A thought on Parshas Vayikra
"...lifnei HaShem...""...before HaShem..." (1:3)
In giving instructions about the sacrificial avoda, the Torah gives precise details as to the steps we must take, the objects and implements, their size and design, and the location and setting in which each event is to take place. However, there is a vague and recurrent theme in our parsha about how the offerings are to be prepared "before HaShem." Now, given that the sacred mishkan and the mikdash shrines are the veritable houses of HaShem, ka'vayochol, this description seems unnecessary. Isn't the entire location "before HaShem?" Doesn't everything every place happen before Him? What does this expression, then, refer to and how do we understand it?The Ralbag helps: if we study the processes involved in avoda, we see that every step which was significant, which was a gesture of sacred offering, took place in a westerly direction. The holiest places within the walls of the mishkan were toward the western quadrant. This is because the east is where the sun comes up. In the ancient world, there was a distorted belief that the sun was a sacred power, rather than a luminous creation empowered by the Divine to light up the skies. People worshipped the sun. They offered sacrifices to it. In the mishkan, we turned away from the sun in performing the avoda. We engaged in the dignified service with our backs turned to the sun, facing west. We even see that in the twice-daily offering known as the tamid that the morning one was brought to the western side, away from the rising sun, and the evening tamid was brought to the eastern side, away from the setting sun. Turning away from the sun is a means of demonstrating that we are directing our internal focus, as well as our overt behavior, away from beliefs which are antagonistic to our understanding of HaShem's universe.
In that sense, then, the Torah emphasizes that the most sacred of the avoda steps are performed "towards HaShem" (lifenei HaShem), which signifies that our acts must always symbolize that we shun any semblance of primitive pagan practices which would appear to bestow honor onto the lowly creations which are inanimate and unempowered to help or to harm us. In the sacred service of HaShem, we demonstrate through deed, through thought and intentionality, and through symbolic gesture that our devotion is focused before, "towards", and in the Presence of HaShem Echad.
* * * * * *
From time to time, I offer a question to those who learn these parsha thoughts, and invite you to email your own ideas. Ponder this: with all that the Ralbag has taught us here, how do we understand the universal Jewish practice of facing the east when we say our amida tefillos? I look forward to your submissions, and will plan to email out a digest of your thoughts in a few weeks, as I have done in years past.
East Side, West Side, have a good Shabbos.
In giving instructions about the sacrificial avoda, the Torah gives precise details as to the steps we must take, the objects and implements, their size and design, and the location and setting in which each event is to take place. However, there is a vague and recurrent theme in our parsha about how the offerings are to be prepared "before HaShem." Now, given that the sacred mishkan and the mikdash shrines are the veritable houses of HaShem, ka'vayochol, this description seems unnecessary. Isn't the entire location "before HaShem?" Doesn't everything every place happen before Him? What does this expression, then, refer to and how do we understand it?The Ralbag helps: if we study the processes involved in avoda, we see that every step which was significant, which was a gesture of sacred offering, took place in a westerly direction. The holiest places within the walls of the mishkan were toward the western quadrant. This is because the east is where the sun comes up. In the ancient world, there was a distorted belief that the sun was a sacred power, rather than a luminous creation empowered by the Divine to light up the skies. People worshipped the sun. They offered sacrifices to it. In the mishkan, we turned away from the sun in performing the avoda. We engaged in the dignified service with our backs turned to the sun, facing west. We even see that in the twice-daily offering known as the tamid that the morning one was brought to the western side, away from the rising sun, and the evening tamid was brought to the eastern side, away from the setting sun. Turning away from the sun is a means of demonstrating that we are directing our internal focus, as well as our overt behavior, away from beliefs which are antagonistic to our understanding of HaShem's universe.
In that sense, then, the Torah emphasizes that the most sacred of the avoda steps are performed "towards HaShem" (lifenei HaShem), which signifies that our acts must always symbolize that we shun any semblance of primitive pagan practices which would appear to bestow honor onto the lowly creations which are inanimate and unempowered to help or to harm us. In the sacred service of HaShem, we demonstrate through deed, through thought and intentionality, and through symbolic gesture that our devotion is focused before, "towards", and in the Presence of HaShem Echad.
* * * * * *
From time to time, I offer a question to those who learn these parsha thoughts, and invite you to email your own ideas. Ponder this: with all that the Ralbag has taught us here, how do we understand the universal Jewish practice of facing the east when we say our amida tefillos? I look forward to your submissions, and will plan to email out a digest of your thoughts in a few weeks, as I have done in years past.
East Side, West Side, have a good Shabbos.
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 1:46 PM
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