Post by alon on Mar 11, 2019 8:55:33 GMT -8
I am again putting the par'shah up early. We are starting the difficult book of Leviticus this week. I chose as my theme why it is an important book and what we should look for as we read it. Hope you find it helpful.
Date of reading- 16 March 2019/ 9 Adar II 5779
Name of Par’shah- Vayikra
Par’shah- Lev 1:1 – 5:26
Haftara- Isaiah 43:21-44:23
D’rash: Apart from the Jews and a few crazy Messianics, almost no one reads Leviticus. It is both boring and difficult to the Western mind:
“Little happens in Leviticus. There is not much narrative and the little that does exist is troubling. … Even when Leviticus speaks about ethics, it does so in a perplexing way.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
God calls Moshe from the Tent of Meeting and gives him the laws of the sacrifices and the offerings brought to the Sanctuary. The olah, or ascending offering wholly raised to God by fire atop the altar; five types of minchah, meal offerings of fine flour, olive oil and frankincense; shelamim, the peace offering, parts burned on the altar and parts given to priests, the rest eaten by the one bringing the offering; chatat, different types of sin offering to atone for transgressions committed erroneously by the cohen ha’gadol, king, community, or individual; asham, guilt offering of one who misappropriated property of the Sanctuary, who is in doubt whether he transgressed, or who betrayed God by swearing falsely to defraud a fellow man.
“Values are what Leviticus is all about. They pervade every chapter and almost every verse. Many may be surprised to read this, since the dominant view of Leviticus is that it consists only of rituals, such as sacrifices and impurities. … However, underlying the rituals, the careful reader will find an intricate web of values that purports how we should relate to God and to one another.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Christians say these laws were done away with, so why bother? Well, according to my Eng Comp 101 prof, parallel development is the most persuasive type of writing. The Bible is full of parallel development, and one of the most important types is chiasm, or reverse parallel development. It follows the form A, B, C, C’, B’, A’. C, and sometimes C’. The central word, verse, book or idea is the most important. Let’s take a simple truth we all think we know:
Matthew 6:24 (ESV) “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
A No one can serve two masters.
B for either he will hate the one
C and love the other, or
C′ he will be devoted to the one
B′ and despise the other
A′ You cannot serve God and Money
While the simple truths are found in A and A’, the important elements of love and devotion, things upon which the truths rest are found in the central phrases of this chiasm.
itself follows a chiastic structure:
Genesis Fellowship broken
Covenant given
Exodos Leaving Egypt for Canaan
Leviticus Tabernacle service
Dedicating the Tabernacle
Numbers Preparing to enter Canaan
Deuteronomy Covenant renewed
Restoration
The book of Leviticus, the central book of is also organized in chiastic structure:
1-6 Israel’s drawing near to G-d
7-10 establishing the priesthood
11-15 health for G-d’s people
16 Day of Atonement
17-20 holiness for G-d’s people
21-22 Conduct of the priests
23-27 Israel’s lifestyle with G-d
All of Leviticus is wrapped around the central, core theme of atonement. Remember, the center is important in chiasm, and Leviticus is the center of. This is not a book we can just ignore. It is the essential part of our benchmark for evaluating all holy writ!
“The mindset of Leviticus is far removed from that of secular culture in the west in the 21st century. Yet Leviticus is a- perhaps even the- key to Judaism. It is here that we read for the first time the command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is the source of the even greater moral principle, “You shall love [the stranger] as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt.” (The “strangers” he mentions were proselytes living among the Hebrews. Ref Lev 19:34, ed.)
“It is Leviticus that forbids us to take vengeance or bear a grudge, taking a stand against the psychopathology of hatred and violence. It contains one of the most remarkable of all religious ideas, that we are summoned to be holy because God is holy.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The word Leviticus in the Greek means "for the Levites,” the priests, designated by God because they took His side in the incident of the golden calf. In antiquity the books didn’t have titles, so the first words were the titles. In Leviticus the first word is Vayikra, “And He Called.” Another ancient title is Torat Kohanim, Instructions for the Priests.
“Torat Kohanim wrestles with some of the deepest questions of religion. How, in a finite world, can we relate to an infinite God … who can neither be seen nor visually represented? At quite a different level, how can we take the fire of religious inspiration and turn it into an everlasting flame? How can we recapture the peak experiences on a regular basis? And how can we take a way of life for the few and make it the possession of many?” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
This is what Leviticus is really about. And this is why we must not gloss over or ignore this, the most important book in and thus arguably the entire Bible.
Mekorot: Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth; The Chiastic Structure of the (first 5 books of the Bible) by Sheva Myers; Dr. Eysenberg of the IBC; my college notes; Rav S, my father, and others
Date of reading- 16 March 2019/ 9 Adar II 5779
Name of Par’shah- Vayikra
Par’shah- Lev 1:1 – 5:26
Haftara- Isaiah 43:21-44:23
D’rash: Apart from the Jews and a few crazy Messianics, almost no one reads Leviticus. It is both boring and difficult to the Western mind:
“Little happens in Leviticus. There is not much narrative and the little that does exist is troubling. … Even when Leviticus speaks about ethics, it does so in a perplexing way.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
God calls Moshe from the Tent of Meeting and gives him the laws of the sacrifices and the offerings brought to the Sanctuary. The olah, or ascending offering wholly raised to God by fire atop the altar; five types of minchah, meal offerings of fine flour, olive oil and frankincense; shelamim, the peace offering, parts burned on the altar and parts given to priests, the rest eaten by the one bringing the offering; chatat, different types of sin offering to atone for transgressions committed erroneously by the cohen ha’gadol, king, community, or individual; asham, guilt offering of one who misappropriated property of the Sanctuary, who is in doubt whether he transgressed, or who betrayed God by swearing falsely to defraud a fellow man.
“Values are what Leviticus is all about. They pervade every chapter and almost every verse. Many may be surprised to read this, since the dominant view of Leviticus is that it consists only of rituals, such as sacrifices and impurities. … However, underlying the rituals, the careful reader will find an intricate web of values that purports how we should relate to God and to one another.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Christians say these laws were done away with, so why bother? Well, according to my Eng Comp 101 prof, parallel development is the most persuasive type of writing. The Bible is full of parallel development, and one of the most important types is chiasm, or reverse parallel development. It follows the form A, B, C, C’, B’, A’. C, and sometimes C’. The central word, verse, book or idea is the most important. Let’s take a simple truth we all think we know:
Matthew 6:24 (ESV) “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
A No one can serve two masters.
B for either he will hate the one
C and love the other, or
C′ he will be devoted to the one
B′ and despise the other
A′ You cannot serve God and Money
While the simple truths are found in A and A’, the important elements of love and devotion, things upon which the truths rest are found in the central phrases of this chiasm.
itself follows a chiastic structure:Genesis Fellowship broken
Covenant given
Exodos Leaving Egypt for Canaan
Leviticus Tabernacle service
Dedicating the Tabernacle
Numbers Preparing to enter Canaan
Deuteronomy Covenant renewed
Restoration
The book of Leviticus, the central book of
is also organized in chiastic structure:1-6 Israel’s drawing near to G-d
7-10 establishing the priesthood
11-15 health for G-d’s people
16 Day of Atonement
17-20 holiness for G-d’s people
21-22 Conduct of the priests
23-27 Israel’s lifestyle with G-d
All of Leviticus is wrapped around the central, core theme of atonement. Remember, the center is important in chiasm, and Leviticus is the center of
. This is not a book we can just ignore. It is the essential part of our benchmark for evaluating all holy writ!“The mindset of Leviticus is far removed from that of secular culture in the west in the 21st century. Yet Leviticus is a- perhaps even the- key to Judaism. It is here that we read for the first time the command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is the source of the even greater moral principle, “You shall love [the stranger] as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt.” (The “strangers” he mentions were proselytes living among the Hebrews. Ref Lev 19:34, ed.)
“It is Leviticus that forbids us to take vengeance or bear a grudge, taking a stand against the psychopathology of hatred and violence. It contains one of the most remarkable of all religious ideas, that we are summoned to be holy because God is holy.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The word Leviticus in the Greek means "for the Levites,” the priests, designated by God because they took His side in the incident of the golden calf. In antiquity the books didn’t have titles, so the first words were the titles. In Leviticus the first word is Vayikra, “And He Called.” Another ancient title is Torat Kohanim, Instructions for the Priests.
“Torat Kohanim wrestles with some of the deepest questions of religion. How, in a finite world, can we relate to an infinite God … who can neither be seen nor visually represented? At quite a different level, how can we take the fire of religious inspiration and turn it into an everlasting flame? How can we recapture the peak experiences on a regular basis? And how can we take a way of life for the few and make it the possession of many?” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
This is what Leviticus is really about. And this is why we must not gloss over or ignore this, the most important book in
and thus arguably the entire Bible.Mekorot: Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth; The Chiastic Structure of the
(first 5 books of the Bible) by Sheva Myers; Dr. Eysenberg of the IBC; my college notes; Rav S, my father, and others
