Rabbi's Blog

Dear OZ family,

This Shabbos we begin the third book of the Torah. While Vayikra contains only about 14% of the verses of the Torah it contains a full 44% of the Mitzvot of the Torah. Our sages refer to this book as Torat Kohanim, the laws of the religious functionaries who minister to the spiritual needs of the people. The Latin name for the book, Leviticus, connects specifically to one tribe, the Levites who would tend to the sacrifices in the Mishkan, and the ritual purity that takes up much of the rest of the book. The last 5 Torah portions before Vayikra are mostly preoccupied with the construction of the Mishkan, and now the Torah teaches what we are to do in it. Many people find the details of the sacrificial order to be too difficult to comprehend, and especially since we haven’t been exposed to this service in almost 2,000 years, they tune out much of the book of Vayikra.

Rashi, perhaps sensing this, incorporates a significant amount of moral messages in his close reading of the intricate details of each and every sacrifice. Rashi’s commentary is not simply interested in revealing the meaning of difficult words, phrases and concepts. He is, at his core a “Mechanech”, and educator. To Rashi, the text of the Torah always has practicality, and the description of a sacrifice we haven’t seen, or of a ritual observance we haven’t kept in 2,000 years always has relevance in our everyday lives even beyond our aspirations of observing these rituals once again. The Torah lives and breathes through these comments, because Rashi finds the ultimate message behind the esoteric holiness of Sefer Vayikra. There may be a good P’shat and simple reason why only an animals innards are washed and placed on the altar, but not a bird’s, but to Rashi, the message is a moral one. The animals for sacrifice only graze on land that an owner sets aside for it, but birds fly to eat food that does not belong to it, and this accounts for the difference.

The Midrash, Rashi, and commentaries like the Ba’al Haturim, Netziv and Meshech Chochma take great pains to show how every textual nuance in Sefer Vayikra teaches us the high value of incorporating morality into our rituals. The prophets of Israel, from Yeshayahu, to Amos to Hoshea to Yirmiyahu, and so many others made this the cornerstone of their messages. So don’t tune out of Sefer Vayikra. The messages are timeless and exciting. The Latin name Leviticus does not capture the full essence of “Torat Kohanim”. Leviticus limits the scope of the book to one tribe. In reality the book is about a nation of Kohanim, dedicated to God’s commandments and spreading the sanctity and purity of His Torah. When we received that Torah, we were told that we would all be a “Nation of Kohanim and a holy people” (Shemot 19:6). Perhaps a better Latin word for this book would therefore be Israeliticus.

Please join me in wishing Mazel Tov to Helen Gross and her entire family on the birth of a great grandson to her grandchildren, Mikey and Daniele Schulman. The baby’s name is Tzvi Yosef, named after our dear long time member, Harry Gross. May little Harry one day sit in his grandfather’s seat at OZ and look up to his great grandmother, the way his great grandfather did.

Be safe. Be healthy. Be holy. Be excellent.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz