Netvort Parshas Tzav 5770:        Peace in Our Time
By Rabbi Joshua (peacefully known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Parshas Tzav presents the laws of the various sacrifices from the angle of the kohanim, exploring in detail the role that they have in bringing these sacrifices in the Mishkan. One of the sacrifices which is presented in greater detail in parshas Tzav than in parshas Vayikra is that of the shelamim, or peace sacrifice.  Both the famed Rav Gavriel Zev Margolis, in his commentary Toras Gavriel, and Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, in his Peamim, which is a collection of his talks on the weekly Torah reading, expand on the importance of this sacrifice in the overall scheme of the service performed in the Mishkan, in different but ultimately related ways.

One of the details of the korban shelamim that appears for the first time in parshas Tzav is the fact that the one who brings the sacrifices partakes of it.  Although Rashi in Parshas Vayikra mentions a midrash that the shelamim is given that name because it brings peace in the sense that the kohanim, the ones who bring the sacrifice, and the altar all receive a portion of it, still, the fact that the owner receives a  portion is not mentioned in the Torah itself until Parshas Tzav. Thus, the element of peace found in the sacrifices receives its greatest prominence in parshas Tzav.  Perhaps this is what led Rav Margolis to cite in his commentary to Parshas Tzav a Midrash found in Tanna De Bei Eliyahu, chapter 17, that elaborates on the factor of peace involved in the sacrifices. The midrash says that once the Jews at Mt. Sinai said that they would accept the Torah God told them to build Him a Tabernacle. Rav Velvele explains this on the basis of the comments of the Dubna Maggid, in his Ohel Yaakov, on a Midrash Tanchuma to the verse in Parshas Tzav which introduces the section on the shelamim sacrifice.

The Tanchuma says that when the nations of Amon and Moav heard about the command to the Jews to bring sacrifices, they went to Bilaam and asked why they too had not been given this command.  Bilaam answered that the sacrifices are only for  shalom, for peace. The Jews, who accepted the Torah, were also given the mitzvah of bringing sacrifices, but the other nations, who did not accept the Torah, were not given that command. The Dubna Maggid explains that before the Torah was given the world stood on one pillar, that of chesed, or acts of kindness.  Once the Torah was given, however, the world was like a stool with only two legs which is unstable. Therefore, the Torah was given, to restore stability to the world.  The meaning of this says the Maggid is that once the Torah was given its stability was threatened by the possibility of people transgressing its laws. Therefore, the Jewish nation had to be commanded to bring sacrifices to correct any instability that they would cause through failing to observe the Torah correctly.  Rav Margolis adds that based on this explanation of the Maggid, we can better understand a statement that appears at the end of a number of Talmudic tractates, that God did not find a better vessel to contain blessing than peace. This statement indicates that peace is a vessel, not a blessing in and of itself. There must be content in the vessel in order for a blessing to come about. Peace, then, is a vessel that preserves the blessing that comes with the Torah. The best example of peace brought about through sacrifices, as Rashi in parshas Vayikra noted, is the korban shelamim, and that is why this teaching is most relevant to this section of our parsha.

Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook discusses a different aspect of the shelamim sacrifice, that of the role of the Jewish nation as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, which is the charge given to them at Mt. Sinai before the Torah was given.  Partaking in the flesh of the sacrifices is something that only the Jews do.  Non-Jews can bring sacrifices to the Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash, but only in the form of an olah sacrifice, which is completely burned on the altar. The Jewish people  were given the capacity to sanctify time, and a primary example of doing this is by eating a portion of their sacrifice to the Mishkan within a certain time frame. This capacity to sanctify time was given to the nation with the mitzvah of sanctifying the new month, which was the first mitzvah given to the Jews as a nation. The other nations of the world do not have this capacity, and therefore can only bring sacrifices that are completely burned on the altar.

The comments of both Rav Velvele and Rav Tzvi Yehudah are better understood with the backdrop of the words of the Netziv which we mentioned in last week’s message. The Netziv writes, in his introduction to his commentary to the book of Shemos, that this book describes the spiritual completion of the universe, and, in this sense, is really a second description of the world's creation and creation of the universe.  In order for the universe to retain its stability, there is a need for sacrifices to reconnect the forces that are torn asunder when the Torah is not observed properly.  Moreover, by means of the Torah, time, which has been given over to man to use or misuse, can be used to give ultimate spiritual meaning to the physical universe created by God.


A joyous Pesach to all from the Netvort conglomerate.


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