Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 13 Adar II, 5784
Parsha Va-Yikra’ – “And He affectionately called”: (Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26)
Seventh Portion: Leviticus 5:11 – 5:26
Shabbat Shalom! As we wrap up our week of Leviticus, we CELEBRATE Purim tonight. If you are unfamiliar with the story of Purim, here is an AMAZING summary from Chabad.
Tonight we CELEBRATE the courage of a Queen. Who risked her life for her people. And – how EVERYTHING was being worked out behind the scenes to make it all possible. It is a story of synchronicity. And it affirms that Hashem has our backs. EVERYTHING is for our good. EVERYTHING.
The context of our story in Leviticus is all about sacrifice. Yesterday we saw Hashem provide a way for those of us who did not have a sheep or a goat to approach him. When Hashem calls? We are to come – even if we don’t have the resources.
Hashem provided birds as an option for those who could not bring a sheep or goat. This is the context we start today:
11But if he cannot afford two turtle doves or two young doves, then he shall bring as his sacrifice for his sin one tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall not put oil over it, nor shall he place frankincense upon it, for it is a sin offering.
Remember, these are all of unintentional sins – but WOW. If we cannot afford EVEN BIRDS? Just bring flour. Come as you are. AND. Remember why you are approaching. We can RECEIVE the grace of flour, but don’t pour oil or frankincense on it – because although Hashem has provided a way, the sacrifice STILL has a purpose – our sacrifice STILL needs to be unblemished.
12He shall bring it to the kohen, and the kohen shall scoop out a fistful as its reminder, and cause it to [go up in] smoke on the altar, upon the fires of the Lord. It is a sin offering.
13Thus the kohen shall make atonement for his sin that he committed in any one of these [cases], and he shall be forgiven. And it shall belong to the kohen like the meal offering.
So when we sin? We can be atoned regardless of our resources or abundance. Forgiveness is not just for the rich. It’s for all. Let’s keep going:
14And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
15If a person commits a betrayal and trespasses unintentionally against [one] of the things sacred to the Lord, he shall bring as his guilt offering to the Lord an unblemished ram from the flock with a value of silver shekels, in accordance with the shekel of the Sanctuary for a guilt offering.
16And what he has trespassed against the holy thing he shall pay, and he shall add one fifth of its value to it, and he shall give it to the kohen. The kohen shall then make atonement for him through the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.
17If a person sins and commits one of the commandments of the Lord which may not be committed, but he does not know, he is guilty, and he shall bear his transgression.
So we are moving beyond sin and into guilt. Guilt is powerful. And we don’t often explore our own internal feelings of guilt. We tend to focus on the guilt of OTHERS around injustice. We ignore our own feelings of guilt.
We don’t have to be stuck in our own guilt. We can bring an offering.
Let’s stop for a second. Let’s consider our relationships. Our kids, our friends, our lovers. When we make a mistake and unintentionally hurt someone we care about? How do we deal with our guilt? Do we repress it? Do we get consumed by it? Or can we allow ourselves to release it?
Releasing our own guilt over the past – unintentional mistakes we’ve made? That is the key to a healthy relationship in the present moment. Even unintentional mistakes we’ve made from PREVIOUS relationships. We carry that guilt forward.
The Torah shows us a way to deal with the mistake itself AND the guilt that comes with it. We don’t often dig this deep. We want to quickly move on from the mistake because it triggers so much guilt.
The Torah brings us an opportunity to release our guilt. Let’s keep going:
18He shall bring an unblemished ram from the flock, with the value for a guilt offering, to the kohen. The kohen shall then make atonement for his unintentional sin which he committed and did not know, and he shall be forgiven.
19It is a guilt offering he has incurred guilt before the Lord.
Full stop. “He has incurred guilt before the Lord” sounds ominous doesn’t it? It sounds a little “judgy.” What if? What if this isn’t a judgment, but a validation?
Hashem is saying “you made an unintentional mistake – I’ve forgiven you with your sacrifice offering, but you need to forgive yourself and the guilt you are carrying. I SEE your feelings of guilt – and that is human. I am providing you a way to navigate that guilt and release it. It is a SEPARATE sacrifice for your guilt than it is for your mistake. I love you. I want to be with you. I don’t want your feelings of guilt to get in between our relationship.”
Sin vs Guilt. They are connected. And they are different.
Let’s keep going:
20And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
21If a person sins, betraying the Lord by falsely denying to his fellow concerning a deposit, or money given in hand, or an object taken by robbery, or he withheld funds from his fellow,
22or he found a lost article and he denied it and swore falsely regarding any one of all these cases whereby a man may sin,
23and it shall be, when he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall return the article which he had robbed, or the funds which he had withheld, or the item which had been deposited with him, or the article which he had found;
24or anything else, regarding which he had sworn falsely, he shall pay it with its principal, adding its fifths to it. He shall give it to its rightful owner on the day [he repents for] his guilt.
So NOW we see a “sin” committed against someone else – and not Hashem. When we lie and betray another? And we recognize we need reconciliation? We give the article BACK to the original owner with extra. This repairs the sin. And? We aren’t done. We still need to let go and release the guilt to restore our relationships:
25He shall then bring his guilt offering to the Lord: an unblemished ram from the flock with the [same] value, for a guilt offering, to the kohen.
26And the kohen shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven for any one of all [cases] whereby one may commit [a sin], incurring guilt through it.
It is a sacrifice to let go of guilt. Are we willing to make this sacrifice to navigate our relational conflicts?
These are my thoughts. What are yours?
Here are my thoughts from the past two years:
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 3 Nisan, 5783
Wow. So fascinating.
First Shabbat Shalom! What a great day for rest.
Some of you know what has been going on with me lately. Some of the immense struggles and joys I’m walking through. I’m always open to share in a DM if you want to know, but no pressure on that.
Todays passage is all about Hashem’s provision for the poor. That He desires to be close to us EVEN WHEN his requirements are too “costly” in a physical sense for us.
Why? Why would this be the case. Imagine someone saying “look, if you want to be close to me, it’s going to cost you $100 because of the ticket for the train ride to me. But I love you SO much, and want you to be close to me, that if you only have $5, and want or need to spend time with me? I’ll pay the $95 to get you to me.”
Do we look at these offerings like that? Or do we get focused on “what kind of being would require me to spend $100 to spend time with them?”
Yet, we don’t hold ourselves to this same standard. If the person I care about lives an hour away, we don’t see the $50 on gas we need to spend to see them as a “requirement” to see them, do we? Maybe as we grow apart it will feel that way. But when things are good? We pay it in a heartbeat. It’s not seen as an obligation.
But we have a creator who not only says “there is some distance between us, and I know to close the gap is costs you” the creator ALSO says, give what you can, and I’ll do the rest.
So it is with me. I have significant need right now. And. Hashem has put people close to me to help me. And so, when my van breaks down, and it is going to cost a lot of money to fix? Within hours someone who I haven’t spoken with in three months tells me “hey, I’m going to pay for your repairs. I love you.”
That’s provision. That’s security. That’s safety.
That’s what these offerings in Leviticus are all about it.
Love. Safety. Security.
Shabbat Shalom
Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 9 Adar II, 5782
Shabbat Shalom! Hope you are all having a restful day!
We finish this first Parsha of Leviticus today with a continuation from yesterday. Hashem provided a way for poorer people to sacrifice and be a part of the community. But today, we discover even more the depth of His love!
You see, todays portion starts “but if they cannot afford two turtle doves…”
Hashem is providing a way for people who can’t even afford the birds to come close to Him. He provides access for EVERYONE. Our God is an accessible God. That’s crucial!
If they couldn’t bring birds, they were to bring flour.
All of these sacrifices – the bull, the goat, the bird, the flour – were for the sins we mentioned earlier in the week; which were mostly unintentional sins.
We are moving on to some other sins now:
If a person sins unintentionally by wrongfully using something that is sacred to God, he should bring his guilt offering to God a perfect ram from the flock.
They must ALSO repay what they have deprived the Sanctuary. Not only that, they should add 20%. The priest will take all of that through the ram of the guilt offering and the person will be forgiven.
Remember. Unintentional sin. We are still talking about mistakes made and you don’t even realize it.
Next, we learn that if a person is uncertain if they sinned by transgressing any of Gods commandments, they are guilty and will bear the consequences of their sin.
So if you think you may have sinned; you sinned. That’s a very high standard. And yet, Hashem gives us a way to be forgiven.
It’s the same way of forgiveness of an unintentional sin. A ram; and they will be forgiven.
Finally – we get to a sin that is a little more obvious.
Leviticus 5:21-26:
“If a person sins and acts deceitfully against God by making a false denial to his fellow concerning an item deposited (for safekeeping), cash in hand (which was part of a business deal or loan), or (an object taken) by robbery, or he withheld wages from his fellow, or he found a lost article-and then he denied (any of the above mentioned sins) and swore falsely (that he need not return any funds), In any of these cases where a man might sin, what should happen is that when he (feels that he) has sinned and is guilty, he should return the article which he had robbed, or the funds which he had withheld, or the item which had been deposited with him, or the article which he had found, or anything else about which he had sworn falsely. He should pay the principal amount and add one fifth to it. He should give it to its rightful owner on the day (that the sinner repents for) his guilt.
He should then bring his guilt-offering to God: a perfect (unblemished) ram from the flock which has the same value as (that brought) for a guilt-offering, to the priest. The priest will make an atonement for him before God, and he will be forgiven for any of (the above-mentioned ways) that one may commit (a sin) incurring guilt through it.”
Ok. So we have moved from unintentional sin to a sin where the person knew what they were doing. And STILL Hashem gives us a way to be redeemed. And it starts with reconciling with the person we took from, lied to, etc. Once we take care of THAT? Then we go to Hashem and ask for forgiveness.
How often do we ask for Hashem to forgive us before we ask the person we’ve hurt?
Something to reflect on this Shabbat.
What are your thoughts? As always, Haftorah thoughts will be posted below in the comments
Todays Haftorah is from Isaiah 43:21-44:23
We see in the Haftorah more about sacrifice – and what Hashem wants for us.
The passage starts with Hashem confronting us; we stopped calling upon Hashem, we followed other gods. We tired of serving Hashem and ceased. We stopped. We gave up on Hashem.
Isaiah even reminds us that God didn’t even give us a heavy burden of sacrifice – only a three finger fistful of flour.
Instead of working on our relationship with God by living life and coming to God when we made mistakes, having Him forgive us, and being lightened by that, we instead stopped coming to Him. Instead, Isaiah points out we burdened God with our sins and wearied Him with our iniquities.
My takeaway is these iniquities are how we treat each other. God is wearied when we treat his creation as “less than” which creates inequity.
Isaiah reminds us that God wipes away our transgressions before, and He will do them now. And He tells us why; not because of our righteousness – but for Hashem’s sake.
I think about being a dad. When my kids make a mistake, I don’t forgive them because it makes them better; I forgive them because it creates more space in my heart for love. My capacity is increased.
Isaiah goes on to drive the point home; God is open to considering our merits for his forgiveness and love; but even if we present our case first, we are going to lose.
But in chapter 44, we get some hope. As bad as things are right now. Hope is coming.
Let me pause here as we are in the Purim season. Life is tough in Shushan. All hope is lost; yet Hashem was working things out behind the scenes for things to end up joyful. I have to believe as difficult as life is right now for us, hope is there. Let’s read what Hashem tells us:
“Now listen, My servant Jacob, Israel whom I have chosen, ABOUT THE GOOD THAT IS TO COME.”
I used all caps there for emphasis. The good is coming.
Hashem tells us through Isaiah:
Just as God pours water on thirsty land, so too will He pour out His goodwill on the children of Israel and His blessing on their offspring.
He’s talking about us. We are the children of Israel. We are their offspring. He has promised to pour out His goodwill on us and our children!
And what is this goodwill?
- We will sprout like grass
- Like willows by streams of water
- The righteous among us will say “I am for God.”
- The children of the wicked will call themselves by Jacob’s name so as not to follow in their father’s footsteps.
- The penitents will oblige themselves to return to God as if, “I am for God” is written by their hand as a binding contract.
- The righteous converts will call themselves by the name of Israel.
Wow. Wow. Wow. This is the hope. This is the promise. And who are we? Are we righteous? Are we children of the wicked? Are we righteous converts? Where do we fit in here? There is room for all of us!
Isaiah continues to list all the foolish ways people seek out gods to fill the hole in their hearts that can only be filled by Hashem.
But Hashem reminds us of our purpose at the end of the Haftorah –
“Even if the nations will worship idols, remember these words, O Jacob, and do not follow after them, for you are My Servant, O Israel. I created you to be My servant, therefore you, Israel, so not forget Me!”
We are created for a purpose to serve Hashem.
One reaction to that could be negative; so basically God created us to serve Him? Who does He think He is? I serve NO ONE! I serve myself!
The truth is we are always serving something or someone. Even if it is ourselves. And that is a choice we get to make. If that is you; the list in this Haftorah portion of how we make idols might be a good read to see how you are still serving SOMETHING.
This Haftorah portion closes with even more hope;
“I have wiped away your sins like a cloud and your transgressions like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you! Sing, O heavens, for God has done what He is destined to do, to redeem Israel! Shout, depths of the earth! Mountains, burst out in song, forests and all your trees! For God has redeemed Jacob, and by Israel’s redemption He will be glorified by all.”
Wow. I am just reflecting on this in hope and wonder. We are a reflection of Hashem’s joy!
What are your thoughts?
No responses yet