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קטגוריה: Parashat Hashavua

פורסם בשישי, 19 מרס 2021 10:23

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Portion Vayikra : Second Story – and When Forgiveness MeansNothing

So – are we all getting ready for Passover / Paisach? Organizing things so you can "sell the Chometz" stuff in one corner and not all over?
Have some "break" time for a story? As we wrote last week – there are 3 stories which are suggested to be told over as preparation for Passover (and I hope t tell over another one at my ZOOm "ModelSeder" next week). We get to that soon…
But this week's portion Vayikra talks about animal sacrifices – which the world all did – during the first and second temple periods! How relevant is that to US?
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (of blessed memory) said (excerpted ideas here are from various teachings) " the problems of the world all stem from lack of respecting one another. In short (this is my abridged paraphrase), we let negativity and denigration degrade others – and then ourselves. He said about the Sin of the Golden Calf,
Imagine if you ask someone to show you a picture of their spouse, and they show you a picture of a calf and say "this looks like my spouse".
RESPECT – do you think this is respectful? The people in the desert made a Golden Calf and said "This is G-d". Was that a great honor to the Almighty?"
(And sadly, for a few hundred years, the evil kings (not the good ones) of the Israelites of the first temple period, had idols like calves set up for people to "worship". WHAT KIND OF WORSHIP AND RESPECT IS THAT?
So the portion teaches – sacrifice in Judaism is about atonement (like fasting on Yom Kippur). Rich people would bring a kosher animal, middleclass a bird, and poor people a flour offering – to the Temple.
The priests who were on shift to work there had some food – and the people who wanted to atone for some sin didn't eat – sort of like Yom Kippur. And it cost what it cost – AND IT WAS TO SERVE AS A LESSON to RESPECT and to FOLLOW A RIGHTEOUS PATH – and the Almighty.
In short – Why does Judaism not taut sacrifice today as a means f teaching respect?
Is it partly because of the SUPER NEGATIVITY AND LACK OF RESPECT
In this age of millions of murdered and missiles and mass shootings, of Russians maybe poisoning for politics, and Myanmar and China crackdowns (just lately) and and and…
Yes – the Torah is still valid – BUT EVERYONE IN THE WORLD NEEDS TO LEARN THE LESSONS
And so the second story is about a king who loved his Jewish citizens, but as always, there were plotting politicians who used the Jews to sew hatred. Every day there bad guys would make up lies to tell the King and make him turn against the Jews.
The favorite RING of the KING went missing – and he ordered EVERYONE in the LA ND to LOOK for it! FIND THE RING AND SATISFY THE KING was the order posted on every wall and tree in the capital city.
"Not found not found not found" reported all the precinct captains.
AND IT WAS PASSOVER TIME.
The vizier who hated the Jews more than anyone told the king –
And who KNEW they were searching for CHOMETZ the night before – and so he said
let's go out tonight and you will see that the Jews are NOT even searching for the RING but are CelebraTING –
And that is not a respectful THING!
So the two went out in disguise that evening (of course followed by some FBI agents to protect them?) – with Magnifying Glasses poking here and there as if they were searching for the ring … and got to the Jewish Quarter – where everyone was singing.
The wicked vizier said "See, I told you they don't care about your orders."
The Jews were all over singing DAYENU DAYENU and more DAYENU very loud – and the incensed King knocked on a door – turns out it was the Rabbi's house - and asked very LOUDly!
"What's that you are all singing? What does that mean?"
The local wise Rabbi just said "It means ENOUGH ENOUGH ENOUGH", and looked at the hated vizier, who always tormented the Jews.
The King turned and looked at the vizier and said – enough? Enough of what?
Tell me the truth - YOU stole ring to get me angry at my faithful-est citizens! Right? And shouted
"Police- FBI – grab him!" And sure enough, they found the ring in the vizier's home and – well – you know about sacrifices now from the portion …
So please Bless Me that I don't forget the third story before next Shabbat
And I bless you all to say over some RESPECTFUL stories on Passover, and have
Even a little seder –(which means organization) – a little one being at least better than none
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Andy Eichenholz

• portion of Vayikra