|
Please
include Israel's captive soldiers in your tefillot: Zecharia Shlomo
ben Miriam Baumel, Tzvi ben Penina Feldman, Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sarah
Katz, Ron ben Batya Arad, Guy ben Rina Chever, Gilad ben Aviva Shalit. Monday, 29 Adar 5770 – March 15, 2010 The
second verse of Parashat Vayikra establishes that one who wishes to bring a
voluntary animal sacrifice should offer either a bull, sheep or goat. The Da’at Zekeinim
Mi-Ba’alei Ha-Tosafot commentary notes (citing from
Torat Kohanim) that the Torah allows as animal sacrifices only
domesticated animals which (at least in ancient times) were widely bred and
easily accessible. Rather than require
Benei Yisrael to
go hunting for wild game to bring as sacrifices, God designated for
sacrifices specifically the animals that were most easily obtained. Da’at Zekeinim comments that this is
an expression of God’s benevolence and kindness toward Benei Yisrael,
as He did not with to overburden them by requiring them to sacrifice animals
which were difficult to capture. The implication of this comment,
seemingly, is that in principle, going into the jungle and hunting wild
animals would be a greater expression of devotion to God than simply taking a
sheep from one’s herd. The time and
exertion entailed in bringing a deer, for example, would demonstrate one’s desire to serve his Creator at the highest
standard, and his willingness to go to great lengths and endure considerable
inconvenience for this purpose. One
might wonder, then, why the Torah disqualifies animals such as a deer as
sacrifices. We understand that God did
not want to overburden Benei Yisrael by requiring the offering of wild animals, but why did
He take away this option? Why did He
not allow those who wish to demonstrate the highest levels of devotion to go
to the jungles and hunt for deer and bring them as sacrifices? God did not, for good reason, make such
sacrifices obligatory, but why did He make them invalid? Rav Moshe Feinstein (in Kol Ram,
vol. 3) explained that sometimes, voluntary measures that entail significant
time and exertion are not only unnecessary, but also discouraged. Self-imposed acts of devotion often have
the effect of depleting one’s limited resources of time, energy and
concentration, at the expense of his basic obligations and
responsibilities. The Torah
established the institution of voluntary sacrifices to allow us to extend
beyond the strict demands of Halakha and express our personal
spiritual feelings in a way that could not be done through the performance of
the mandatory mitzvot alone.
However, the Torah also sought to ensure that these voluntary acts of
devotion would not take too much time or attention away from our basic
obligations. Hunting for sacrifices
could easily lead to a situation of people spending days in the hunt,
thinking that they thereby express their devotion to God, but taking precious
time away from pursuits such as Torah study, raising a family, and communal
involvement. God therefore chose to
disqualify wild animals as sacrifices, in order that voluntary sacrifices
would not come at the expense of more critical and basic religious duties. Before trying to do great things,
we must first ensure that we are doing all the good things that we are
supposed to be doing. It is certainly
admirable to go beyond the strict call of duty – but only after we have
answered that call, and adequately fulfilled all our basic obligations. David Silverberg |
|
THE COMPLETE SALT ARCHIVES CAN BE FOUND AT: www.vbm-torah.org/salt-archives.html (c) 2010 Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash, Yeshivat Har Etzion.
|
Come study in the VIRTUAL BEIT
MIDRASH - Torah by email