And the LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying:
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When any of you bring an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock: of cattle and of sheep.
The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying,
As a rabbi preparing boys and girls for their bar mitzvah, the Book of Leviticus presents an immense challenge for writing a sermon. The reason is simple: from the first portion and throughout the entire book, entire chapters are dedicated to the laws of sacrifices – among the most difficult subjects for contemporary Jews to grapple with, and a Jewish practice that has not been observed for nearly two thousand years since the destruction of the Temple.
The question of what to do with entire portions of the Torah that are read and have no (and perhaps it's good they have no...) connection to reality – let's set that aside for another discussion. But if ritual sacrifice is not part of our lives – the word "korban," in its many meanings, is very much present!
Prof. Moshe Halbertal, known to many of us and from whom I had the privilege to study, dedicated an entire book (in English) to the concept of the sacrifice. In several interviews conducted around the book's publication, Halbertal presented the findings of his research regarding the 'biography" of the word: "The first meaning of the word "korban' is the biblical meaning, and it is - 'korban,' in the sense of 'to bring near',' its parallel being the mincha (offering). Just as one "brings near" a korban, one "places" a mincha. The korban is a gift, but it is a gift whose transfer from the giver's hand to the receiver's hand is not guaranteed. Therefore, you only "bring near," because you don't know if the korban will be accepted or not.
The second meaning is 'victim' – the victim of rape, the victim of murder. It's an interesting question what connects these two meanings. I think it's related to the fact that the biblical sacrifice is a sacrifice with innocence. The animal must be pure, innocent, in order to be sacrificed. The modern Hebrew sacrifice is also innocent. But this is a very late meaning, which only begins to appear at the beginning of the 20th century; when Jews were massacred in pogroms in the Middle Ages, they were not called 'sacrifices'...
The third meaning, which is also very late in Hebrew, is the meaning of 'to sacrifice for': 'I sacrificed for my children,' for example, or 'I sacrificed my life for a certain cause.'" In interviews with him, Halbertal warns that in our time – within the concept of sacrifice lies also a dangerous mechanism of reversing affinity, meaning, a situation where the value does not justify the sacrifice, but rather the sacrifice sanctifies the value; instead of sacrificing for something holy, the act of sacrifice itself makes the goal holy and immune to criticism.
This process can create a "license" for violence, where the aggressor perceives themselves as a victim and thereby frees themselves from the shackles of conscience. From this perspective, even the binding of Isaac can be seen not only as a story of faith but as a moment where the victim of conscience turns the sacrificer into a captive within the cycle of power and aggression of his faith.
I find Habertas's analysis illuminating: identifying the three layers of the concept of "sacrifice" – the ritual act, the innocent victim, and the altruistic sacrifice – allows us to re-examine the rituals and values that shape our lives. The transition from "sacrificing to…" to "sacrificing…" is the junction where it is determined whether sacrifice is a path to closeness and connection, or if it is a tool to justify power and violence.
This understanding is especially crucial for us today, as we seek to establish a Jewish and Israeli identity that does not sink into an all-permissive victim consciousness, but rather one that aspires to action characterized by responsibility and morality. This is how the Hebrew language and the portion have brought us back to a concept that is not only not confined to the distant past, but the opposite: the concept at the heart of the portion clearly presents us with the sharpness of the choice before us and the magnitude of the challenge in shaping our lives. This may be the great call of "Vayikra.".
Shabbat Shalom!
Comments (01)
Hello, Rani. First, thank you for what you wrote, and I have a question: We learned from you in the Beit Midrash that there are three categories of Torah reading: 1. Passages that are read and interpreted; 2. Passages that are read but not interpreted; 3. Passages that are neither read nor interpreted. It seems to me that this could be a framework for discontinuing the study of the laws of sacrifices?