Parshas Vayikrah 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Mar 20
- 2 min read
אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן לה' מן הבהמה מן הבקר ומן הצאן תקריבו את קרבנכם ... (א-ב)
Sefer Vayikrah discusses the concept of bringing korbanos, sacrifices, to Hashem. The following vort captures the essence of the sacrificial objectives. Chazal note that the word "מכם" seems superfluous. (See Rashi) R’ Moshe Shloime zt”l, a maggid and dayan in Vilna, and a close talmid of the Vilna Gaon zt”l, says the following clarification which explains why the word is necessary. In the Sefer Kuzari, the king asks the chover this question: How do korbanos bring the Yidden closer to הקב"ה? The chover responded: I don’t know, but the same way we don’t begin to understand how the holy neshama can reside in the physical body and is not sustained through spiritual fuel, but rather by “gashmiyusdike” food, so too, we are able to get close to Him through the sacrifices, without our comprehension. Thus, said R’ Moshe Shloime, you want to understand how is it "יקריב קרבן לה'"? The answer is "מכם" - from our own co-existence of our גוף and נשמה, that’s proof that kirvas Elokim can be attained through being makriv a korban.
Perhaps we can add two additional machshavos. You want to know how Hashem allows us to get closer to Him? The answer is "מכם". When you sacrifice from yourself, when you’re מוסר נפש in some small way. Secondly, when a person is careful in the "מכם" arena, his interpersonal relationships, then the בין אדם למקום arena will also be enhanced.
As Pesach approaches, there’s an age-old minhag to give מעות חיטים. We help our fellow Jew meet his monetary Pesach needs. This is so appropriate at this time of year as we are told, "בניסן עתידין ליגאל". It would behoove us to embark on a path to becoming better עבדי ה' who care about our fellow Yidden. In that zechus, may this be our last Pesach in golus.
Better yet. It should be our first post-geulah Pesach! בסייעתא דשמיא!