Alright. I admit it. I f’ed up. I was supposed to send this out on Friday, but a stomach bug took me out of commission. Below are my thoughts on Parshat Vayikra, two days late. I want to acknowledge this publicly, because, in the spirit of the Parsha, I think that’s the right thing to do.
Everyone has their Everest, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle which, if scaled, would represent the achievement of a lifetime. For some, it’s building a multibillion dollar company. For others, it’s surviving remarkable feats of physical endurance. For me, it’s writing about Leviticus. Honestly, the prospect of spending 3 months writing about ritual sacrifice and other seemingly archaic practices is daunting. Why are we reading this? Can we actually learn anything from knowing when some poor male-goat gets shwarma-fied? That may be a controversial question, but here’s an even more controversial answer: we can.
Previously the Torah featured Disney-esque story lines: good guys do good and get rewarded, bad guys (Sodom, Shechem, Pharoah, etc.) do bad and get punished. That works quite nicely for the purpose of Genesis and Exodus, which are about who G-d is, who Man is, and the formation of the Jewish people. Now that we’ve done that, Vayikra concerns itself with the reality of building a Jewish society. And so the Torah deprioritizes, for now, laws pertaining to villainy and instead tackles a much more mundane but a much more common occurrence: the accidental screw up.
What happens when we mess up? Vayikra Chapter 4 demands something that happens far too rarely nowadays, a public acknowledgement of culpability. We must go to the Mishkan, society’s most public place and bring a korban chatat, a sin offering. This is important for everybody to do, but none more so than our leaders. And so the Torah lays out the details for this public acknowledgement in order of who we expect the most from: the High Priest, then for the Sanhedrin (the Rabbinical Council), then for a Ruler, and lastly for an individual. The Torah doesn’t then demand the expulsion of these leaders. You can screw up and stay in your position! Because the Torah doesn’t demand perfection, it demands self-awareness.
Parshat Vayikra then moves onto a korban asham, a guilt offering. These are defined by not doing something, starting with not testifying when you could. “וְנֶפֶשׁ כִּי־תֶחֱטָא וְשָׁמְעָה קוֹל אָלָה וְהוּא עֵד אוֹ רָאָה אוֹ יָדָע אִם־לוֹא יַגִּיד וְנָשָׂא עֲוֺנוֹ”, “If a person incurs guilt—When one has heard a public imprecation but (although able to testify as having either seen or learned of the matter) has not given information and thus is subject to punishment” (Leviticus 5:1). Then it mentions, somebody touching an “animal impurity” and not cleansing themselves, somebody touching a “human impurity” and not cleansing themselves, and finally someone making an oath on not following through on it. Once again, the korban acts as an acknowledgement that not doing something is itself an action, and actions have consequences.1
There is an epic argument between Maimonides and Nachmonides on why we even have sacrifices in the first place. Ever the rationalist, Maimonides claims that, sacrifices were de rigueur in ancient times, and G-d couldn’t just say “Nah, just pray.” So he commanded us to make sacrifices as a way to ease the Jewish people into a monotheistic religion centered on prayer. Nachmonides strongly disagrees. He says that sacrifices served a very real purpose. Because Man always sins, sacrifices represent G-d’s kindness who punishes the poor animal instead of Man.
I’d like to propose a third alternative. As we kickoff the societal blueprint that is Vayikra, the Torah tells us up front that we will all screw up. And people will come up with various excuses to sweep their messes under the rug. They’ll say, “I’m too important”, “It was an accident”, or “I didn’t actually do anything.” No, the Torah says, you still screwed up. That’s part of being human. What makes you an ethical human is whether you’re man enough to acknowledge it in the public square.
In fact, passivity defines guilt in Torah. Earlier in Genesis, there’s the case of Avimelech, who approached Isaac after seeing the latter, um, get intimate with Rebecca, when Isaac had previously introduced her as his sister. When Isaac clarifies that really Rebecca is his wife, Avimelech scolds Isaac; “What are you doing?? We could’ve [insert euphemism for making sexy time here] and then you would’ve brought guilt on us!” (Genesis 26:10). The hypothetical sin isn’t the intentional sin of adultery, instead it’s the guilt of not knowing they were committing adultery. Similarly, when a disguised Joseph, as Vizier of Egypt, commands his brothers to bring down Benjamin, the brothers realize this is some sort of karmic punishment. Curiously enough, it’s not for the act of selling Joseph into slavery, but instead it’s for not doing anything. “Alas, we are being punished on account of our brother, because we looked on at his anguish, yet paid no heed as he pleaded with us.” (Genesis, 42:21).