Soul Sacrifice
It’s that time of year again. Buds are blooming, the days are lengthening, the air is warming, and we enter the reading of Sefer Vayikra/The Book of Leviticus, with all its seemingly anachronistic and irrelevant recounting of the ancient Temple sacrificial cult that we haven’t experienced in 2000 years. In all fairness, while the first two-thirds of the book offer an excruciatingly detailed account of animal sacrifice that could make the most carnivorous of us vegans, the final section includes some of the most compelling moral and ethical prescriptions in the entire Torah.
And so, what do we do with our first parasha, Vayikra, in a time and place that seems so far removed from this seemingly primitive approach to worship. One insight derives from the essential meaning of the word “sacrifice” as understood in our time. The notion of worship requiring a significant concession of things most important to us still resonates today, inspiring our priorities and perspective. Another insight emerges from the Hebrew term for the sacrificial offering: korban. It derives from the root meaning “to draw near. Thus, when we worship God either through ancient flames and blood or the prayer of the heart, we are both transformed by the giving of self and draw nearer to God and the community around us.