Parashat Tsav (6:1 - 8:36)

by Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith, Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue

Summary

The book of Leviticus is now in ‘full swing’ and this week’s sidrah contains further Torot  (instructions) regarding the sacrifices introduced in the previous sidrah.  As Bible scholar Baruch A. Levine summarises, we now are presented with detailed instruction concerning the actual sacrificial service ritual whereas last week aspects ‘…emphasising the mechanics  --the preparation of sacrifices and their ingredients--  as well as the special conditions that made certain sacrifices necessary…’ were introduced. 

Chapters 6-7 concentrates on the priests and their tasks in officiating with respect to a variety of sacrificial offerings. Chapter 8 (as well as chapter 9 in next week’s sidrah) describe the elaborate celebrations when formal sacrificial services apparently began in the wilderness among the Israelites.  The text concerning the origins of such services reflects the point of view of the priests and, according to historian Ellis Rivkin, it is myth designed to validate the authority of the centralised priestly class officiating at the Temple in Jerusalem.  

Commentary

Although the sacrificial cult ended 2,000 years ago, ancient elements have been preserved in our ritual practices in a variety of sublimated ways both in communal and home settings.  This process was carried out by the rabbis after the destruction of the second temple. 

With respect to Passover observance, however, key rituals such as eating matzot and the prohibition of chametz are detailed in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy so they exist apart from Levitical instructions.  The paschal sacrifice was first thought of as a home ritual and so the shankbone still appears on our seder plates.  Moreover, the idea of Passover is about remembering the Exodus from Egypt and this historical idea exists independently of the pilgrimages and temple rituals associated with the agricultural cycle.  Meaningful commemorations were ensured as the rabbis complied the seder.

Let’s not forget that the book of Leviticus is not entirely devoted to ritual and the obsession with purity.  Themes of redemption and freedom are central;  hence the Jubilee year with its laws that release individuals from servitude  and offer agricultural/economic renewal.  And, as Leviticus 19 commands, ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’;  the most central moral principle in contemporary Judaism.  Leviticus –while containing such arcane and particularistic sidrahs such as Tzav--  also offers the most universally applicable of ideas. 

Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith

Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue