In parashat Tzav, we continue to encounter many of the different offerings prescribed for the ancient Israelites – the cooking or burning up of animals and grain for a purpose. The Hebrew root for this technology of “offering” is ק-ר-ב which ultimately refers to getting close or approaching.
The Book of Leviticus, nearly in its entirety, is a how-to book for the Israelites to keep their G-d near. Exodus ended with the completion of the mishkan - a dwelling place for the divine amongst them, and Leviticus is about how to keep divinity present when all sorts of things might make the world less hospitable. For them, G-d's presence was the difference between life and death.
As a community today, we might think of this as: how do we maintain a standard, a set of values, a feeling-that-leads-to-action that we are interconnected and interdependent in our survival and thriving?
We do so, perhaps, not by sacrificing animals and grain at the altar, but yes, by finding today's technology for approaching one another, for getting close, by being people who relate one to the other and persist in that.
And one way to act this out is to be counted, to take an action that chooses this community and its values as your own. We welcome you in as we move closer in the name of maintaining an hospitable environment for the divine.
May we be strengthened to have one another among this world, creating for ourselves and one another space for the divinity amongst us.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
The Book of Leviticus, nearly in its entirety, is a how-to book for the Israelites to keep their G-d near. Exodus ended with the completion of the mishkan - a dwelling place for the divine amongst them, and Leviticus is about how to keep divinity present when all sorts of things might make the world less hospitable. For them, G-d's presence was the difference between life and death.
As a community today, we might think of this as: how do we maintain a standard, a set of values, a feeling-that-leads-to-action that we are interconnected and interdependent in our survival and thriving?
We do so, perhaps, not by sacrificing animals and grain at the altar, but yes, by finding today's technology for approaching one another, for getting close, by being people who relate one to the other and persist in that.
And one way to act this out is to be counted, to take an action that chooses this community and its values as your own. We welcome you in as we move closer in the name of maintaining an hospitable environment for the divine.
May we be strengthened to have one another among this world, creating for ourselves and one another space for the divinity amongst us.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
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