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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. Motzaei Shabbat – March 13, 2010 One
of the categories of voluntary sacrifices discussed in Parashat Vayikra is
the shelamim
offering. The fats of the animal
brought as a shelamim were burned on the altar, while the meat was
eaten mostly by the ba’alim (person bringing the sacrifice, and his
family and guests); a small portion of the meat was shared with the kohen
who tended to the sacrifice. In describing the offering of the
fats of the shelamim upon the altar, the Torah writes, “Aharon’s sons
shall offer it on the ola which is upon the wood which is upon the
fire” (3:5). Rather than simply
requiring the kohen to place the animal fats on the fire
which burned on the altar, the Torah instructs that the fats must be placed
“on the ola.”
The term “ola” refers to the burnt-offering, the
voluntary sacrifice which was entirely burnt upon the altar, as discussed in
the first chapter of Sefer Vayikra.
What does the Torah mean when it requires burning the fats of the shelamim “on the ola”? Rashi
explains this verse to mean that no sacrifice may be offered upon the altar
before the daily ola, that
is, the tamid offering that was brought each morning. By requiring that the fats be placed “on
the ola,” referring to the daily tamid
sacrifice, the Torah teaches that the tamid must
have been already offered on the altar before any sacrifice is offered. Rav
Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, in his commentary, notes the broader implications of
this concept, particularly as reflected by the context in which it is
introduced. As mentioned, the Torah
speaks here of the shelamim
sacrifice, which is, generally, an individual offering. (National shelamim
sacrifices – shalmei tzibur – were
brought very rarely.) A person brought
a shelamim sacrifice
as a celebration to mark a festive occasion.
The requirement to ensure that all the meat was eaten within two days
necessitated the inclusion of family members.
The shelamim was thus
a personal, family event, in direct contrast to the tamid sacrifice,
the daily offering which was purchased with public funds and thus represented
the entire nation. Moreover, as
opposed to the shelamim, which,
as mentioned, was eaten in the form of a feast, the tamid was
entirely burnt upon the altar. The shelamim thus
represents the festive, joyous aspect of religious observance, whereas the
ola signifies humble, somber devotion and submission to the
Almighty. The tamid, the ola offering
brought each day by the entire nation, expresses Benei Yisrael’s
national, collective sense of duty and submission to the Almighty. Rav
Hirsch explained that by commanding that the fats of the shelamim be
placed upon the tamid, the
Torah alludes to the inextricable bond between our national sense of devotion
to God and the joys of personal, family life.
He writes, “…this could be to express the great Truth, that it is just
in the pure happiness of the families and individuals that the national
devotion to the Torah finds its fruits…”
The Torah seeks to demonstrate that there is no contradiction between
the ola and the shelamim, between humble submission to God’s
authority, as reflected by the ola, and the festive, joyous aura that
characterized the shelamim feast.
Our national sense of religious duty and devotion to God is to lead to
the shelamim, to the exhilarating sounds of families joyously celebrating
together around a sacrifice. Both are
integral components of the sacrificial rite in the Mikdash, and both are integral components in the religious life envisioned
and mandated by the Torah. 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.
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