The Total Sacrifice

Weekly Torah Lesson

Parasha: V’ikra – and He called
Torah: V’ikra 1:1 – 6:7

The Parsha of Vayikra is about sacrifice: The offerings that were made in the Sanctuary, and the procedure that surrounded them. What does it mean to us today, when there is no Temple? Two Temples were destroyed. But many millions were not, and could not be. These are the temples which every Believer possesses within himself, the holy place of the soul where his worship of Avinu takes place.

*** “16 Do you not know that you are the temple of Avinu and that the Spirit of Avinu dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of Avinu, Avinu will destroy him. For the temple of Avinu is holy, which temple you are.” (1Co 3:16-17 )

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from Avinu, and you are not your own?” (1Co 6:19 )

Messianic Judaism survives, because it has as many Sanctuaries as there are Believers. But what is the service of this inner sanctum? The answer lies in this week’s Parsha, where every instruction has a double significance: Firstly, to guide the priests in their service, and secondly, to guide us in ours.

The private Sanctuary of the present is a precise counterpart of the public Sanctuary of the past. As we learn about the act of sacrifice, translating the priestly procedure into terms of immediate bearing on our spiritual life. We will experience the “depth” of the original, physical sacrifices found in VaYikra.

1. An Offering of You.

At the beginning of the Parsha of Vayikra (the Parsha about the sacrifices), the Torah says, “If any man brings an offering of you to Avinu.” At first glance we would suppose that the phrase “of you” refers to “any man” ,thus: “If any man of you brings an offering”.But the order of words in the Torah rules this out. The Torah is precise in every detail. An apparently misplaced word has great significance. The sentence must read, “If any man brings an offering of you”,and the implication is that the sacrifice must be of yourself. What does this mean?

This well-known Chassidic interpretation understands the phrase to be a commentary on the whole nature of sacrifice. When Avinu commanded the Israelites to build Him a Sanctuary. He said: “And they shall make Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell in them.” It was not simply in it (the Temple) that He would dwell, but in every Believer. Each Believer has, as it were, a Sanctuary within himself. And every act, every facet of the physical Sanctuary, had its counterpart in the sanctuary of the soul.

So there is an inward act of sacrifice in the life of the Believer that precisely mirrors the outward act that took place in the Sanctuary two thousand years ago.

Even that outward act though it involved the sacrifice of a physical animal was essentially a spiritual one. This is why it needed the participation of the priests (kohanim) and the accompaniment of the songs of the Levites.

This teaches us that “the Cohanim in their silent service and their desire drew (Avinu’s presence) downwards and the Levites in their songs and praises drew (man’s soul and his sacrifice) upwards.”

The physical sacrifice was thus a spiritual encounter.

So, indeed more so, is the inward act of sacrifice. And this is the meaning of “If any man brings an offering of you”.Offering in Hebrew (korban) means “drawing near.”2 And when a Believer wishes to draw near to Avinu he must make a sacrifice to Avinu of his very self. The offering must be “of you.” It is the “you” that is the sacrifice.

2. The Animal

The sentence continues: “You shall bring your offering from the cattle, the herd and the flock.”

Thus there are two sacrifices in the sanctuary of the soul. The first is “of you,” of yourself, your Avinu like soul.” The second is “from the cattle,” from the “animal soul” which constitutes all physical desires, all instincts which a man has in virtue of having a body of flesh and being part of the natural world. It is this second offering which is the ultimate aim of sacrifice: The sanctification and redirection of “the animal” in man.

That this is the aim is suggested in the verse itself, and what follows. The offering of ‘you’ is described as being made” to Avinu.” But in the next verse it says that the offering “of the herd” shall be before Avinu,” meaning that it will reach a higher level than it’s natural estate,because of it’s natural “lower, base state”It is written,

“There is much increase by the strength of the ox.”

When the animal in man is harnessed in the service of Avinu it has the power to take him closer to Avinu than his Avinu like soul alone could reach.

This is why it is written, ““You shall love the LORD your Avinu with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (De 6:5 )

When we are able to include “and with all your strength..” in our “self sacrifice”, we will achieve the level of sacrifice that will accomplish what the animal sacrifice really “pictured”.

The animal represented the total sacrifice of ourselves. It represented that part of ourselves that is the most difficult to ‘sacrifice’. So we physically replaced that part of our sacrifice with an animal and after we transferred our “animal life” into it, we took it’s life and offered it for our atonement.

In that physical sacrifice we gave nothing! In the spiritual sacrifice, we are required to give everything!

This is why we are taught,

““I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” (Joh 10:11 )

“As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” (Joh 10:15 )

The traditional way of understanding these verses is that we are the sheep. What if Yeshua was referring to the sheep of the sacrifice.

3. The Search

When an animal was to be sacrificed on the altar, the first thing that had to be done was to see that it was whole, perfect, without blemish. Only then could it be offered. So it is in the “drawing near” of man. The “animal” within himself must be without blemish before it can be sacrificed. The first step is self-examination. He must search the recesses of his soul for faults rifts in the unity of his being. And having found them, he must repent from his sins, thus rendering his “animal” Holy, fit for sacrifice.

The search must be sincere, not done out of a mechanical sense of duty. For his whole spiritual integrity depends on it. Once he realizes what is at stake, he will not cover his faults in self-deception, or leave them to fester, uncured. A blemished animal isn’t fit for the sacrifice. And so it is written, “One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.” (Pr 28:9)

4. The Pressure of the Past

When a man begins this process of self-searching in earnest, it can often happen that even though he is not currently guilty of any sin, there rise to the surface of his memory all the failings and indiscretions of his past, even of his childhood,6 until he can say, “My sin is continually before me.” 7 They persist because they have not been completely set right.

Had they been rectified by his subsequent service they would have been effaced, and replaced by great enthusiasm in Divine Service.

This is why it is written, “how much more shall the blood of Meshiach, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to Avinu, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living Avinu?” (Heb 9:14)

For when a man has been through “the dry land of the shadow of death” which comes upon him in the moment of separation from Avinu through sin, his desire to be reunited with Avinu flares into the fervor of “repentance through great love. But this self-examination tells him that it is not so with him. His sins remain as sins in his memory. He has not passed through the transforming fire of love. Sin breeds sin in its chain,9 and even now he sometimes feels the pressure of wayward desires.

It is not as if his repentance for the past needs only a final touch to complete it, but rather as if it never succeeded in breaking down the barrier between himself and Avinu10 that his past acts had created.

But this may give him pause. He is coming in front of Avinu in an act of sacrifice, of “drawing near” with all his being, to be drawn into the Divine fire which is to carry him upwards to the essence of Avinu.11 And he may say: What am I to be worthy of the act? I am imperfect. I am full of faults. The thing is beyond me!

The Rabbis answered:12 the sacrifice is not only of “you”; it depends on “you.” It is within the scope of every Believer, whatever his present and whatever his past. So that every Believer has the right to effect salvation for himself.

5. The Fire

Once the animal has been examined, and found to be without blemish, it must be killed. That is, one does not destroy its body, merely takes away its life. Then it is offered on the altar, where it is consumed (in some cases, only the fat, in others the whole animal) by fire sent from above by Avinu.

This is the procedure for physical sacrifices in the Sanctuary, and it applies also to the inward sacrifice within the Believer’s personality.

After one has set right the faults or blemishes in one’s way of life, the animal must be killed. The life must be taken from one’s instinctual, physical drives. Their energy must be redirected. The body, that is, the physical acts, remain. But their motive is now wholly spiritual, to give strength to the life of Divine Service.

To do this is to arrive at the stage of “In all your ways, know Him,” 15 where every act is for the sake of holiness, until every act becomes itself holy.

Then comes the moment of “drawing near.” The body, the “animal soul” are drawn into the fire of the soul, the fire that is the love of Avinu: “Its flames are flames of fire, the flame of Avinu.” 16 The love that the Rabbis say 17 is like “the fire of heaven” turns the animal force into molten energy that is reshaped as love of Avinu.

“And you shall love Avinu your Avinu with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.” The Rabbis asked,18 what is “with all your strength?” And they answered, “with your two inclinations.” When the power and passion of natural man is harnessed to the love of Avinu of spiritual man, the fire within the Believer merges with the answering fire of heaven, and man and Avinu “draw near”.

This is why it is written,

“4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by Avinu and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Avinu through Yeshua HaMeshiach.” (1Pe 2:4-5)