive the sacrifice was, the further I would draw the line, to the point where I doubt the whole business would have the cathartic effect it was supposed to have.
In fact, reading this business closely for the first time, I came to rather think we’ve lost quite a bit in losing the Temple. On the whole, of course, I vastly prefer living now, and not just because of refrigeration and liberalism and baseball. Frankly, I was grossed out by the description of the sacrifices. Supposedly, one of the ongoing miracles of the Kingdom was that the stench from the Temple never caused a woman to miscarry; think about that for a while. On the other hand, it would be nice to have a ritual that provided, well, not closure as such, but completion to an transgression, and particularly a possible transgression. Yes, we have Yom Kippur, but that’s only once a year. We don’t have anything like the offerings, to be made when you need them, public, encompassing some actual cost, but doing some actual good as well (as the offerings fed the priestly class).
The conversation in shul was, as usual wide-ranging. One fellow talked feelingly of his youth in a Catholic school, put in mortal terror at every misdeed. The use of charity for penance was discussed, and on the whole dismissed. We struggled, as I’m sure we will through Leviticus, with the idea of how we replace the Temple with our own lives, and how we become a nation of priests.
I didn’t present a counterfactual; Rabbi did enter the question of what the Israelite community would have been like without sacrifices, but it didn’t go much of anywhere. I’m going to need to try to get a note up here by Tuesdays or so, to try to get the help of Gentle Readers, so that if I still have nothing on Thursday, I can go to the Rabbi for help. Must have some discipline if I’m going to do this.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.