Tzav

An Offering of the heart
A D’var Torah for Parashat Tzav
By Rabbi Jill Hammer

Parashat Tzav deals with the offerings that the priests and the people made in the Tabernacle for the purposes of gratitude, atonement, and daily celebration. These offerings included the olah (an offering entirely burnt), the minhah or meal-offering, the zevah shelamim—a celebratory offering where part was given to God and people ate the rest—and the hatat and asham, two kinds of sin offerings. This week, my attention was particularly drawn to the olah, the offering that is completely burned. I want to explore three ways the olah might be relevant to us at this moment.

First, to me, the olah offering, an offering that is entirely given over, speaks to the powerful offerings that doctors, nurses, midwives, EMTs, and other medical workers are making right now as they serve those who are ill even at risk to themselves. This offering speaks, to me, of the Read More >

A D’var Torah for Parashat Tzav
By Rabbi Isaac Mann

The prohibition in the Torah against the consumption of blood, which is expressed in this week’s parashah (see Lev. 7:26-27), is generally seen in the context of the laws of kashrut. Just as the Torah prohibits the eating of meat from unclean animals or from animals that were improperly slaughtered or were unfit due to organic disease, so too certain parts of a kosher animal, like the fat (heilev) or the blood (dam) are off-limits. In connection with the latter, the Shulhan Arukh describes various salting and draining methods to rid the meat of any blood that may have flowed into it in order to render it kosher. The pertinent rules and techniques are juxtaposed to the laws that deal with shehitah (ritual slaughtering) and tereifot (diseased animals).

Interestingly, the Torah does not mention the prohibitions against eating the fat or the blood of Read More >

A D’var Torah for Tzav
by Rabbi Heidi Hoover ’11

This week’s Torah portion, Tzav, continues detailed discussion of the sacrifices, though this week’s text is addressed to the priests and focuses on their duties, while last week’s text was addressed to the Israelite people.

We frequently talk about how alien animal sacrifice is to us now, and it can be very difficult to feel any affinity to these Torah portions. But the Israelites did get something out of the sacrificial system, and one thing I believe they got is something that we still want today. I suggest that the sacrificial system supported communal life.

Everyone knew the rules and followed them. When a person came to make a sacrifice, it was not something they did alone. A person would bring the animal and give it to the priest—so there were at least two people involved. Read More >

by Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky