This week we began a new book of the Torah, Vayikra (Leviticus)! Of all the books of the Torah, Vayikra contains the greatest number of commandments and the fewest number of narratives. And yet, I find it to be among the most exciting! If Judaism is our way of life, Leviticus is one of our original guidebooks!
The world in which we make our way is quite different from the world of our ancient Israelite ancestors. The landscape has, frankly, completely changed—and our guidebooks may often feel out of date. I believe, though, that the original words still hold meaning for us today, and that we can find that meaning by interpreting them for our time. For example, how might we live according to Vayikra 4:27–28?
The two verses in question state: “27 If any person from among the populace unwittingly incurs guilt by doing any of the things which by יהוה’s commandments ought not to be done, and realizes guilt—28 or the sin of which one is guilty is made known—that person shall bring a female goat without blemish as an offering for the sin of which that one is guilty.” It probably goes without saying that this is not a commandment we take literally. Once upon a time (in a very literal sense), we would have. Now, even if we wanted to do this, we couldn’t! And even if we could, we wouldn’t! And yet, the commandment remains.
So, what do we make of this? It seems to me that there is a valuable lesson here: all of our mistakes, even the ones that we make unintentionally or unknowingly, are our responsibility. It seems to me that we are commanded to maintain awareness of our actions and their impact, and that once we find out we’ve done something wrong, we have to make it right. The question of how is a lot more than we can get into now and still call this Two Minutes of Torah™, but I can confidently say our system of teshuva today offers much better justice than offering up a goat!