24: Vayikra
Parsha Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26)
TLDR:
Welcome to the shortest and most esoteric book of the Torah. In Leviticus, we’ll take a break from stories about desert life and dive into sacrificial offerings, purity laws, and other ritual procedures.
I can TLDR things like “God tells Moses how to bring a burnt offering for birds, which entails pinching off its head, removing its feathers and flinging it on the eastern alter” but without context, it sounds like (is?) a cultic instruction manual. I’ll use my discretion and add more commentary when it’s called for. Forgive me.
Moses (via God) kicks it off with a list of types of sacrificial offerings. There are many dimensions to each, but if you had to fit it on one slide, you’d use the five whys:
Why: to connect with God, celebrate a joyous event, atone for accidental or intentional sins, and many more
What: oxen, sheep, goats, turtledoves, pigeons, wheat, barley, fruits, wine
When: seasonal, reactive to events
Who: orchestrated by the Kohanim priests, but people would be allowed to do different parts of the ritual
Where: only in the one Tabernacle (later, the Temple… which is why there are no sacrifices today. No Temple = no sacrifices).
The Torah reviews the all-purpose “burnt” (animals) and “grain” (semolina & olive oil) offerings. Everything but the skin is burned in the former, but in the latter the priests get to eat a portion.
In the “communion sacrifice”, a person brings an animal that is partially burnt, with some meat set aside. No fat or blood is allowed to be eaten.
The “offense” (alt: sin) offering is brought by a person who has mistakenly broken an ethical - or purity-related - law. No one gets to enjoy the meat.
The last one described in the parsha, the “guilt” offering, sounds very similar to the “offense” offering and it’s hard to parse the differences. Perhaps the “guilt” one applies to accidental and intentional transgressions? Or it applies more to making restitution to others impacted by the sin? It’s unclear to me.
Question:
What is the purpose of prayer, the next best thing to slaughtering a bull in a makeshift tent in the desert? I expect many people use prayer to ask for things from God, in addition to thanking God. We always want more, more, more! Is it curious that there’s no sacrifice specifically dedicated to petitioning God in advance of a big event? Do most sacrifices in the Torah occur before or after an historic event and why?