Parshat Vayikra: Are Sacrifices Primitive?
This Shabbat we begin to read the third of the Five Books of Moses, Vayikra/Leviticus. Vayikra deals primarily with sacrifices. Let’s get it right out in the open – this is not a favorite topic for most. We can safely assume that it’s one of the least relatable parts of the Torah for many, especially since we haven’t had a Temple for a couple of millennia now. And even if we did, very few people find much spirituality in the slaughter of an animal and its associated activities like sprinkling its blood. In fact, when is the last time you even saw an animal actually being slaughtered? If you are like most people in Western society – probably never.
I recall once giving a class on Korbanot/Sacrificial Offerings and I graphically described how the steer at my father’s meat-packing plant were slaughtered. One poor guy had to get up and leave the class because he felt nauseous. My favourite part at Grace Meat Packers was the worker who used to reach into the cavity of the animal, suspended from the ceiling by its hind leg, and pull out all of the guts onto a large metal table. Or maybe it was it the the huge saw, also suspended from the ceiling, that buzzed through the animal turning it into two sides of beef. But I better stop before you end up like that fellow from class.
The simple fact is that for most of us, meat appears in our lives as a shiny red slab that sits under a cellophane wrapper on a white styrofoam plate that we purchase at the supermarket. We have very little awareness, nor interest in fact, of how it got there. We are happy to pay for it, throw it on the BBQ and enjoy.
And herein lies the problem of why we don’t relate to sacrifices. While we tend to view it as a primitive act by antiquated people who did not have our sophisticated approach to life, perhaps it is the exact opposite. Maybe the ancients were in touch with a part of nature that we have so little appreciation of and sensitivity to.
Throughout most of history, up until the Industrial Revolution, people lived close to the land and had a greater awareness of their environment through agriculture and raising animals. There was a far greater knowledge of the power and nuances of nature as an expression of God in the world. Indeed Maimonides in his great work, Mishne Torah tells us that one of the two means by which one can fulfill the commandment of Love of God is through a greater appreciation and understanding of the natural world.
And so while we tend to view ourselves as advanced because we have computers, cell-phones, supersized HD TVs and many other things to ensconce ourselves from the outside world – be it in our cars, offices and homes – the result is that we totally ignore the grace, beauty and Godliness that surrounds us in the life and life-cycle of creatures, animals, trees, plants, and bugs.
Go to the beach and look around and you will notice many people in that familiar modern-prayer stance: head bowed down at a 45 degree angle and solemnly and silently looking at their holy phones gently cradled in their palms. All the surrounding beauty of the blue skies, crashing waves, warm sand, turquoise waters and salty breeze can’t compete with TikTok or Instagram.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not claiming to be Mr. Barefoot Walk and Commune with Nature but I do have a very vivid memory how I was once most in touch with the natural world. Before it got knocked down in a hurricane, I used to have my annual foray into farming life with the Mango Tree in our backyard. I planted her when it was but a few feet tall and over the years it grew to over 20 ft. I did very little tending to it. The mangoes magically arrived yearly – some years more than others. But even with my slight efforts, the fruit from that particular tree was more dear to me than any other fruit.
I anticipated the buds and watched them transform from tiny nothings to eight inch fruits in the course of a few months. I watered the tree when there wasn’t enough rain and chased the birds and squirrels away so they wouldn’t ruin the fruit as they ripened (blue jays were the worst). I made sure to go out early every morning to see if any mangoes had fallen, or were ready to, before the bugs got to them. And when that first beautiful delicious mango was ready, I saved it for Shabbat and made the special blessing on having a fruit for the first time in its season, the Shehecheyanu blessing.
Yes, maybe Maimonides was correct in his assessment in the Guide for the Perplexed that sacrifices were a common form of worship for all peoples and inasmuch as the Jewish people were surrounded by it in Egypt, God gave them a “kosher” version of it knowing that they could not abstain from it cold turkey. And maybe the implication that is was a somewhat passing phase in Jewish history is indeed the case and we have outgrown the whole process. Although it must be stated that many disagree with this view of Rambam.
On the other hand, maybe the fact that the Torah spends so much time focusing on offering or sacrificing living things such as animals and plants as a meaningful means to connect with God is a lesson for us even today. That we need to revert back to a simpler and purer way of life where the toil of my hands getting lost in the ground and soil versus tapping a screen or computer keyboard will bring us back in touch with our Creator.
I am not a prophet and how things will look and be when the Temple is eventually rebuilt is beyond me. But whatever the case, I am sure it will herald a time when we shall have a much greater appreciation of the real – and not virtual – world around us as we better hear, feel, touch and smell the call of nature as a means of getting close to God.
Power in the blossom
Power in the stone…
Power in the wheatfield
Power in the rain
Power in the sunlight and the hurricane…
The power of the sunrise
And the power of a prayer released
-Jackson Browne
