04-04-2025 Torah Commentary

This week we begin the third book of Hebrew  Scripture: Sefer Va’Yikra; In English it is called “The  Book of Leviticus.” Because next week we will  discuss the holiday of Passover, this week we  combine Leviticus’ first and second parashah. You  will find the first parashah, Parashat VaYikra in  Leviticus 1:1-5:29, and the second parashah,  Parashat Tzav in Leviticus 6:1-8:39.  

In the two first weekly sections of Leviticus we  learn about the laws of various forms of animal  sacrifice as symbolic/communal compensation for  crimes (sins) committed. In Leviticus each category  of crime required a different form of sacrifice and the law distinguished between crimes committed  inadvertently and crime committed intentionally.  

In this book we learn that social harmony is  necessary for a society to survive. Just as a  person’s life is defined by what s/he does between  the time of his/her birth and death, so too a society  is defined by the way that it translates the  philosophical into the practical. 

The Book of Leviticus contains some of the Bible’s  most difficult sections to read and understand and it  also offers us some of the Bible’s loftiest ideals. The  Bible’s third book teaches us how to combine the  lofty with the practical. It combines specific laws and  ordinances such as the laws of kashrut and types of  animal sacrifices to be made so as to atone for  errors committed with universal philosophical  concepts such as the injunction to love our neighbors as ourselves. It presents deep ethical  insights in those sections called the holiness codes.  

We see how these different ideals are to be realized  in the laws of animal sacrifice. Although we no  longer practice animal sacrifice, we can understand  the theory behind the system. Human beings were  meant to live in groups and to do so they need rules.  Without rules there is no social order nor social  harmony.  

The combination of the mundane with the lofty and  the practical with the philosophical teaches us that  ideals must be put into action or they are merely  ungrounded ideas floating in the air. It is for this  reason that the Book of Leviticus emphasizes that  holiness is a combination of thought and actions.  From Leviticus’ perspective, good intentions come  alive only when we put them into practice. The same is true of all our relationships in life. It is not  what we say but what we do that counts. Actions  may or may not result in goodness, but without a  sense of purpose they are simply random stabs in  life. 

These two weekly sections teach us that for holiness  to occur we must combine both the practical and  spiritual within our daily living. This combining of two  very separate states of being is no easy task; rather  it is a challenge that transcends time and place.  How do you translate your good words into actions?  Do your intentions become realities or are they  merely words?