A thought on Parshas Tzav
"...zos toras ha'olah...""...these are the laws of the burnt offering..." (6:2)
Of the many offerings brought in the Temple, the korban olah or "burnt offering" may be the one that sounds most familiar. Even in English parlance, we use the term "burnt offering" to refer to something well intended and given selflessly. Yet, of all the sacrificial offerings, it is this olah which seems most intriguing. It is brought to the altar, thoroughly incinerated and left to burn there overnight. No one partakes of it. It vanishes in a cloud of soot and smoke.
The Recanati offers some Zoharic perspective on this. You may have noted that we recite some verses from Tehillim (36:7) on most Shabbos afternoons near the close of mincha. After extolling HaShem for His righteous judgment, we close with the thought, "odom u'beheima toshia HaShem" - G-d, You save the people and the beasts.
You may have wondered about those words. What is the reference, why is there a reference, to saving animals? What does that have to do with HaShem and His righteous judgment? This is not PETA or the ASPCA. This is Dovid HaMelech authoring the words of prayers which our people have said, and will say, for centuries.
The Recanati writes that when a person brings forth an olah offering, he signifies that this life, this world, is not the terminus for reality. There is life as we experience it, and there is the higher life known as the eventual or Olam HaBa'ah. Now, living here on earth, we are limited. We are restricted to living with our present form, our present consciousness, and our current experience of reality. That is why it is known as "Olam HaZeh" - this world, because it is the one we can observe and experience and claim as "this."
We cannot live in the World to Come. We cannot get there, we do not have access, and we are not ready for it. That is, we are not ready for it unless we really want to be ready for it. The Torah Jew thinks about the World to Come. He understands that it is the true terminus, the place where the soul and spirit will unite in an eternal recognition of the Above. In that sense, that is where a Jew really belongs, eternally devoted to the realm of the spirit.
The korban olah is an expression of this yearning. A person brings that offering and signifies that whereas he lives here, in this world, and leads a this- world existence, he nonetheless struggles to live a that-world life. He aims for a higher plane of reality. Thus, he brings forth an offering which is entirely devoted to the service of the Above. It must totally disappear. It must ascend in its entirety. It stays on the altar until it is gone.
That offering is a declaration of our recognition of our bicameral purpose. We are here with our mission to complete in this life and we are here as a prelude to the World to Come. The verse in Psalms is a reference to this. HaShem will save the person who is aware of the toras ha'olah. That person, through, the offering of this animal, will merit salvation in this life and in the next. This is why, writes the Recanati, the olah is called kodesh kadoshim - the holy of the holy. It points to a person who aims to sanctify his life here, and who seeks a life of sanctity eternally.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
Of the many offerings brought in the Temple, the korban olah or "burnt offering" may be the one that sounds most familiar. Even in English parlance, we use the term "burnt offering" to refer to something well intended and given selflessly. Yet, of all the sacrificial offerings, it is this olah which seems most intriguing. It is brought to the altar, thoroughly incinerated and left to burn there overnight. No one partakes of it. It vanishes in a cloud of soot and smoke.
The Recanati offers some Zoharic perspective on this. You may have noted that we recite some verses from Tehillim (36:7) on most Shabbos afternoons near the close of mincha. After extolling HaShem for His righteous judgment, we close with the thought, "odom u'beheima toshia HaShem" - G-d, You save the people and the beasts.
You may have wondered about those words. What is the reference, why is there a reference, to saving animals? What does that have to do with HaShem and His righteous judgment? This is not PETA or the ASPCA. This is Dovid HaMelech authoring the words of prayers which our people have said, and will say, for centuries.
The Recanati writes that when a person brings forth an olah offering, he signifies that this life, this world, is not the terminus for reality. There is life as we experience it, and there is the higher life known as the eventual or Olam HaBa'ah. Now, living here on earth, we are limited. We are restricted to living with our present form, our present consciousness, and our current experience of reality. That is why it is known as "Olam HaZeh" - this world, because it is the one we can observe and experience and claim as "this."
We cannot live in the World to Come. We cannot get there, we do not have access, and we are not ready for it. That is, we are not ready for it unless we really want to be ready for it. The Torah Jew thinks about the World to Come. He understands that it is the true terminus, the place where the soul and spirit will unite in an eternal recognition of the Above. In that sense, that is where a Jew really belongs, eternally devoted to the realm of the spirit.
The korban olah is an expression of this yearning. A person brings that offering and signifies that whereas he lives here, in this world, and leads a this- world existence, he nonetheless struggles to live a that-world life. He aims for a higher plane of reality. Thus, he brings forth an offering which is entirely devoted to the service of the Above. It must totally disappear. It must ascend in its entirety. It stays on the altar until it is gone.
That offering is a declaration of our recognition of our bicameral purpose. We are here with our mission to complete in this life and we are here as a prelude to the World to Come. The verse in Psalms is a reference to this. HaShem will save the person who is aware of the toras ha'olah. That person, through, the offering of this animal, will merit salvation in this life and in the next. This is why, writes the Recanati, the olah is called kodesh kadoshim - the holy of the holy. It points to a person who aims to sanctify his life here, and who seeks a life of sanctity eternally.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 12:46 PM
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