Vayikra
When any of you
presents an offering of cattle to the Lord, he shall choose his offering from
the herd or from the flock.
1:3
It is impossible to go suddenly
from one extreme to the other; the nature of man will not allow him suddenly to
discontinue everything to which he has been accustomed…the general mode of
worship in which the Israelites were brought up, consisted in sacrificing
animals in temples containing images, to bow down to those images, and to burn
incense before them…God did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these modes of worship; for to obey such
a commandment would have been contrary to the nature of, who generally clings
to that which he is used…
Rambam(12th Century)
The sacrificial portion of the
Torah was prompted by Divine Wisdom, according to which people are allowed to
continue the kind of worship to which they have been accustomed, in order that
they might acquire the true fait, which is the chief object of God’s
commandments. Since the sacrificial
service is not the primary object of the commandments about sacrifice, while
supplications, prayers and similar kinds of worship are nearer to the primary
object…a great difference was made in the Law between these two kinds of
service…Accordingly the prophets frequently reprove their fellow men for being
over zealous and exerting themselves to much in bringing sacrifices…
Ramban (13th Century)
Some leading modern Jewish
thinkers have argued that we should not press the issue in trying to decipher
the mystery of sacrifices until it presents itself again as part of a new
eschatological reality which may well alter some prevailing sensitivities or
reveal new insights into old ones…What is left then for us to do in dealing
with the chapters of the sacrifices in the Torah is to learn from them…The
Torah demands that the sacrifice must be part of yourselves. God does not want a sacrifice which does not
rightfully belong to you personally…
Pinchas Peli (20th
Century)
The Sages read (the first verse of
the parsha) more slowly than we do. They
say: “This passage comes to teach us
manners. Let no man give instructions to
his inferior until he has first called him by name, for this is what God does
in this line.”…A master must be sensitive to the rights and the feelings and
dignity of his servant. He calls him
first by name…There are books by Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt and others that
can tell us how to address the pope or the president, a duke or a senator. But how do we address an errand boy? How do we speak to those who are below us in
the social scale?
Jack Riemer
(Contemporary)
Biblical rituals are symbolic acts
that, in the main contain within them ethical values. This axiom is nowhere illustrated than in the
sacrificial system….The purification offering is prescribed for moral
impurity…Who or what is being purified?
A person is purified by bathing, the blood of the offering is sprinkled
upon the altar…it is the sanctuary that is polluted by the sins of
Jacob Milgraum
(contemporary)