--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Torah Thoughts Relating To Current Events
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Occasional Series by Michael Freund of Raanana, Israel
Comments/Feedback/Subscribe: parsha_sheet@hotmail.com
1. Sacrifices, Then and Now
This week we begin reading VaYikra (Leviticus), the third book of the Pentateuch, much of which is devoted to the various sacrificial offerings, their laws and details. Five different categories of sacrifices are discussed in this week?s Parsha, such as the Olah-offering and the sin-offering, each of which serves a different function in the Jewish people?s service of G-d.
The question: What is the meaning of the sacrificial offerings? Why did G-d command the Jewish people to bring them?
The answer: The commentaries offer various reasons as to why the Jewish people were instructed to offer sacrifices to G-d. One of the most famous interpretations is that given by the Ramban (1195-1270; also known as Nahmanides). Commenting on Chap. 1, verse 9, the Ramban says that when a person sins and brings an offering to G-d as atonement, he ?should realize that he has sinned against his G-d with his body and his soul, and that it is really his own blood that should be spilled and his body that should be burned, were it not for the loving-kindness of the Creator, Who took from him a substitute and a ransom, namely this offering, so that its blood should be in place of his blood, its life in place of his life, and the chief limbs of the offering in place of the chief parts of his body.? From the Ramban?s explanation, we can infer that the very act of bringing the sacrifice, with its seemingly gory ritual, is therefore intended to have a dramatic impact on the person who brings it ? to inescapably shock him, visually and spiritually, into realizing the damage his sin has wrought. This will hopefully bring him to the point of realizing, as he gazes at the animal being sacrificed, that ?There, but for the grace of G-d, go I.?
The lesson: This week has been one of the most terrifying and frustrating in Israel in recent memory. The scope of the terror, its frequency and its reach, has stunned the nation. Though previous waves of Palestinian terrorism have claimed more victims, such as the February-March 1996 bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the blows this week seem to have struck a deeper chord. The cold-blooded murder of 10-month old Shalhevet in Hebron by a Palestinian sniper, followed by the bombings in Jerusalem, the attempted bombings in Netanya and Petah Tikva, and the murder of two teenage yeshiva students in the bombing at Neve Yamin ? these incidents have reminded us all of a crucial truth: whereas some of us may differentiate between ?the settlers? and ?the rest of us?, the Palestinians do not. A Jew in Netanya is as much a target for the terrorists as a Jew in Hebron. All of us are in the same boat, whether we like it or not.
On Thursday morning, I attended the funeral of 13-year old Naftali Lanzkron, my sister-in-law?s first cousin, who was murdered by a suicide bomber the previous day while waiting at a bus stop to go to school. Unlike the scenes we see on television of Palestinian funerals, in which marchers wave rifles in the air and shout violent slogans, Naftali?s funeral was a dignified and solemn event, the hushed silence of the mourners broken only by the sobs from the crowd. Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau spoke, and he invoked the Parsha, crying out emotionally to G-d that the Jewish people have offered enough sacrifices this week. Only instead of offering their finest sheep and goats on the altar, they offered instead their sons and daughters. As I listened to his words, I could not help but think of the Ramban?s explanation above. Clearly, it is beyond our ability to comprehend why a 13-year old died this week in such a cruel and unfathomable manner. Naftali had just celebrated his bar mitzvah a few short months ago, and he had his whole life ahead of him. But let us at least take the shock and the pain of his death, and use it to examine ourselves and our own actions (as the Ramban explains the sacrificial offerings in the Parsha).
Naftali was killed because he was a Jew. He leaves behind his parents and nine siblings. Though I did not know him, it was clear from the thousands of people attending his funeral that he touched many lives and left a deep imprint on those around him. May his memory be for a blessing.
2. Everybody Makes Mistakes
Among the sacrificial offerings detailed in the Parsha (see Chaps. 4 and 5) are sin-offerings, which are required to be brought as part of the atonement process when a person has committed various types of sins.
The question: When the Torah discusses the need for a sin-offering to be brought, it uses the word ?If? to introduce cases in which an individual Jew, the entire Jewish people or the High Priest have unintentionally sinned (i.e. ?If the entire assembly of Israel shall err??). But when discussing a case in which the leader of the nation has sinned, the Torah uses the word ?When? (i.e. ?when a ruler sins?). Why?
The answer: Rashi answers by quoting the Midrash and the Talmud, which say that our verse used the word ?When? (in Hebrew: ?Asher?), because it is connected to the word for happy (in Hebrew: ?Ashrei?). This is to teach us that ?happy is the generation whose leader is willing to seek atonement for his unintentional sins, for surely he will then regret his intentional offenses.? Thus, according to Rashi, the Torah was hinting to us that when a leader is willing to stand up and take responsibility for his errors, it is should serve as a source of joy for the nation that he rules.
The lesson: Politics is a rough business, one in which people rarely allow for mistakes or errors. Rivals and critics abound, ready to pounce on a slip of the tongue or a failed policy. Exploiting mistakes, rather than admitting to them, seems to be par for the course, which is why Rashi?s explanation rings so true. It is so rare nowadays for a leader to sincerely admit that he has erred that when he does, it is something that makes him stand out from the crowd. A slightly different twist to this idea is offered by Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, founder of the Mussar movement. The Talmud in Tractate Horayot (10b) quotes Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai as saying: ?Happy is the generation that its leader brings a sacrificial offering for his mistake.? Rabbi Salanter explains the Talmudic statement as follows: in general, people fail to see their own flaws or mistakes and this trait is even more pronounced among leaders. Because someone is put into a position of power where they rule over the nation, they often become haughty and arrogant, unwilling to listen to others or heed their advice. The fact that a leader is willing to bring a sin-offering, says Rabbi Salanter, tells us something about the people over whom he rules. Clearly, says Rabbi Salanter, such a people are unwilling to quietly tolerate their leader?s mistakes, for it is they who criticize him and point out his failings, effectively compelling him to acknowledge the error of his ways. Combining the explanations of Rashi and Rabbi Salanter, we see that there are two parts to the equation: a leader must be willing to acknowledge his own mistakes, but we the people must be willing to point them out, not sitting by in silence and allowing them to pass by without comment. In recent months, the people of Israel have made clear that they believe the Oslo process has failed. Now, it is incumbent upon the leaders behind Oslo to speak out and finally acknowledge their mistakes. And that, as we have seen above, may just prove to be the key to making ours a ?happy generation.?
Torah Thoughts Relating To Current Events
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Occasional Series by Michael Freund of Raanana, Israel
Comments/Feedback/Subscribe: parsha_sheet@hotmail.com
1. Sacrifices, Then and Now
This week we begin reading VaYikra (Leviticus), the third book of the Pentateuch, much of which is devoted to the various sacrificial offerings, their laws and details. Five different categories of sacrifices are discussed in this week?s Parsha, such as the Olah-offering and the sin-offering, each of which serves a different function in the Jewish people?s service of G-d.
The question: What is the meaning of the sacrificial offerings? Why did G-d command the Jewish people to bring them?
The answer: The commentaries offer various reasons as to why the Jewish people were instructed to offer sacrifices to G-d. One of the most famous interpretations is that given by the Ramban (1195-1270; also known as Nahmanides). Commenting on Chap. 1, verse 9, the Ramban says that when a person sins and brings an offering to G-d as atonement, he ?should realize that he has sinned against his G-d with his body and his soul, and that it is really his own blood that should be spilled and his body that should be burned, were it not for the loving-kindness of the Creator, Who took from him a substitute and a ransom, namely this offering, so that its blood should be in place of his blood, its life in place of his life, and the chief limbs of the offering in place of the chief parts of his body.? From the Ramban?s explanation, we can infer that the very act of bringing the sacrifice, with its seemingly gory ritual, is therefore intended to have a dramatic impact on the person who brings it ? to inescapably shock him, visually and spiritually, into realizing the damage his sin has wrought. This will hopefully bring him to the point of realizing, as he gazes at the animal being sacrificed, that ?There, but for the grace of G-d, go I.?
The lesson: This week has been one of the most terrifying and frustrating in Israel in recent memory. The scope of the terror, its frequency and its reach, has stunned the nation. Though previous waves of Palestinian terrorism have claimed more victims, such as the February-March 1996 bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the blows this week seem to have struck a deeper chord. The cold-blooded murder of 10-month old Shalhevet in Hebron by a Palestinian sniper, followed by the bombings in Jerusalem, the attempted bombings in Netanya and Petah Tikva, and the murder of two teenage yeshiva students in the bombing at Neve Yamin ? these incidents have reminded us all of a crucial truth: whereas some of us may differentiate between ?the settlers? and ?the rest of us?, the Palestinians do not. A Jew in Netanya is as much a target for the terrorists as a Jew in Hebron. All of us are in the same boat, whether we like it or not.
On Thursday morning, I attended the funeral of 13-year old Naftali Lanzkron, my sister-in-law?s first cousin, who was murdered by a suicide bomber the previous day while waiting at a bus stop to go to school. Unlike the scenes we see on television of Palestinian funerals, in which marchers wave rifles in the air and shout violent slogans, Naftali?s funeral was a dignified and solemn event, the hushed silence of the mourners broken only by the sobs from the crowd. Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau spoke, and he invoked the Parsha, crying out emotionally to G-d that the Jewish people have offered enough sacrifices this week. Only instead of offering their finest sheep and goats on the altar, they offered instead their sons and daughters. As I listened to his words, I could not help but think of the Ramban?s explanation above. Clearly, it is beyond our ability to comprehend why a 13-year old died this week in such a cruel and unfathomable manner. Naftali had just celebrated his bar mitzvah a few short months ago, and he had his whole life ahead of him. But let us at least take the shock and the pain of his death, and use it to examine ourselves and our own actions (as the Ramban explains the sacrificial offerings in the Parsha).
Naftali was killed because he was a Jew. He leaves behind his parents and nine siblings. Though I did not know him, it was clear from the thousands of people attending his funeral that he touched many lives and left a deep imprint on those around him. May his memory be for a blessing.
2. Everybody Makes Mistakes
Among the sacrificial offerings detailed in the Parsha (see Chaps. 4 and 5) are sin-offerings, which are required to be brought as part of the atonement process when a person has committed various types of sins.
The question: When the Torah discusses the need for a sin-offering to be brought, it uses the word ?If? to introduce cases in which an individual Jew, the entire Jewish people or the High Priest have unintentionally sinned (i.e. ?If the entire assembly of Israel shall err??). But when discussing a case in which the leader of the nation has sinned, the Torah uses the word ?When? (i.e. ?when a ruler sins?). Why?
The answer: Rashi answers by quoting the Midrash and the Talmud, which say that our verse used the word ?When? (in Hebrew: ?Asher?), because it is connected to the word for happy (in Hebrew: ?Ashrei?). This is to teach us that ?happy is the generation whose leader is willing to seek atonement for his unintentional sins, for surely he will then regret his intentional offenses.? Thus, according to Rashi, the Torah was hinting to us that when a leader is willing to stand up and take responsibility for his errors, it is should serve as a source of joy for the nation that he rules.
The lesson: Politics is a rough business, one in which people rarely allow for mistakes or errors. Rivals and critics abound, ready to pounce on a slip of the tongue or a failed policy. Exploiting mistakes, rather than admitting to them, seems to be par for the course, which is why Rashi?s explanation rings so true. It is so rare nowadays for a leader to sincerely admit that he has erred that when he does, it is something that makes him stand out from the crowd. A slightly different twist to this idea is offered by Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, founder of the Mussar movement. The Talmud in Tractate Horayot (10b) quotes Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai as saying: ?Happy is the generation that its leader brings a sacrificial offering for his mistake.? Rabbi Salanter explains the Talmudic statement as follows: in general, people fail to see their own flaws or mistakes and this trait is even more pronounced among leaders. Because someone is put into a position of power where they rule over the nation, they often become haughty and arrogant, unwilling to listen to others or heed their advice. The fact that a leader is willing to bring a sin-offering, says Rabbi Salanter, tells us something about the people over whom he rules. Clearly, says Rabbi Salanter, such a people are unwilling to quietly tolerate their leader?s mistakes, for it is they who criticize him and point out his failings, effectively compelling him to acknowledge the error of his ways. Combining the explanations of Rashi and Rabbi Salanter, we see that there are two parts to the equation: a leader must be willing to acknowledge his own mistakes, but we the people must be willing to point them out, not sitting by in silence and allowing them to pass by without comment. In recent months, the people of Israel have made clear that they believe the Oslo process has failed. Now, it is incumbent upon the leaders behind Oslo to speak out and finally acknowledge their mistakes. And that, as we have seen above, may just prove to be the key to making ours a ?happy generation.?