Netvort parshas Vayikra 5771:            Out of the Question
By Rabbi Joshua (unquestionably known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

This week's parsha begins the presentation of the laws concerning the bringing of various offerings (korbanos) in the mishkan. The Ramban, in his introduction to the book of Vayikra, tells us that the primary theme of almost the entire book is the service done there and, later in our history, in the Beis HaMikdash. In his commentary to parshas Terumah, the Ramban said that the purpose of the mishkan was to perpetuate the experience of the divine presence dwelling on Mt. Sinai, in a more hidden way but on a more permanent basis, by providing a place for the divine presence to rest among the people. This being the case, we would expect that the laws of korbanos would begin with those that a person must bring as a result of some sin he committed, since sin is a major impediment to perpetuating God's presence among the people.  It is therefore surprising to find that our parsha begins with the laws of korban nedavah, voluntary offerings, that are not generated by sin, although they do serve to atone for certain sins, as mentioned by Rashi, that do not generate an obligation to bring an offering.  Rabbi Menachem Leibtag, in his introductory shiur to parshas Vayikra, issued by the Gush Etzion Virtual Beis Midrash, although without explaining why, explains that it would have been intuitive to begin these laws with the laws of the obligatory korban which is brought for the purpose of purifying the person from sin. Why, then did the parsha begin with the laws of voluntary korbanos?  Rabbi Leibtag proceeds to give an outline of all of the laws brought in parshas Vayikra, and explains why each one is mentioned in its particular order. The interested reader is encouraged to read the entire shiur.  I would like to suggest a different answer, focusing on the first korban mentioned, the voluntary olah brought from an animal (beheimah).

Rabbi Menachem Kasher, in an appendix to his Torah Shleimah to parshas Vayikra, writes that the primary goal of korbanos is to bring one to love of God.  By bringing the korban to the altar and offering it up to God, one is symbolically saying that he is ready to give his whole life over to God, which is a profound expression of love.  This is especially true of the olah sacrifice, which is totally burned on the altar.  Why, however, is it a voluntary olah that is mentioned first in the laws of the olah?  Rav Yisroel Kanievsky, zt'l, known as the Steipler Gaon, writes, in his Birchas Peretz (parshas Vayikra), that for people who have difficulty in attaining love of God through the Rambam's method of contemplating God's greatness, or the method of the Chovos HaLevavos, by contemplating God's goodness and the many acts of kindness He does for us constantly, is advised to act beyond the letter of the law when doing mitzvos.  By doing more than is required, his outer actions will have an effect on his inner emotions, as the Sefer HaChinuch says in regard to mitzvos in general, and he will eventually come to love God through these acts of giving.

Actually, although Rav Kanievsky zt’l does not mention this, the Sifrei says that one can attain love of God through learning His Torah.  The Rambam, as well, mentions this method.  According to both Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi, in his work, Tanya, and Rav Chaim of Volozhin, in his Nefesh Ha Chaim, doing more than what is required in regard to learning is also a means of intensifying one's relationship with God. In this way, they explain the Talmudic statement that one cannot compare a person who reviews his lesson one-hundred times to one who reviews it one hundred one times. This figure, they say was chosen because in the Babylonian yeshivos, since each student needed to review his lesson a different number of times before he was proficient in it, a rule was made that everyone must review the lesson one hundred times, because even the weakest student would understand it after that many reviews. A person who reviewed one hundred times may have been a top student, but he was merely fulfilling the standard requirement.  A student who reviewed one hundred one times, however, was going beyond the requirements, and thereby displayed a love for Torah, and this love would lead to a love of God. We can therefore understand why it was the voluntary olah which is mentioned first among the various offerings brought in the mishkan, since, on the one hand, the requirement to burn it completely served as a symbol of the main message of korbanos, one's love for God to the extent of offering himself up to him, and, on the other hand, its status of being a voluntary korban helped intensify that love.

There is, however, another law of korbanos, mentioned in regards to the voluntary olah, but applicable to all sacrifices, that may be even more important than those we have mentioned. The Torah says, in regard to the voluntary olah "Adam ki yakriv mikem korban La hashem" if a 'man' (adam) brings an offering to God...” (Vayikra, 1:2). There are, in Hebrew, four different terms for man- ish, enosh, gever and adam.  Why is the word adam used here?  Rashi cites the Talmud as saying that just as Adam did not bring a sacrifice from anything stolen, since God had given him jurisdiction over everything in the world, so, too, we should not bring a sacrifice from anything stolen, or which is ownerless (hefker).  Rabbi Moshe Sternbach, in his Ta'am Va Da'as, writes that we have other sources from which we learn that a stolen or ownerless korban is invalid. Therefore, he asks, why do we need a separate source from the use of the term adam?  He answers that we do not learn anything about what the status of the korban must be from this term, but we do learn a great deal about what the character of the person who brings the korban must be.  Just as Adam was completely removed from any notion of stealing because it was simply not possible for him to steal, so too must a person who wants to bring a korban to God purify his character to such an extent that the notion of stealing simply does not register in his mind.

We may add, based on our suggestion that the voluntary olah is perhaps the best way to attain or express love of God, the Torah, by teaching us this lesson from Adam in the section that discusses the laws of the korban olah, is telling us that before we work on expressing our love of God, we must make sure that we love our fellow man, to the extent that we cannot even conceive of the notion of taking anything from him that does not belong to us.  Rav Yehudah Amital, zt'l, as brought in the work Commitment and Complexity, a compendium of excerpts from his printed works, (See also his  work, "Ve Ha'arets Nasan Livnei Adam") said that  among Jews in Eastern Europe, there  was a popular expression, based on something found in the siddur, to be said before the formal morning prayer of Shacharis begins. The statement referred to reads, 'leolam yehi adam yerei shamayim besiser uvegalui - a person should always fear Heaven, in private and in public. The popular saying was, 'leolam yehei adam' - one should always be a mensch a human being, first, and then he can work on his fear of Heaven. This is in line with Rav Kook's teaching that there are two types of ethics - human ethics and divine ethics.  Human ethics - mussar enoshi - consists of the kind of moral deportment that every decent human being knows must be displayed, what we would call a 'gut feeling of what is right.'  Mussar Eloki goes beyond that level, in service of the divine.  Rav Kook says that anything done on the second level that contradicts the first level is not a legitimate candidate for inclusion in a religion. It is noteworthy that the saying mentioned by Rav Amital uses the term 'adam,' just as the term is used in connection with the voluntary olah in the beginning of parshas Vayikra. The message is the same. If we want to attempt to develop our love of God, we must first make sure that we develop proper relationships with our fellow human beings, cultivating the inner sense of morality that was exemplified by the original Adam, who could not even conceive of stealing from another human being.

I heard from Rav Reuven Feinstein, s”hlita, son of the great Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt'l, whose twenty-fifth Yahrzheit occurs this coming week, that the faculty of the elementary school division of his yeshiva, Tiferes Yerushalayim, once met with him and suggested, in reaction to what had been implemented in a, popular day school, that the school change the text studied by students who were just beginning to study Talmud  from the second chapter of  Bava Metziah - Eilu Metzios - which deals with the laws regarding finding and returning lost objects, to the first chapter of Berachos, which deals with our daily obligations to God, such as the recital of kerias Shema.  Rav Moshe told the faculty that it was a long-followed tradition to begin studying Talmud with Eilu Metzios, and Tiferes Yerushalayim would continue in that tradition.  His son related, however, that later Rav Moshe told him another reason for young students to start studies with Eilu Metzios.  Talmudic studies He said that when a student first studies the Talmud, he does not learn a great number of pages over the course of the year.  Rather he learns a limited amount, but constantly reviews it, in order to learn Aramaic vocabulary, and general skills necessary to study the Talmud on one's own.  What emerges from a study of Eilu Metzios, then, is that the student has it constantly drilled into his head that he must never take for himself anything that does not belong to him.  Apparently, Rav Moshe believed that learning that lesson at an early age is more important than studying the religious obligations that are discussed in the beginning of berachos. This approach was consistent with Rav Moshe's personality.  With all of his greatness in Torah, he was recognized by all who knew him as a man of sterling character, caring about the needs of even the simplest person who approached him in order to speak with him.  The message of the Torah's mentioning the voluntary olah at the very beginning of the book that is dedicated to perpetuating God's presence among us is that we should all strive to attain a similar approach to life, each on our own level.

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