Introduction

This Shabbat sees the beginning of the reading of the Book of Va-yikra (Leviticus) and of the portion Va-yikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26). The book and the portion gets its name from its very first Hebrew word Va-yikra (And the Eternal God called).

Summary

This week’s portion portrays God calling Moses and describing to him in some detail the sacrificial system including the ‘burnt’ offering (1:1-17), the grain offering (2:1-16), the ‘well-being’ offering (3:1-17), and offerings which seek to secure atonement and forgiveness from God (4:1-5:26).

Commentary by Rabbi Danny Rich, Chief Executive, Liberal Judaism

Of all the Five Books of Moses (of the Torah), Leviticus perhaps seems the most alien to us, describing in great detail the sacrificial system of the slaughter of animals by an hereditary class of priest, the Cohanim and their assistants, the Levi-im. Having heard in some detail the mechanics of sacrifice, Chapter six and seven focus on the role of the priest and which bit of each sacrifice must end up where: burned, in the priests’ mouths, or eaten by the donors! Chapters eight and nine describe the initiation of formal worship including the consecration of priests and the mishkan - the tabernacle, the mobile home (of God). Chapter ten reminds priests how they must behave and the consequences of not so doing, chapter eleven ordains a system of dietary regulations (kashrut), chapters twelve to fifteen prescribes the role of the priest following skin diseases, child birth, rot in buildings, and sexual discharges – gripping accounts by anybody’s standards! Chapter sixteen describes the Yom Kippur ritual and introduces into the English language the ‘scapegoat’ (see 16:20-22), chapter eighteen informs the reader with which members of his/her family she/he may or may not sleep, and in similar vein chapter 20 which contains the verse by which fundamentalists condemn homosexuality (see 20:13)

In the remaining seven chapters, two (21 & 22) describe priestly duties, chapter twenty three is one version of the festival calendar, chapter twenty four contains miscellaneous legislation, chapter twenty five lays out the regulations concerning land tenure including the sabbatical and jubilee years, chapter twenty six promises reward or punishment for keeping or rejecting Levitical holiness, and the concluding chapter (27) is a treatise on fund raising.

You might have gathered that this particular contributor is, to say the least, not a great fan of the Book of Leviticus and, despite occasional highlights, the Book of Leviticus can appear to be at the best irrelevant and perhaps archaic with little of merit for the modern Jew.

It is, however, in my view, redeemed by one chapter – nineteen - known as the Holiness Code which in just over half of its thirty seven verses summarises the responsibility of a Jew to his or her neighbour. Its most famous verse (18) reads:

V’ahavta l’ray-acha camocha, ani Adonai

Love your neighbour as yourself; I am the Eternal God

As we share the Book of Leviticus over the next six or so weeks, may you find the Levitical nuggets amongst much rock which will inspire you to come to your understanding of what it is to be ‘holy : to be set aside for a moral purpose.’

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