The End Never Justifies the Means
Mar 27, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayikra
Traditionally, young children were inducted into the text-based culture of Judaism through the study of Leviticus. The curriculum may be a vestige of the Temple-era when priests served as the official transmitters of Judaism. Long after the Temple was gone, homiletics reinforced ancient practice: “God said that since both sacrifices and children are in a state of purity (i.e., without blemish or sin,) let the pure occupy themselves with the pure” (Vayikra Rabbah 7:3) Perhaps it was also felt that the specificity of the laws of Leviticus posed less of a risk to faith than the theology-laden narratives of Genesis.
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Sin, Ritual Pollution, and Divine Alienation
Mar 28, 2009 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Vayikra
Why begin a young child’s Torah education with something as remote from his or her own life experience as sacrifices and Temple pageantry? Leviticus is difficult for adults to find relevant, let alone children. Give young students the drama of the Exodus and the moment of the Covenant at Sinai. Take children through the family narratives of Genesis that might captivate their imagination as they navigate their own familial dynamics as sons and daughters and brothers and sisters. Teach them the Book of Deuteronomy, which amounts to a review of the entire Torah. But to what ends might we throw them into a world of entrails and gore, the burning of frankincense, the sprinkling of blood, and the choreographies involved with the various sacrificial offerings?
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The Psychology of Sacrifice
Mar 31, 2001 By Joshua Heller | Commentary | Vayikra
The sacrificial order laid out in the fourth and fifth chapters of the book of Leviticus may seem alien to modern readers, but in its textual organization and minutiae of ritual, it reflects a deep psychological understanding of the nature of error and atonement in public and private life.
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Between Prophets and Priests
Mar 15, 2008 By Edward Feld | Commentary | Vayikra
The relation with God is fraught with uncertainty and doubt.
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Our Individual Responsibility to the Community
Mar 20, 2010 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayikra
Four months ago, an Orthodox rabbi here in Israel made headlines by urging his yeshiva students to resist any orders to evacuate settlements in the West Bank. In his book entitled Revivim, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed writes, “a simple halakhah is that it is forbidden for any person, whether a soldier or an officer, to participate in the strictly forbidden act of expelling Jews from their homes and handing over any portion of the Land of Israel to enemies . . . Those who violate this violate several commandments of Torah” (Ha’aretz, November 18, 2009). Rabbi Melamed’s directives rightfully caused a stir in all segments of Israeli society.
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Finding Inspiration in Bullocks and Bloodstains
Mar 12, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Vayikra
Reading Leviticus, it is clear that the reality of the people who generated the text is radically different from our own. It is a book that reads as ancient, obsolete, and irrelevant. In fact, one recent popular edition of the Bible left it out altogether. So what are we, regular readers of the Torah text and seekers of higher meaning gleaned from it, to do with the next three months of Levitical parashiyot?
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Bridging the Particular and the Universal
Mar 13, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayikra
With the opening of the book of Leviticus and its keen focus on sacrifices this coming Shabbat, many laypeople and clergy alike begin an exegetical struggle for connection and relevance.
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Animal Sacrifice on an iPad: Finding Meaning in Va-yikra
Mar 13, 2013 By Charlie Schwartz | Commentary | Vayikra
I would like to offer three of the many approaches to Va-yikra that might help infuse our reading of the book with meaning beyond flying goats and calves.
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