Community Blog

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Vayikra, the beginning of the Book of Leviticus, in which God gives Moses many details describing the types of sacrifices God expects now that the Mishkan is fully built. At least four categories of sacrifices are named (elective burnt offerings, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering), with multiple variations within each category to allow for what type of food item each person could afford to bring to fulfill those offerings, as well as some sub-categories that depend on time of year or other changes in circumstances. 

Chapter three opens with the commandments regarding “zevah sh’lamim”, which I above translated as “peace-offering”. Sometimes this is also translated as “the sacrifice of well-being.” The Jewish Publication Society translation of the Torah has an asterisk on this term that tells the reader the exact Hebrew meaning of “sh’lamim” is uncertain, while 11th century Spanish commentator Ibn Ezra notes that this term is “self-explanatory.” He is riffing on Rashi’s explanation a bit, that the term “sh’lamim” clearly stems from the root for “shalom” and that this is a distinct category of sacrifice. While the guilt and sin offering may be made in expiation for various wrong-doings both intentional and unintentional, and the burnt offerings may be offered for some other reason of spiritual cleansing, the sh’lamim appears to be solely for the purpose of bringing peace and good will into the community and the world. Further, Rashi offers a second reason to understand the definition and translation of this so-called peace offering: that the meat itself also brings harmony to the altar and eliminates envy among the community because the sacrifice is split among everyone. The ancient Sifrei Midrash on the laws of the priests gives the same reasoning: Why is it called a “peace offering”? Because everyone partakes of it. The blood and fat go to the altar, the breast and thigh to the priest, and the hide and flesh to the owner.

Clearly our ancestors were concerned about sharing. Many of the rules in the Torah are things that sound nice and obvious as ways to make the world better - welcome the stranger, care for the poor, pay your laborers, bathe, share - but we know that these things are much easier said than done (although running water helped with the bathing) and that is why they needed to be repeated throughout the holy scriptures. When we learn about the sacrifices we are forced to reimagine what they mean to us today, now that we don’t worship with literal sacrifices. Often when we read this part of the Torah, we talk about the sacrifices of time and energy to help others, the sacrifice of money to go to tzedakah, the sacrifice of other extra-curricular activities to be at the synagogue, and so on. But what are the things we specifically need to be sharing with our own community more, our sh’lamim offerings? 

Can we share our space, our resources? Not just through tzedakah and kindness, but through true sharing where we also participate and partake of our bounty with others? Our synagogue has recently opened up our grounds to a new early childhood education program, and have talked about plans for a future community garden and youth safe space. These efforts would serve others and potentially provide an unmet need for those less fortunate but they would also give our own community an opportunity to connect, to enrich. Many of the ways we might have previously thought of to share in this way - interfaith meals and services, for example - might no longer feel as feasible due to covid restrictions, and so we must be creative. We must be willing to step out of our comfort zone in order to truly share something new and authentic that could improve us all. 

This Shabbat, let us pray for peace and well-being, let us offer up sacrifices of the heart, let us share all that we have and all that we are for the sake of building a beloved community. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.