The Book of Vayikra is devoted almost entirely to the laws of the sacrifices and the conduct of the priests who served in the sanctuary. For this reason our ancient rabbis called the book TORAT KOHANIM and it is this name that became known in the Greek speaking world and in other European languages. The Jews, who lived in Egypt and spoke Greek, called it Leviticus, because they used the name LEVI to refer not only to the Levites but also to the Kohanim, were also from the tribe of Levi.
The sacrifices were considered extremely holy. For this reason, the fifth order of the Mishnah, which deals with the laws of the sacrifices, is called KODASHIM which means holy objects. This name signifies the view of the Torah that the sacrifices are meaningful when they are offered in the greatest level of sincerity and in accordance with divine laws and thus make us holy. If we offer them in this spirit they possess the highest possible religious significance. However, if a person deviates even slightly from the rules that are set out in this book, or if his thoughts and motives during the offering are wrong, his sacrifices are worthless. The prophets often castigated the people for having the wrong motives or being completely insincere when offering sacrifices. They were particularly critical of their contemporaries for believing that the sacrifices had automatic and magical powers to atone for their dishonesty, injustice and criminal activities, even if they had no intention of improving their conduct. The Prophet declared, time and time again, that God rejected such sacrifices.
After the completion of the Tabernacle, Moses could not enter it. This was because it was enveloped by the cloud which symbolised God’s presence. He only entered when God called him. The Torah tells us that the Almighty called Moses on three occasions. He called him for the first time at the burning Bush. The second time was on Mount Sinai and finally here. It is clear that these three events marked a turning point in Moses’ life. At the Burning Bush, God spoke to him for the very first time. On Mount Sinai, God addressed both him and the entire nation for the first time and when he called him from the Tent of Meeting, it was from a new place. Our rabbis debate whether the Almighty called Moses every time when he spoke to him, or just on these three special occasions.
We do not know for sure how God called him. It is possible that he called him MOSHE MOSHE, as he had called him at the Burning Bush. According to Rashi, it was an expression of affection that only Moses heard. It is possible that as soon as he heard his name, he answered by saying HINENI, which means here I am, ready, the classic response, which we already find when God spoke to Abraham.
The last letter of the first word VAYIKRA, which is ALEPH, is small in size in the Torah scroll. There are a few other small letters in the Torah and there is no tradition to tell us why they are exceptional. It seems that the early Sof’rim, who were responsible for editing the text, wanted to embed in those letters special coded messages. I believe that the small Aleph in the opening word of our book is the most famous small letter in the Torah. Later generations suggested a number of reasons for it. According to one interpretation, it comes to highlight Moses humility in the sense that he felt that he did not deserve the honour of being singled out, for a special call from the Almighty.
The Sidra does not deal with obligatory sacrifices which had to be offered up at particular dates or times, but rather with sacrifices that ordinary people wanted to offer up for various reasons. According to biblical traditions, human beings always had a passion to offer up sacrifices to the Almighty. Adam offered up sacrifices and both his children, Cain and Abel, followed his example. When No’ach came out of the Ark, after the flood, he also offered up sacrifices as an expression of gratitude to God.
The first sacrifice which the Sidra mentions is the Korban Olah, the offering that was offered is burnt on the altar in its entirety. The question is: Why is it first in the list. Rabbi Z Sorotzkin, in his commentary called “Oznayim La-Torah” suggests that the Olah sacrifice had a special status because it was offered up to atone for sinful thoughts, rather than sinful actions. According to Talmudic traditions sinful thoughts are more reprehensible than sinful actions because actions are harmful to a person’s physical being, whereas wrongful thoughts cause a defect to his soul. The Burnt Offering repairs that defect in the soul. Because the defect is spiritual, the Olah is offered to the Almighty and burnt on the altar completely. By contrast, the sin offering, which is deemed to bring healing to the body, is eaten by the owner within the precincts of the Tabernacle.
In chapter 1 verse 4, the Torah commands the person who brings the offering to place both his hands on the head of the animal which he is about to slaughter as a sacrifice. This mitzvah was called S’MICHAH. The rabbis explained that the donor had to place his hands on the animal as firmly as he could and it seems from the text that immediately afterwards the Almighty accepted the sacrifice as atonement. Women were not officially permitted to perform the S’michah. However, the Talmud has preserved an interesting tradition in the name of Rabbi Yossi that once it happened in the days of his father that they had prepared a calf of peace offering and they brought it to the women’s section of the Temple and the women performed this mitzvah. The Talmud remarks that it was not done this way because the law had been changed, but in order to give pleasure to the women. This passage shows that the ancient rabbis tried to do their best to include women in the service of God, as much as they could. This incident should serve as an example to us, in our generation, to make a similar effort, so long as we don’t introduce new practices which will destroy our sacred laws and traditions.