A Thought on Parshas Vayikra

"...korbani lachmi..." "...My sacrificial food..." This week, our parsha introduces the avodas ha'korbanos, the sacrificial rites which were once a vital part of daily serving of HaShem. Many have explored the theology of human beings offering animals and other edible material, such as grain and oil, in their ritual worship of the One Above. Ibn Shu'aib examines some of the views presented by our great sages - the Rambam, the Ramban, Rabbi Yehuda haLevi, ibn Ezra and his own mentor, the Rashba. Each offered a framework, a model, for finding concepts to help interpret the role of sacrifice in our ritual. ibn Shu'aib poses his own perspective. He focuses on the challenging concept of offerings being "lechem" - food staples - 'for HaShem'. HaShem does not eat, does not need to eat, and does not need sacrifices as His "bread". What can we learn from this framing of our sacrifices as "His bread", asks ibn Shu'aib? He proposes a syllogism, a logical scaffold, to offer a parallel to the korbanos: Let's begin with our soul, our neshama. This transcendent or spiritual feature of our selves longs to exist within us. We cling to life with spiritual energy. Yet, when life ends, our spirit ascends, longing to return to its divine source above. But while we live, just as our physical self is sustained through food and drink, so too does our soul remain at ease within our physical structure. It remains within us as long as we feed our selves and properly hydrate. When we put an end to those life sustaining practices, physical life ends and then the soul leaves its bodily haven, returning to "tzror ha'chayim" - the source of life above. We do not fully grasp this symbiosis between physical life and the spirit but it is explicit in the Torah and in Torah thought. This creates a model for understanding the korbanos. The Shechina of HaShem, the Divine Presence which is sensed in this mortal existence on earth, is the counterpart - at a collective level - of the individual Jewish soul. It is that element of the Divine which is manifest below. The neshama is the Divine element manifest within each of us, and the Shechina is the Divine element which is (ideally) manifest throughout all of mundane reality. Neshama is the personal manifestation; Shechina is the collective Manifestation. Food somehow facilitates that the neshama remains within the individual. Korbanos somehow facilitate that the Shechina remains among the Jewish nation. The soul does not eat nor drink yet food and water are catalysts for its enduring residence within ourselves. The Shechina does not eat nor drink yet somehow, the korbanos are catalysts for It to remain in our midst, collectively. Our devotion and worship "keep" the Shechina Presence present. That is the reason for offerings to be depicted as "HaShem's bread." We do not fully understand how sacrifices help facilitate the Divine Presence remaining on earth, but we can see a parallel to the function of food, which facilitates the neshama remaining within us. Now that is food for thought. Soul food. Regards from Down Under. Good Shabbos. D Fox