Parshat Vayikra
by Rabbi Avi Billet
Se’or is typically translated as “sourdough” and refers to a starter used in baking, a fermented piece of dough that functions in a similar way to yeast in that it causes a new dough being created to rise.
The Torah is not required to give reasons for its laws, but ever since Maimonides (if not before), there has been much interest in “knowing the reasons” for why we do things or why we have certain practices. In general this is a more fun exercise when it comes to understanding “Minhag-development” than Mitzvah-development, because Mitzvos come from God (we don’t need a reason) while customs are typically man-made and came about for a reason or for several reasons related to location, society, and culture.
The prohibition against mixing sourdough and honey in a Korban (Vayikra 2:11) seems strange – why should it matter? – prompting Maimonides to suggest that it was a common practice of idolaters, and therefore we don’t do it.
Rabbi Baruch HaLevi Epstein questions this argument noting that the entire concept of sacrifices is idolatrous, yet nonetheless God gave it to us as instruction for how to serve Him!
Therefore he suggests we ought to go about understanding this law in a different manner. There is a Midrash that suggests Se’or was upset when it came to understand that the One Who created it had testified that it was bad. Just as the verse says (Bereshit 8:21) that the natural inclination of man is bad, and it notes in Tehillim 103:14 that God knows our inclination, the concept of Se’or being undesirable is connected to the premise laid out in the Talmud (Brachot 17a) that Se’or is a nickname of the Yetzer Hara (the evil inclination).
Because of Se’or’s status as being undesirable, it has no place being within the realm of Kedusha – being utilized as part of a korban/offering.
Why is the yetzer hara given the nickname of Se’or? Perhaps it is connected to the idea that both of them work in the same way in what they aim to achieve. Even though the amount of Se’or in dough might be minimal, it is incredible what that tiny amount of fermented dough can achieve. It takes a couple of ingredients that together make some kind of dough, but it causes them together to rise to a proportion far beyond anything which is imaginable (were we not so used to it doing so!).
And so it is with the Yetzer Hara. It is tiny in comparison to the body. It is a tiny fraction of one’s heart or mind (wherever one wishes to place its presence), and look what it can achieve and where it can lead us.
Let us leave aside “sinning” for a moment. I’ll give two personal examples of the yetzer hara trying very hard, and sometimes succeeding to get me off track. (1) I went on a long run on Tuesday. I have different loops from my house – a 3 mile loop, a 4.2 mile loop, a 5.25 mile loop, and several directions to go for even longer runs anywhere between 6 and 13 miles. A little over 2 miles into this run, a little voice told me to “turn here, and finish a very respectable 5.25 mile run.” That was far below the goal I had set out to achieve, and I knew this was the yetzer hara, and so I was able to tell him to go away. (2) In writing this essay, a similar voice kept telling me – check your email. See if you’ve missed a call or text message from a congregant. Go take care of some other task. Get yourself a cup of coffee! Don’t stay on task to write this – you have plenty of time!
Sometimes that voice was successful. Sometimes I recognized it for what it was and shot it down. But that’s how powerful the yetzer hara is. Even in the most mundane and innocent way, the yetzer hara is a distraction from what we need to achieve. It takes a tiny suggestion and magnifies it to the point that sometimes at the end of the day, a person looks back and says “How did I achieve so very little today?” And the answer is always “That yetzer hara. Oy is he good at what he does!”
And should we happen to venture into the yetzer hara’s main raison d’etre, causing sin, we see how incredible he is. One comment can lead us down a most regrettable path of Lashon Hora. One look can lead a person down a most regrettable path of indiscretion. One mistreatment by an employee at a store can lead us to not count the change properly or to skip over the item they missed in their counting and just take it without going back to pay for it.
This is the Se’or. This is why it can't go on the Mizbe'ach at all, even if it might be mixed with honey on the mizbeach. There are different reasons why people may have to bring a korban. The two most common reasons are to fulfill a pledge or vow and if someone sinned. The former may or may not be a bad thing, but the latter certainly is a bad thing.
We know that the purpose of honey is to sweeten whatever it is combined with – and were Se’or allowed as part of the Korban (if at all possible), at best it would be symbolically reminding the person why s/he is bringing the Korban. We don’t sweeten misbehavior as it tends to undercut the magnitude of the deed that caused the need for the korban in the first place.
There is nothing wrong with honey – the land of Israel is described as flowing with milk and honey. But it has its place – and it has a place where it does not belong, sweetening sin.
The concept of Chametz in general is something which the Torah tells us should not be part of the korban experience. Even though chametz is delicious and is part of our general experience throughout the year, except Pesach, it symbolically reminds us of sin and how even a tiny taste of sin can lead to even worse outcomes.
To bring a silly example – how many people eat challah on Shabbos, without a disciplined plan to limit one’s challah intake, and then discover by the time the meal is over, “I ate waaaaay too much challah.” That’s how bread is in the realm of eating – imagine what its metaphor is capable of in the realm of perpetrating misbehaviors or causing us to get distracted and lose our way from the path upon which we prefer to find ourselves.
As we continue to prepare for Pesach, we are reminded of what it takes to get rid of Chametz. If we are able to purge out the Se’or she’b’isa, we will indeed have a very uplifting Chag Kosher v’sameach!
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