The Real World

By Rabbi Joshua (originally known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In the beginning of parshas Vayikra, God commands Moshe to tell the people, "When a person from among you brings an offering to God, from the animals - from the cattle and the flock he shall bring it" (Vayikra 1:2). Rashi, citing the midrash, says that the word used for 'person' - adam - is an allusion to the first man - adam - and is teaching us that just as when Adam brought an offering to God, he did not bring it from something that was stolen, since God had given him everything, so, too, when we bring an offering, we should not bring it from anything that is stolen. Rabbi Avrohom Binyomin Sofer, the Kesav Sofer, asks how anyone would think that an offering from something stolen would be acceptable to God as a sacrifice, to the extent that there is a need for this allusion to dispel such a notion. Therefore, he says, this midrash is actually referring to the Talmudic teaching that anyone who benefits from this world without first making a blessing is stealing from God. The message here is that God, as the Creator of the universe, is also its owner. Only through acknowledging this reality are we then allowed to partake of it. When one brings a sacrifice, then, he must do so as an acknowledgent that everything we have belongs to God, and that we are ready to return it to him on his altar.

Rav Moshe Tzvi Neriah, in his Ner LaMeah, offers a deeper, although related, explanation of the allusion to Adam in our verse. He writes that God's original purpose in creating man was for him to acknowledge that God is the creator and master of the universe. When mankind failed in this mission, God decided that the Jewish nation, as a collective, would now be tasked with carrying this message in the world. Thus, when the mishkan was dedicated, the Jewish nation was taking over the mission of Adam, on a collective scale. The Talmud tells us that the word 'adam' always refers to a Jew. As Rabbeinu Tam points out, we do find that a non-Jew can be referred to as 'ha-adam', but not with the generic 'adam' expression. Rabbi Ephraim of Lunshitz, in his Olelos Ephraim, explains that in all of the other Hebrew words for person - ish, gever, enosh - there is a distinction between the singular form of the word and its plural. Only in the word adam are the singular and plural forms the same. That is why the generic word adam refers only to a Jew, because it is only in regard to the Jewish nation that the individual is always identified with the collective. A non-Jew can, however, be refered to as ha-adam - meaning, a particular person. The allusion to Adam in our verse, then, is an indication that, with the dedication of the mishkan, the Jewish nation was poised to assume its task, as a collective, to carry God's name in the world, taking over the task originally assigned to Adam. By bringing sacrifices as an acknowledgment that everything in this world really belongs to God and is only given to them for use through this acknowledgment, they give honor to God and help fulfill His purpose in creating the universe.

Although Rav Neriah does not mention this, his explanation of our verse is in line with the approach of the author of the Halachos Gedolos, who refers to the book of Shemos as ' the second book.' Rav Naphtali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin, in his introduction to his commentary Ha'amek Davar to Shemos, explains that while the book of Bereishis records the physical creation of the universe, the book of Shemos records the spiritual completion of the universe. This completion came about through the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. According to the Ramban, the book of Shemos ends with a description of God's presence hovering over the mishkan, because this constituted the completion of the process of redemption, when the nation, as a collective, returned to the spiritual level which their forefathers had attained, with God's presence hovering over their tents. Following Rav Neriah, we can add that the dedication of the mishkan marked the return of the world to its original purpose, which was for Adam, and in turn all of mankind, to acknowledge God as creator. The Jewish nation, as a collective, was now taking over this task. Perhaps it is in this sense, too, that, according to one opinion in the Talmud, the world was created in the month of Nisan, which is when the mishkan was actually dedicated.