by Rabbi Avi Billet
When we think about how the beginning of the book of Vayikra relates to us today, we are challenged to find an answer. Our service is not the Service of the Temple, ours is not sacrificial lambs and goats and bulls.
The portions that speak of the animal sacrifices have much to teach in the homiletic sense, and in some of the passages drummed up in various Midrashim. But as far as practical use – if we don’t have the Temple Service, the Mishkan rules are not practical to our lives.
And yet, when one sees what is happening in the world with respect to how Jews are treated, one can’t help being drawn to the first verse in Vayikra Chapter 3. “If one's sacrifice is a peace offering and it is from the cattle, he may offer either an unblemished male or an unblemished female before God.”
A little over a month ago, President Obama spoke at the Islamic Society of Baltimore and said the following: “We have to be consistent in condemning hateful rhetoric and violence against everyone. And that includes against Muslims here in the United States of America.”
In an article responding to the president’s speech there, Dennis Prager addressed that quote saying, “Two facts are relevant here. One is that religious hate crimes are exceedingly rare in America. The other is that in 2014, the last year for which we have data, Jews were targets of hate crimes four times more frequently than Muslims.”
President Obama also said, “There are Christians [not Jews?] who are targeted now in the Middle East, despite having been there for centuries, and there are Jews who’ve lived in places like France for centuries who now feel obliged to leave because they feel themselves under assault — sometimes by Muslims.”
Beyond noting that "Jews in the Middle East” were ignored, perhaps because it is politically insensitive to note how Jews are the victims of terror in Israel on a regular basis, Prager noted that the president mentioned the many Jews in France who are attacked “sometimes by Muslims.” “Sometimes?” Prager queries. “French Jews have recently been murdered, tortured, and harassed more than at any time since the Holocaust. And virtually every one of those attacks has been perpetrated by Muslims.”
I have no qualms about noting who the terrorists are, especially in Israel – the Middle East – where Jews are always the targets, even though the terrorists sometimes get Americans (Taylor Force, RIP) and Arabs (Mohammed Wari, in Jaffa, who survived), having mistakenly (or not, since they don’t care) identified their victims.
David Fremd HY"D was murdered by a terrorist in Uruguay last week. The list can go on and on, from last week alone.
What are these sacrifices for? For peace? For a world order that will be Judenrein? Do these sacrifices need to continue because a peace-loving faction of Jews (in Israel!) believe that if you’re only nice to the people who hate you, they’ll stop hating you? Anti-Semitism is the world’s oldest hatred. It even pre-dates Islam, and might never be overcome, neither in America, in Israel, or elsewhere in the world.
After the terror attacks in Paris a little over a year ago, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls delivered a powerful speech against anti-Semitism. Let us note it is a stain on all of Europe, if not most of the civilized world. [Though terrorists are hardly what we might call “civilized.”] Whether his words had their desired impact is questionable, but it is hopefully a start in the right direction.
Rashi says “Shlamim – peace offerings” are called that because they bring peace to the world. Rashbam and Chizkuni says “Shlamim” comes from the word “Tashlumim” – a price that must be paid, or a promise that must be fulfilled. Ramban seems to say the same thing as he explains the term to have the same meaning as the phrase in Yeshayahu (44:28) which means “My desire he shall fulfill.” While he also notes the similarity to the phrase “complete stones.” Haktav V’ha’Kaballah explains this second view of Ramban to mean “there is no flaw in the offering, because it comes only from a pure devotion of the heart.” As Rav Hirsch puts it, the word “Shalem” means complete, and more accurately, “flawless” in the sense of the motivation of the person bringing the offering. Menachem Recanati opens his words saying “The Shlamim comes to bring peace in the world and to complete towards [the one bringing the offering] the trait of judgment. This is why it can be brought using a male or female [animal].”
R Pinchas Halevi Horowitz associates the Shlamim with the thought articulated by King David in Psalm 51:16-21, when he refers to what God truly wants, namely the sacrifices of righteousness.
“Save me from blood, O God, the God of my salvation; let my tongue sing praises of Your charity. O Lord, You shall open my lips, and my mouth will recite Your praise. For You do not wish a sacrifice, or I should give it; You do not desire a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; O God, You will not despise a broken and crushed heart. With Your will, do good to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will desire sacrifices of righteousness, a burnt offering and a whole offering; then they will offer up bulls on Your altar.”While the resolve of the Jewish people will remain steadfast and strong, we are facing exactly this – a broken spirit, a broken and crushed heart – over all the sacrifices the Jewish people have had to give up, in both male and female victims, because Israel is faced with the politically incorrect battle of weeding out terrorists from its midst. Terrorists are now male, female, adults and children. While not impossible, it is a formidable task to weed out the evil people.
We hope there need be no more sacrifices until the day when Jerusalem is completely rebuilt with the Jewish Temple at its epicenter, and the only Peace sacrifices which will be brought are those that are “sacrifices of righteousness” brought by those who are giving whole and complete devotions to God that don’t come at the price of an innocent person’s life.
No comments:
Post a Comment