By Itamar Landau
I'm honored to offer this guest dvar torah on Parshat Tzav (and Parshat Vayikra since we didn't have one last week).
Before I start I wanna give a shout-out to Daniel Soloway (Tavor, Mosh, MBI 2000) for helping me think through this dvar torah. Daniel gives a weekly dvar torah at a synagogue in Jerusalem and he posts what he writes on this blog. (And guess what? He just happened to write about machaneh this week!)
So first of all, we're in a whole new book of the Torah! Sefer Vayikra, or the Book of Leviticus as it's called in latin or whatever (stam, it means 'levi'). Quick catch-up: After the colossal screw up of the golden calf, we gradually reached new heights when the people all contributed enthusiastically to bring the pieces of the Mishkan, the tabernacle, and then Moshe had a peak experience which left his face literally glowing, and we witnessed the construction of the Mishkan, God's dwelling-place on earth.
At this high point in the story of Israel we open Sefer Vayikra and … and …. we get …(excitement building) … animal sacrifices. Rules and specifications and procedures of animal sacrifices. Lots of them. Covering all of last week's parsha as well as this week's.
So what's the deal? Why does so much focus on sacrifices come at this pivotal time in the Israelites journey to liberation and homeland?
Well, let's start with the word itself – sacrifice is korban (קורבן). Korban like karov (קרוב), meaning close. The verb used for the action of bringing the sacrifice is le'hakriv (להקריב), meaning to bring close. The sacrifices are meant to bring the Israelites close. Close like family members – krovei mishpacha (קרובי משפחה). The Mishkan stands in the center of the Israelite camp, and the sacrifices they bring there serve to bring them close, uniting disparate tribes
around a common center.
But at the same time the repeated use of the word 'close' winds up emphasizing distance. Even after the heights the Israelites have reached in the desert, they still live in a world of distance, distance from God and distance from each other, a distance that needs to be counteracted by constant, dedicated action. And all the more so in our world – we so often live at a distance, a distance from holiness, from perfection, individually and even more so as a society. The korbanot acknowledge that distance as a part of our reality.
The next thing we observe beyond the word 'korban' itself is the range of different types of korbanot. In these two parashot there is not general overview of the sacrificial process, there is no one-size-fits-all offering. Instead the details of the process are laid out anew for each category of korban – the 'ola', the 'chatat', the 'asham', the 'mincha,' each dependent on the person's particular situation. The act of bringing close takes place at the center of the collective but it is primarily an individual act and it is based in individual circumstances, ranging from joy to repentance. The temple sacrifices also included regularized daily offerings, but Sefer Vayikra instead opens with the list of individual sacrifices including those that are entirely voluntary.
The personal nature of the korbanot was pointed out by the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (18th century). He pointed out that the 2nd verse of Sefer Vayikra has a funny word ordering, it says, “When a person will bring close of you an offering (אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן)” instead of the more straightforward,