Sacrifice – Past and Present, sermon by David Okolica, 3/23/2012

D’var Torah for Parshat Vayikra & Parshat Hachodesh March 23rd, 2012
This week’s Parshah is Vayikra, the first section of the book of Leviticus. This Shabbat also coincides with Rosh Chodesh Nissan (the new month) and Parshat Hachodesh, the time when the new month of Nissan is arriving, signaling the start of Passover preparations. The main theme of Vayikra is about the different kinds of sacrifices that could be offered at the Temple, but the details of this ritual may be difficult for us to relate to in the modern day. As we all know, there is no Temple, animal sacrifices are not performed, and these practices may be seen as archaic and cruel to animals. I do believe that the description of the biblical ritual of ‘sacrifices’ contains themes that are relevant to our lives today and teach us how to live as modern Jews who are engaged in our community.
The most important consequence of the sacrifice ritual, at least after the Temple was destroyed, is that Jewish prayer developed and replaced animal sacrifices. In fact, organized Jewish prayer within synagogues flourished after the second Temple was destroyed, and the traditional number & order of prayers follows the sacrifices that were given in the Temple. It is important to realize that the replacement of the sacrifice ritual is the origin of Jews getting together for an organized Shabbat service, as we are doing tonight. Depending on the tradition of one’s prayer service, much of the rabbinical liturgy is modeled off the Temple sacrifice ritual. In fact, some prayers include the actual description of the sacrifice of that day, and this directly connects us to our ancestors who were practicing biblical Judaism at that time. It is also interesting to note that most sacrifices involved both the priests (Kohanim) as well as the laity in the preparation and ritual of the sacrifice. We tend to follow this model in our prayer services as well, as the clergy functions to guide and inspire us in our prayers, interact in a down-to-earth manner with the congregation, and give us spiritual leadership. For these reasons, the themes contained in the sacrifice ritual, although the details may seem irrelevant to us now, do contain messages which are applicable to leading a Jewish life and constructing a Jewish prayer service.
The traditional reading for this week includes the biblical story of the preparation of the Passover offering, as the reading begins by describing the 2 weeks before Passover when the new month of Nissan arrived. The Torah describes that a goat would be chosen for the offering and would be watched for 4 days before being slaughtered for the Passover offering, and its blood would be placed on the Jews’ doorposts so the angel of death would pass over these houses. While this ritual is not categorized as a Temple sacrifice, it is actually the first sacrifice that the Jewish people made as a nation. It is true that these offerings were made by each family separately as they were about to leave Egypt, and they did not involve a priest, but there is still a strong link between the Passover offering and the Temple sacrifice ritual. In fact, the Seder that we celebrate today is based largely on the Passover offering that was made, as we were instructed at that time to eat Matzahs, bitter herbs, and not to eat leavened bread (or Chametz) for the Passover holiday. So when I think about the ancient sacrifice ritual, the ideas of community, organized prayer with devoted leadership, and connection with our ancestors come to my mind. In addition, the foundation of one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays, namely Passover, included a sacrifice, the Passover offering. I would doubt that most Jewish families today, when they sit down to their Passover Seder, think about ancient sacrifices. They are probably more concerned with hosting their guests and watching the amount of time it takes to complete the Seder ritual before eating the festive meal, but it is important to remember the biblical origin of the holiday rituals.
When discussing sacrifices, I believe it is important to think about linking the term ‘sacrifice’ from the past to the present. In ancient times, the animal was sacrificing its life for the Jewish people to worship appropriately, but now, we all must make our own sacrifices, especially when we come together to organize worshiping in this synagogue. I can only imagine the time and effort that was dedicated by numerous individuals to make this synagogue function properly and allow the Jews of our community to worship with spirituality, friendship and joy and have all the associated services of a synagogue. All of us have to sacrifice something to build the community and when everybody does their small share of the work, the whole community can benefit. I would hope that we can continue the spirit of communal giving, just as the Jews who were leaving Egypt did during the first Passover. We can continue the ancient tradition of sacrifice in a modern way in our own prayer community, and learn from the past practices to benefit us for this special Shabbat and upcoming Passover holiday. I want to thank the Cantor for asking me to give this D’var Torah, as I learned quite a bit while preparing it and I hope everyone here learned something new as well. I wish you all a Shabbat Shalom and a healthy and happy Passover to you and your families.