Instructions for the many sacrifices mandated by God continue apace in Tzav. It cannot have been easy to remember and follow all the stages of each of these sacrifices to the letter. At the end of Tzav, we come to the installation of the Priests. Everything is going well until, suddenly, a terrible tragedy occurs. Aaron’s two eldest sons, Nadav and Avihu, make an offering they have not been commanded. Fire springs forth and consumes them. The sages have offered several explanations for this, including the brothers’ failure to understand the nature of holiness, and their being ruled by their own egos rather than by God’s word. Whatever the reason, or reasons, the punishment is terrible and it is understandable that Aaaron and his surviving sons are so shocked that, later in the day, they fails to follow the commandment to eat the sin offering. What is also shocking is how Nadav and Avihu’s punishment is so suddenly meted out and just as suddenly left behind. It goes like this. After the installation of the Priests, Aaron blesses the people and God’s glory is revealed to them. The people respond. Then, without introduction we are told that the two brothers take their fire pans and place fire and incense on them. They are consumed by fire. Moses gives a brief explanation of their death to Aaron and gives instructions for the bodies to be removed. Without more ado, he tells Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar not to go without a haircut or to tear their clothes. As listeners or readers we cannot but be aghast, however much we accept what has happened. 

There is lots more in Sh’mini, including detailed dietary laws. Being Shabbat Parah, however, many congregations will read the episode of the Red Heifer, taken from B’minbar, a challenging sacrifice to understand. 

To understand more, come along this Saturday at 10:30 when Harvey Kurzfield will lead us.

What a story has unfurled over the Book of Sh’mot (Exodus). An Israelite, brought up in the heart of Egypt, married to a Midianite woman, is chosen by God to lead his people from the clutches of the empire which nurtured him. The people escape from Egypt and are saved from the might of its imperial army by a miracle, or by that army’s own military strength, whose weight literally bogs soldiers, chariots and horses down in the mud, where they are drowned by the returning sea. For the Israelites there follows a host of adventures, of ups and downs, of moments of glory and moments of shame, as they veer between faith and love of God on the one hand and fear and petulance on the other. Sh’mot finishes on a high, however, as the Tabernacle is erected and all its furniture and furnishings are installed, everything “as God had commanded Moses”. The Maftir of the final parsha (final section of the weekly portion of Torah readings), P’kudey (Accounts) ends on a particularly comforting and mystical note as it describes how “the cloud covered the Communion Tent, and God’s glory filled the Tabernacle.”

And so we come to the third Book, Va’yikra, where we plunge into a series of detailed descriptions of the many sacrifices demanded by God. In the daily Sacharit (morning service) in Orthodox communities, some of these offerings are described and, in the Amidah, Jews pray for the restoration of the Temple services. We don’t do this in Reform synagogues and many of us would find it difficult, possibly distasteful, to witness animal sacrifices. Indeed, I suspect that not a few Orthodox Jews would too. However, do we have the ‘right’ to feel this way? I suspect that much of our aversion to sacrifices is due to the distance that now exists for the vast majority of us between the act of killing animals and our consumption of them. Besides, we should remember that the vast majority of animals sacrificed by our ancestors were eaten either by the Priests, the Levites or by the people offering the animals. Is it not perhaps something to be admired, that the food that was eaten was also dedicated to God? Would this not make the act of killing animals and eating their flesh more significant, more holy?

To get to understand sacrifices better, to pray, sing, read and converse come along this Saturday at 10:30. Pat Lipert will be leading the service and, apparently,  there is a whiff of frankincense about it.