(This article was written by the author together with his wife, Dr. Tzippora Pinner, M.D. Our programming allows only one name on the byline)

 

Purification

 

Parashat Sh’mini opens by describing the consecration service for the Mishkan which the Kohanim conducted almost a year after the Exodus on the first of Nisan (during which Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron’s sons, tragically died). The previous Parashah, Tzav, recounts the consecration of the Kohanim and the preparations of the Mishkan, and concludes with Moshe commanding Aaron and his sons to remain within the Mishkan for seven days. Now, on the eighth day, the Kohanim consecrate the Mishkan.

 

At the centre of the consecration ceremony were the sacrifices: a young bull for a sin-offering, and a ram as a burnt-offering, for Aaron; a male goat as a sin-offering, and a calf and a sheep as a burnt-offering, for the Children of Israel; and a bull and a ram as a peace-offering.

 

When Aaron sacrificed the calf as his sin-offering, this demonstrated to the entire nation that he had been forgiven his part in the sin of the golden calf some eight and a half months previously (Tanhuma, Sh’mini 4). The Torah describes that ceremony: “Aaron approached the Altar, and he slaughtered his calf of the sin-offering. Then Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and placed it on the horns of the Altar; and he poured the blood on the base of the Altar. And the fat, and the kidneys, and the diaphragm, and the liver of the sin-offering he caused to go up on smoke from the Altar, as Hashem had commanded Moshe” (Leviticus 9:8-10).

 

What is the Torah’s message in specifying that the kidneys, liver, and diaphragm were wholly burnt? Why these three, and not the more succulent parts of the body, like the breast or the thighs? Or why not the more biologically significant parts of the body, like the heart or the head? Would those not seem to be the natural choice for the most appropriate parts to sacrifice to G-d?

 

Significantly, whenever the kidneys, liver, and diaphragm appear in any sacrificial services, they are invariably inseparable: none of these three ever appears without being accompanied by the other two. Hence our question becomes: What distinguishes these three organs, that G-d chose them as His part of the sacrificed animal?

The Torah specifies these three organs to be wholly burnt in seven sacrifices:

  1. When Aaron and his sons were inaugurated as Kohanim (Exodus 29:4-14), and Moshe sacrificed the bull as a sin-offering (verse 14);
  2. the cattle sacrificed as a peace-offering (Leviticus 3:1-17), which would be brought voluntarily by a Jew who desired to express spontaneous love of G-d or gratitude for His blessings, or who desired to get closer to Him;
  3. the anointed Kohen’s sin-offering (Leviticus 4:3-12);
  4. the guilt-offering (Leviticus 7:1-5);
  5. the ceremony in which Aaron and his sons were consecrated as Kohanim (Leviticus 8:1-21), in which the sacrificial bull was also defined as a sin-offering (verse 14);
  6. the consecration service of the Mishkan, with which our Parashah opens, in which the bull and the ram, whose kidneys, livers, and diaphragms were burnt, were Aaron’s sin-offering (Leviticus 9:10);
  7. the bull and the ram of the communal peace-offering (verse 18).

 

Let us start by defining the principal purpose of these offerings. Sacrifices are a method of connecting the sacrificer with G-d: the sacrificer consumes part of his sacrifice, and G-d consumes part (the part which is burnt). Hence by eating part and burning part of the sacrifice, the sacrificer and G-d become partners. The word ‘korban’ (‘sacrifice’) is a cognate of ‘karov’ (‘close’); sacrifices atone for sin and bring the sacrificer closer to G-d.

 

The specific task of the liver and the kidneys in the body is to detoxify the blood – that is, to remove harmful substances from it and cleanse it. The Torah equates blood with the soul and the source of life, “because the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the Altar to atone for your souls; because the blood is in the soul, it shall atone” (Leviticus 17:11).

 

The sacrifice which atones for sin cleanses the soul from sin – so to speak, detoxifies it. Hence sacrificing the liver and the kidneys – the organs which detoxify the blood – symbolizes the detoxification of the soul.

 

The diaphragm, on the other hand, is the barrier that separates the upper part from the lower part of the human body (or the front from the back in an animal). It lies between the lungs and heart above, and the digestive, excretion, and reproductive organs below.

 

The lungs provide the body with air, epitomising ‘neshima’ (‘breathing’), inherently connected to ‘neshama’ (‘soul’, specifically the higher more spiritual soul given only to humans, as opposed to the ‘nefesh’ or lower soul, given to both humans and animals). When G-d created Adam (“Man”), “He breathed the ‘nishmat chayyim’ (‘breath of life’) into his nostrils, and the man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). So the lungs symbolise the higher soul and the breath of life.

 

And the heart is the seat of understanding and of passion: “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart and all your soul” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Indeed, the heart – like the blood – is inextricably intertwined with the soul: whenever the phrase ‘be-khol levav’kha’ (‘with all your heart’) occurs in the Torah, it occurs without exception as part of the phrase ‘be-khol levav’kha u-ve-khol nafshekha’ (‘with all your heart and with all your soul’).

 

By contrast, the digestive, excretion, and reproductive organs represent the lowest of physical desires – waste products, eating, and the physical act of procreation. All of these, if un-harnessed and uncontrolled by the higher spiritual parts of the body, inevitably lead a Jew into sin; but when directed by a Jewish heart and a Jewish soul, these lower physical desires are elevated to become the physical expression of the highest and holiest ideals.

 

It is obligatory to don a belt to separate between the upper and lower parts of the body during prayer. In the words of the Shulkhan Arukh (based on Shabbat 9b-10a): “One must tie a girdle round his waist when he prays, even if he is wearing a belt, so that his heart does not see his reproductive organ” (Orach Chayyim 91:2). (This is the origin of the mainly Hassidic custom of wearing a gartel during prayer.) That is to say, one must keep his higher human intellect and spirituality distinctly separate from the lower animal instincts. (Just for the sake of halachic clarity, most authorities hold that a regular belt, or even the waist-band of trousers, is sufficient to make this physical distinction; see, for instance, Tosafot to Shabbat 10a, s.v. t’richuta le-meisar; Mishnah Berurah and Be’er Heitev on Orach Chayyim 92:1; Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh 5:17.)

 

In the body (both human and animal), it is the diaphragm that makes this separation between the heart and the reproductive organs, between the higher human spirituality and the lower animal instincts.

 

So when sacrificing the sin-offering or the peace-offering, we give to G-d the kidneys and the liver – those parts of the animal that cleanse the blood, and by analogy cleanse the soul; and the diaphragm – the part of the body that represents the separation between the  lower animal lusts and the higher spirituality that is man’s purpose in this world.

 

This is also the message of Shabbat Parah, the third of the four special Shabbatot from the beginning of Adar until Pesach. “This is the Shabbat immediately before Shabbat ha-Chodesh [the Shabbat on or immediately before Rosh Chodesh Nisan]. The Red Heifer was burnt in the Sinai Desert just before Nisan, so that Israel could be sprinkled with the ashes of the sin-offering immediately after the Mishkan was erected, and they would thereby be pure and therefore be able to sacrifice the Paschal Lamb in its right time; therefore we read this section, as a prayer that G-d will soon sprinkle purifying waters over us too” (Mishnah Berurah 685:1).

 

And we pray that, just as G-d grants us the opportunity for purification, so will He grant us the cleansing and detoxification of our souls, and the separation between our lower physical urges and out higher spiritual yearnings.