TEMPLE TALK

Parashah Previews
Comments for conversation on the weekly Torah Portions, from Etz Hayim,
the Conservative Movement Humash.
Parshat Vayikra—Leviticus 1:1-5:26
Shabbat, April 1, 2006—3 Nissan 5766
These chapters describe the basic kinds of sacrifices
and list the several classes of offerings to be presented to
God in the sanctuary. Chapters 1-5, addressed to individual
Israelites and their leaders, recount what may be offered—
including animals, birds, and grain. They establish the
proper procedures for presenting the various sacrifices, a
function performed primarily by priests but that
occasionally required the participation of those who
brought the sacrifices.
Leviticus is a difficult book for a modern person to read
with reverence and appreciation. Its main subject matter—
animal offerings and ritual impurity—seems remote from
contemporary concerns. Yet almost half of the 613 mitzvot
of the Torah are found in this book, the text with which
young children traditionally began their Jewish education.
Our concern in reading Leviticus should be more than
historical (“this is what our ancestors used to believe and
practice”). It should be an effort to understand the religious
needs that were met by these practices in ancient times,
needs that we still confront today, and the religious ideas
that were taught in the process.
“The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the
Tent of Meeting.” (Leviticus 1:1)
Parshat Tzav—Leviticus 6:1-8:36
Shabbat, April 8, 2006—10 Nissan 5766
The rituals for each of the various sacrifices outlined in
chapters 1-5 are presented in chapters 6 and 7. These
chapters also offer us a unique glimpse into the
participation of the priesthood in the sacred meals within
the precincts of the sanctuary.
The important Hebrew word torah, which appears in
these chapters, derives from the verb “to cast, shoot”—an
arrow, for instance. The verb, in one of its forms means “to
aim, direct toward”—hence “to show the way, instruct.”
The word torah here is limited to the content of the
instruction.
“This is the Torah of the Sacrifice of Wellbeing that one
may offer to the Lord.” (Leviticus 7:11)
Parshat Sh’mini—Leviticus 9:1-11:47
Shabbat, April 22, 2006—24 Nissan 5766
This parashah begins by recalling a tragic incident that
marred the installation ceremony of Aaron and his sons as
kohanim. The focus of the text then shifts to the second of
the major concerns of Leviticus, the avoidance of ritual
impurity (tum-ah), which would separate the Israelite from
contact with God and God’s sanctuary.
The basis for one major pillar of the Jewish dietary
April 2006 . NISSAN/IYAR 5766 . Page 12
code, the separation of meat and dairy products, is
enunciated in Exodus 34:26. Now the Torah adds a
second pillar, the distinction between the living creatures
that may be eaten and those that are forbidden.
An attentive reading of this chapter clearly shows that
the dietary laws are not based on considerations of health,
neither in terms of the animals permitted or forbidden nor
out of concern for meat spoiling in the desert heat.
“These are the creatures you may eat…”
(Leviticus 11:2)
Parshat Tazri-a-M’tzora—Leviticus 14:1-15:33
Shabbat, April 29, 2006—1 Iyar 5766
This double parashah focuses on rituals of
purification. It begins with the offerings brought after the
birth of a child. The remainder describes the ritual of
purifying and reintegrating the recovered leper. We can
read it as a description of the Israelites’ attitude to the
experience of recovering from illness.
The formal description of the cleansing ritual masks
the deep and possibly conflicted feelings of the person
who has recovered from a serious illness. These might
include feelings of relief and happiness together with a
new appreciation of good health, perhaps resentment over
what he had been going through as well as envy of people
who had remained healthy. The offering of the recovered
leper is sometimes referred to as “the sacrifice of one who
has returned from the dead,” either because the illness
was so grave or because a life cut off from all human
contact, a life without friends and family, was not really a
life.
“This shall be the ritual for a leper at the time he is to
be purified.” (Leviticus 14:2)
Parshat Aharei Mot-K’doshim—Leviticus 16:1-20:27
Shabbat, May 6, 2006—8 Iyar 5766
Aharei Mot presents the rituals for Yom Kippur and
then goes on to discuss prohibited sexual relations. Ritual
and ethical purity are the concerns of this double portion
of Torah. K’doshim begins with the words “you shall be
holy” (k’doshim tihyu). What is holiness? The term can be
applied to God, to good people, to a book, to a period of
time, or to an animal offered as a sacrifice. To be holy is
to be different, to be set apart from the ordinary.
“Ordinary” (hol) is often used as the opposite of “holy” in
rabbinic discourse. To be holy is to rise to partake in
some measure of the special qualities of God, the source
of holiness. Holiness is the highest level of human
behavior, human beings at their most Godlike.
“Then he shall come out and offer his burnt offering,
and the burnt offering of the people.” (Leviticus 16:24)