Va-yikra' (Leviticus 1:1-5:26) and Haftarah (Isaiah 43:21-44:23): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Va-yikra' (Leviticus 1:1-5:26) and Haftarah (Isaiah 43:21-44:23): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Overview
Va-yikra' (Leviticus 1:1-5:26) and Haftarah (Isaiah 43:21-44:23): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary shows teens in their own language how Torah addresses the issues in their world. The conversational tone is inviting and dignified, concise and substantial, direct and informative. Each pamphlet includes a general introduction, two model divrei Torah on the weekly Torah portion, and one model davar Torah on the weekly Haftarah portion. Jewish learning--for young people and adults--will never be the same.
The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin's book The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827614093 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 12/01/2018 |
| Series: | JPS Study Bible |
| Pages: | 24 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin serves as the senior rabbi of Temple Solel in Hollywood, Florida. He is the author of Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah, winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for the best religion book published in the United States, and The Gods Are Broken: The Hidden Legacy of Abraham (JPS, 2013).
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Torah
Va-yikra': Leviticus 1:1–5:26
Hard as it might be to imagine, traditionally Leviticus was the first book of the Torah that Jewish children learned. That is how important it is — a handbook of what "Judaism" was like for the ancient Israelites.
This first Torah portion of Leviticus focuses, specifically, on the various kinds of sacrifices (korbanot) that the ancient Israelites brought to the mishkan, the ancient Tabernacle in the desert (and, after that, the Temple in Jerusalem). Each kind of sacrifice had its own purpose, and those purposes can help us understand exactly what motivated the ancient Israelite worshiper to want to approach God. The sacrifices were not for God; they were ways to elevate the individual and to help the individual in his or her quest for holiness.
Summary
• God tells Moses about the sacrificial offerings (korbanot) that are to be offered. (1:1)
• Sacrificial offerings should come from either the herd or the flock. (1:2)
• But not all sacrifices need come from the herd or the flock; the worshiper can also bring birds and grain as offerings. (1:14–2:16)
• Worshipers can also bring a zevach shelamim, an offering of wellbeing, of shalom. (3:1–17)
• And they can bring a chattat offering, an offering that expresses regret for sin. The Torah speaks of two ways of understanding sin: what happens if a "regular" person sins, and what happens when a leader sins. (4:1–35)
The Big Ideas
• Sacrifices were a way for the ancient Israelite worshiper to get close to God. That is the meaning of the word korban. It comes from the Hebrew root k-r-v, which means "to get close." Worship, in whatever form it takes, is a way of achieving some kind of intimacy with God.
• The sacrifices came from the herd or the flock — which means from domesticated animals. In an ancient agricultural society, the most important things that the worshiper owned were animals. Animals, like sheep, goats, or cattle, were almost like money. To offer an animal meant that you were offering something that had real value.
• Bird and grain offerings were the "economy" sacrifice. Not everyone could afford to bring offerings like sheep, goats, or cattle; they were simply too valuable. So the sacrificial system allowed for less-expensive alternatives: birds and grain. Burning grain smells good, not so burning feathers, but to God those burning feathers smelled just fine. God cares about the dignity of the poor. Everyone has a role in Jewish life.
• A major part of sacrificial offerings — and all worship — is being grateful for shalom. That was the purpose of the zevach shelamim — to express gratitude for a sense of being at peace with your family, with the priests in the Tabernacle, and with God.
• Everyone sins sometimes, but rulers and leaders are almost guaranteed to sin. This is not only a statement about human nature (after all, no one is perfect). It is not only a cynical statement about how power corrupts. It is also a statement of absolute realism: it is almost impossible to be a leader without making mistakes. The best leaders are those who are able to own up to their errors, apologize, and then do things better.
Divrei Torah
Is This God's Barbecue?
Yuck. That's probably what you're thinking about this Torah portion, and maybe the entire book of Leviticus. Bringing animals to the altar and killing them, and then burning them? Who would do such a thing?
Well, actually, what do you think happens when you order meat in a restaurant? True, you don't actually kill the animal on the spot. No, you don't — but someone else slaughtered that animal before it showed up in the restaurant. So, unless you're a vegetarian, don't think that the ancient sacrifices were that disgusting.
But why did Judaism have to have animal sacrifices in the first place? The great medieval philosopher Maimonides suggests that it was necessary because this was what the Jews had experienced in Egypt: "God could not expect us to utterly abandon this mode of worship, for that would have gone against human nature. God therefore allowed these practices to continue but transformed them from idolatrous associations ... that their purpose should be directed toward Him."
So, God was like a patient teacher, trying to move the Jews away from pagan sacrifice to making offerings for God. Maimonides understood that the ideal form of serving God was prayer, but it took some time for the Israelites to get there.
But on the way to that goal, did sacrifice have anything to teach the Jews?
Yes. We can learn something from the animals that are required as sacrifices. They are all domesticated animals; you have to bring what belongs to you. Those animals are not up in the mountains somewhere. God only asks the possible from us, not the impossible.
What kinds of animals are required? Oxen, sheep, and goats. Each animal is the prey of another animal. The ox is pursued by the lion, the sheep by the wolf, the goat by the leopard. In this way, the sages thought that God was telling the ancient Israelites that many nations would pursue them as well. That was their way of learning what their future history would be.
But what does it really mean to sacrifice? Rabbi David Wolpe writes: "In every relationship, part of the measure of love is the willingness to forgo; I will sacrifice sleep, food, time, money, almost anything for someone whom I love. In ancient Israel, offering the products of labor — crops, animals — showed deep connection to God." So, were the sacrifices disgusting? Maybe.
Did they have something to teach? Definitely.
When Leaders Sin
It happens. It will always happen. Rulers sin. They make mistakes, sometimes terrible mistakes.
Sure, we know all about the horrible leaders, the tyrants and killers like Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, and others. But what about the good leaders? Moses, the greatest leader the Jews ever had, killed a man in Egypt. King David, the true founder of the kingdom of Israel and the greatest king in the Bible, killed a man and then stole his wife. Many American presidents, like Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton, were sometimes unfaithful to their wives. Sometimes political leaders make even worse mistakes — like waging wars that turn out to be less than absolutely necessary.
Judaism understands that this sort of thing happens. Look at what Leviticus says about the sin offering that sinners have to bring. When it comes to "regular" people, the text says "if a person sins." If. It might happen; it might not (it probably does, because no one is perfect). But when it comes to rulers, Leviticus does not say if they sin. It's when they sin. It is going to happen. Be ready for it. As the talmudic sage Yochanan ben Zakkai said: "Fortunate is the generation whose leader recognizes having sinned and brings an offering of purification."
And here is what is even cooler: Biblical Judaism brought a radical revolution to political thinking: the ruler is not above the law. In ancient times, and in non-Jewish nations, if you criticized the ruler you could get yourself killed. The ruler or king was a god. But when King David sinned, the prophet Nathan stood before him and openly criticized him. When King Ahab and Queen Jezebel sinned, the prophet Elijah stood before them and openly criticized them. That was what prophets were supposed to do. True, it didn't win them any popularity contests. And it was also true that it was dangerous; Elijah had to flee from Queen Jezebel, who threatened to kill him. But here's the bottom line: no prophet in ancient Israel was ever put to death by a king for telling the truth to the king.
The Israeli statesman Avraham Burg writes: "The role of the prophet and man of spirit is to stand always at the side of the oppressed and downtrodden, the 'average citizen,' and defend him or her against an unjust regime. Our tradition understands that there is no government that is without injustice."
Connections
• Why do you think that Jewish children used to start their Jewish education by learning the book of Leviticus?
• Why does Leviticus make special mention of the sins of rulers? What would be some examples of those kinds of sins?
• How does Judaism show concern for the dignity of the poor? How do you yourself do this?
• For what are you grateful? How do you show your gratitude?
• What kinds of offerings do you "bring" to God?
• What are your ways of getting close to God?
CHAPTER 2The Haftarah
Va-yikra': Isaiah 43:21–44:23
To review: there are two biblical prophets named Isaiah. The first was a prophet who lived in the eighth century BCE. Then, there was a prophet who was called Second Isaiah. That wasn't actually his name (no one ever called him Isaiah 2). He was actually an anonymous prophet who preached during the sixth century BCE at the time when the Babylonian exile was about to end. (Sometimes, he is called Deutero-Isaiah; "deutero" means "repeat.") Everything in the book of Isaiah that comes after chapter 40 is the work of this anonymous prophet. (Some scholars say that there was even a third Isaiah, but we won't get into that now.)
The Second Isaiah was perhaps the most optimistic prophet in Jewish history. And why wouldn't he be? He felt sure he was about to witness one of the great moments in history — the coming return of the Jews to their homeland. His messages were always about hope.
According to Isaiah, God is upset that the Jews haven't brought offerings to God (that's the connection with the Torah portion Va-yikra', which is all about the sacrificial system), and haven't remembered their ethical obligations. No doubt, many Jews turned to the worship of Babylonian gods, and the prophet finds that both stupid and upsetting.
But then Isaiah's tone radically changes. Hey, Jews! We can reestablish our relationship with God! It's time to come home! We can do it!
What's Wrong with Idolatry, Anyway?
If there is one thing that made the prophets go ballistic, it was idolatry. Worshiping false gods is prohibited in the Ten Commandments. Over and over again, the Torah condemns those who worship the gods of ancient Canaan. The prophets hammer that message home: idolatry is bad.
But what was really so wrong about idolatry? Was it simply the worship of gods who didn't happen to be Adonai? Was it the worship of many gods, rather than the one true God? Was it the kind of worship that those false gods demanded — human sacrifice and other disgusting, terrible things? Or was there something much more basic?
The prophets objected to idolatry for all the reasons above, and we find an additional reason in this haftarah. Several times, the prophet known as Second Isaiah goes on a rant against those who make idols. "The makers of idols all work to no purpose; and the things they treasure can do no good, as they themselves can testify" (44:9). That's his biggest issue with idolatry: It's the issue of what the idolater worships! He or she is worshiping an object that someone created. And even if the idol is symbolic of some god, it's preposterous to bow down to an object itself.
Oh, sure, the craftsman who made the idol was very good at his or her work, and the prophet even gives credit where credit is due: "The craftsman in iron, with his tools, works it over charcoal and fashions it by hammering, working with the strength of his arm" (44:12).
But the prophet also has to laugh at that workmanship. Let's say that the idol maker uses a tree to make a wooden idol. The craftsman uses part of the tree to make the idol, and the other part of that same tree simply as firewood to use for roasting meat! How "holy" could the wooden god actually be, then?
You probably already know the famous legend about how thirteen-year-old Abram (Abraham) broke the idols that his father had made. "Abram seized a stick, smashed all the images, and placed the stick in the hand of the biggest of them. When his father came, he asked: 'Who did this to the gods?' Abram answered: 'A woman came with a bowl of fine flour and said: "Here, offer it up to them." When I offered it, one god said, "I will eat first," and another said, "No, I will eat first." Then the biggest of them rose up and smashed all the others.' His father replied: 'Are you messing around with me? They cannot do anything!' Abram answered: 'You say they cannot. Let your ears hear what your mouth is saying!'" Young Abram figured out that if you make something, that means you actually have power over it. And if you have power over something, then that "something" cannot be a god. Because you created it, it is actually a part of you.
Rabbi Ed Feinstein teaches: "An idol is ... a projection of my desires, my fears, my needs. ... So ... I flatter and sweet talk the idol. I bring gifts to the idol and I beg the idol to do what I need done in the world. And if the idol complies, I become its loyal servant. And if not, ... I'll shop my needs around until I find a god who's interested in helping me in exchange for my devotion. Cosmic room service."
That's why idols cannot be gods. Because they are simply projections of our own desires. So idolatry is a form of self-worship. And God is always much bigger than that.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Va-yikra' (Leviticus 1:1–5:26 and Haftarah (Isaiah 43:21–44:23))"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
General Introduction Va-yikra': Torah Commentary Va-yikra': Haftarah Commentary