Thursday, March 10, 2011

Dvar Torah for Parshas Vayikra

      Sefer Vayikra is also known as Toras Kohanim, the Torah of the Kohanim. This is because the entire sefer deals primarily with the laws of korbanos (sacrifices), which are brought by the Kohanim, and the laws of Kohanim, i.e. how they must act, live, what benefits they receive. This week’s parshah deals with the laws of korbanos.
      The pasuk says, “וְכָל קָרְבַּן מִנְחָתְךָ בַּמֶּלַח תִּמְלָח וְלֹא תַשְׁבִּית מֶלַח בְּרִית אֱלֹהֶיךָ מֵעַל מִנְחָתֶךָ עַל כָּל קָרְבָּנְךָ תַּקְרִיב מֶלַח” “You shall salt your every meal-offering with salt; you may not discontinue the salt of your God’s covenant from upon your meal-offering, on all your offerings shall you offer salt.”(2:13) There is a mitzvah that every korban must be brought with salt. What is the purpose of this mitzvah? Why is it so important to have salt on every korban, so much so that if salt is not used, the bringer of the korban is over an aveirah?
      Rabbeinu Bachaya explains this mitzvah on three different levels. First, on the pshat (simple explanation) level he gives two reasons. The first is that we learn how to treat a korban, which is Hashem’s “food”, from how we treat a human king’s food. The same way you wouldn’t serve a human king his food without salt, so too a korban should not be brought without salt out of respect for Hashem. The second reason he learns out from the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim (Guide to the Perplexed) who explains that a sacrifice for Avodah Zarah was never brought with salt since they wanted the sacrifice to be as bloody as possible and salt would soak up the blood. In order to stay as far away from Avodah Zarah as possible, we put salt on our korbanos.
      He next explains it on a midrashic level. He brings a series of midrashim which describe the scene at the time of creation. At first there was just water over everything, then Hashem created the horizon which separated the waters form each other with some becoming the sky above the horizon and some staying below as the ocean. The ocean began to cry to Hashem that it was no longer close to his shechinah. (Maybe this is why the ocean is salty!) Because of its pain, hugh tsunamis started to form around the world with water shooting up to the heavens. In order to appease the ocean, Hashem promised it three things: 1. The sky would not be allowed to say shirah to Hashem every day until the ocean gave it permission. 2. Every Succos there was a special ceremony as part of the prayer for rain where water would be poured in the Beis Hamikdash. 3. Salt, which comes from the ocean, would be put on every single korban brought for Hashem. The ocean then came back and said, “Hashem, a third of the world is desert, which merited having the Torah given in it. A third of the world is civilized land, on which the Beis Hamikdash was built. A third of the world is water, what do we get?” Because of this complaint, Hashem promised the ocean that salt would be brought on every korban.
      The third way the Rabbeinu Bachaya explains this idea is on a kabbalistic level. Salt is formed by the sun heating up water until the water is completely evaporated and only the salt from the water is left. Ironically, it is these two elements of water and fire which normally cannot function in the same environment which form the chemical compound of salt. So too was the creation of the world. Hashem first wanted to create the world using only the מדת הדין, the middah of judgment. Once he saw that the world could not survive like that, he included in the creation מדת הרחמים, the middah of mercy in order to balance it out. The same irony by salt is repeated here. How is it possible for judgment and mercy to co-exist, they are by definition opposites! The lesson we learn from salt is that just how the conflicting ingredients in salt give it the power to both maintain and destroy the world, so too the way the world was created. Salt maintains the world as it can be used as a preservative and it destroys since it sucks the nutrients out of the soil rendering it unfit for planting. So too if the world was run only on judgment could be both good and bad and the same thing if the world was run only on mercy. This is why salt is referred to in the pasuk as “מֶלַח בְּרִית אֱלֹהֶיךָ” “the salt of your God’s covenant”, salt symbolizes the foundation of the creation of the world. And that is why it is brought along with every korban.

Shabbat Shalom!

AIMeM

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