20 Mar Vayikra; And He Called- korbonos-offeriings

Vayikra; Korbonos (Sacrifices, Offerings)

 

Past parshas dealt with the construction of the desert Mishkan. We are now in parshas Vayikra where we have been invited by G-d and given the instructions of how to use it.

 

Vayikra…and He Called; G-d called to us to invite us to come close.

 

1 And He called to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying,

2Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When a man from [among] you brings a sacrifice to the Lord; from animals, from cattle or from the flock you shall bring your sacrifice

3If his sacrifice is a burnt offering from cattle, an unblemished male he shall bring it. He shall bring it willingly to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, before the Lord.

4And he shall lean his hand [forcefully] upon the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted for him to atone for him. Vayikra 1

 

 

Hands on

 

Kabbalistically the 10 fingers of our body are conduits of the powers of the 10 sefirot, the same 10 powers of creation. It is known as smicha where we lay or hands (and fingers) upon something or someone.

• We use place our 10 fingers on the challah when we make motzi,
• We hold the 10 fingers of our hand and fingers elevated during duchaning ceremony (the blessing of the Kohanim ceremony)
• A rabbi place his  hands and fingers on the head of the student rabbi as a conduit of wisdom during the smicha –ordination ceremony
• Vayikra 1.4 the kohan places the 10 fingers of his hands on the Korbon

These are all done in the process of being an elevating conduit of the energies of the 10 sefirot for the task at hand.

 

The process of repentance of a sacrifice

The sacrifice is a form of repentance. ‘The Talmud codified by Maimonides teaches that semichah (laying of the hands) is accompanied by a verbal confession of sins. a central component of the repentance process,  a physical manifestation of the transfer of a person’s sin or guilt onto the animal. The process of burning the Korbon elevates the tshuvah  that has been transferred to the animal. It is therefore essential to the process of the tshuvah that the person bringing an animal offering have great empathy, as if the transgressor was himself the sacrifice. It must be as if We then have the kohan serve as a human conduit of the transgressions in this ceremony by laying hands and 10 fingers upon the animal.

 

It should be further noted that this process of atonement of sacrifices (offerings) only takes place at a time of great purity, to maintain purity, u when there was a desert Mishkan or a Holy Temple, making it difficult to fully understand this process from the perspective of lesser purity as in our time. Deeper Torah learning can help.

Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions  and Counseling