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Vayikra: Child Sacrifice · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a Thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: The holiday of Pessock focuses on children as the foundational
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  Speaker 1: holiday of Jewish people. It sets the tone for all
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  Speaker 1: of Jewish life. Pessock in general sets the tone for
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  Speaker 1: Jewish life. So many of Army's foot are zerely saved.
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  Speaker 1: Me trime to remember the exes from Egypt, Shahbad, Musuzapi,
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  Speaker 1: Jana Bain, many many more. More importantly, I would say
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  Speaker 1: our values. So many of our values are rooted in
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  Speaker 1: our experience in Egypt. The idea of sensitivity to the stranger, integrity,
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  Speaker 1: how we treat our workers, our sexual ethic, our business ethics.
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  Speaker 1: These are all connected in the Torah to our experiences
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  Speaker 1: in Egypt. The question of the facam that we will
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  Speaker 1: read please go out next week at the stay there,
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  Speaker 1: unlike the other three children, is no connection to Pessack.
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  Speaker 1: It's not in Parsha Bo, which tells the story of Pessok,
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  Speaker 1: like the other questions are. It's in Parsha Vatkana and
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  Speaker 1: it's side of the blue torres, and it begins a
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  Speaker 1: new paragraph, and just the kid, and when what will
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  Speaker 1: happen when your child by yak more, when your child
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  Speaker 1: will act you my daughter and all these laws. So
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  Speaker 1: you'll tell him the laws of the Torah, not with
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  Speaker 1: pessa The laws of the Torah are because Abadimhyena, we
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  Speaker 1: were slaves to Egypt, that's the answer in the Torah,
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  Speaker 1: and God took us out. The idea of teaching children is,
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  Speaker 1: of course, not only related to Pessack. It's all year long.
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  Speaker 1: Twice a day in the Shmah we say two times
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  Speaker 1: we have to treat our children like two times too.
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  Speaker 1: The first paragraph dismay you should sharpen teach your children,
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  Speaker 1: and in the second baraka you should teach our children. Again,
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  Speaker 1: you say it, what should we teach? So that there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot to teach. So the Mitresh notes the custom
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  Speaker 1: was that when we started teaching our children, we started
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  Speaker 1: at Vikra. This is a rather strange custom, and it's
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  Speaker 1: I don't think, and for very understandable reasons. It's not
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  Speaker 1: really observed today, not at least in the circles I
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  Speaker 1: travel in it. But why was that the custom to
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  Speaker 1: start at the craven. Many adults find this rather unstimulating.
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  Speaker 1: It's clearly not as exciting. It's not practical. Mets of
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  Speaker 1: the book is not at all practical. It's debatable how
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  Speaker 1: ideal sacrifices are in the first place. So why in
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  Speaker 1: the world is this what you teach like a five
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  Speaker 1: year old kid as when you start teaching them torah formerly,
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  Speaker 1: so it could be the process of elimination. Let's start well,
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  Speaker 1: brace sheet once in after another man fails and he
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  Speaker 1: fails again, and he fails again, and they're fighting, and
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  Speaker 1: there's exploitation and rape and murder and kidnapping. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know that I want to teach that to my children. Schmut.
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  Speaker 1: It's a little bit better, but you got to nameless,
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  Speaker 1: spaceless nation clearly not ready for redemption. Moreover, I don't
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  Speaker 1: think we first thing we want to teach our children
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  Speaker 1: is that Jewish people were slaves. That's not a good
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  Speaker 1: introduction to life when you get older, I understand, but
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  Speaker 1: not a young kid. It's like remotion Finds famously would
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  Speaker 1: say that one of the sad parts people came from Europe,
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  Speaker 1: and they would come home and say and say that
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  Speaker 1: in Yiddish it's very difficult to be a Jew, and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes it's true. But when a kid hears it's difficult
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  Speaker 1: to be you, who wants that? So we have to
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  Speaker 1: love to be a Jew. So Schmidt's not such a
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  Speaker 1: great book. A meat bar one complain after another, punished
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  Speaker 1: forty years in the desert. Duvarim, Well, Davarim doesn't really
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  Speaker 1: make so much sense if you don't know the other
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  Speaker 1: four books of the commercial. So we're left with Jikra.
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  Speaker 1: But it's very you'd hope there's more than just sort of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, process of elimination. So the midrash Vayiko Rabba
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  Speaker 1: says that Asi says, we've named matiline latino coot. Why
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  Speaker 1: do we start teaching the children the totem, the Torah
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  Speaker 1: of the priest, the book of imbiration. We don't separation,
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  Speaker 1: so he answers, lutarem children are pure corbonotrim a sacrifice.
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  Speaker 1: Corban are pure. Otherwise it's invalid. Yavo tom. Let the
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  Speaker 1: pure come be tescuba tourine, very beautiful idea. Let the
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  Speaker 1: pure children come and learn, which is very pure a courban.
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  Speaker 1: You know, by the time we come adults, we're not
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  Speaker 1: so pure anymore the kids there are a future. A
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  Speaker 1: courban must be free of lemishes, must be fleet more
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  Speaker 1: than tahoor. And that's, of course, while that's impossibility for
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  Speaker 1: a human being, it's what we strive for. It is
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  Speaker 1: what we try to inculcate in our kids. Furthermore, very uniquely,
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  Speaker 1: a corban can be invalidated by an impure thought. Normally,
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  Speaker 1: what we think is nice, but think proper. But it's
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  Speaker 1: what we do is much more important. A negative thought
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  Speaker 1: doesn't make us guilty of violating anything is what we do.
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  Speaker 1: But we know that what we think has great impact.
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  Speaker 1: We say that in the third paragraph of Small do
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  Speaker 1: not go over what your heart desires, what you're thinking
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  Speaker 1: about it does have a tremendous thought, And obviously we
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  Speaker 1: want kids to have pure thoughts. Interesting. And furthermore, it's
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  Speaker 1: by the corbonot. The idea of your intent thoughts are crucial.
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  Speaker 1: It's here, it's the last mishnah. In Tractate Minacht minato
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  Speaker 1: is a flower corbonot, very inexpensive. Sometimes it was brought
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  Speaker 1: because people were too poor to afford animal. So the
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  Speaker 1: last mishna and my second minahot, we'll get there pretty soon.
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  Speaker 1: In Tafaomi says that. It says Reya nikok, it's pleasant.
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  Speaker 1: The fragrance of the sacrifice is pleasant, says that both
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  Speaker 1: by an animal, and it says that also by Mintah
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  Speaker 1: the fragrance, and the Mishnah says the la May to
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  Speaker 1: teach Amaramami, it doesn't matter how much you do at
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  Speaker 1: biain at tota Shama. You have to have your heart
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  Speaker 1: towards happen different people, at different abilities, different assets, different capabilities.
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  Speaker 1: What counts is not what you end up doing. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: in this world, in the business world, that's what counts,
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  Speaker 1: But in the world of God, in the world of
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  Speaker 1: corbanot our relationship to God, what counts is what our
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  Speaker 1: kavanot our thoughts, what we intend to do, and that's
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  Speaker 1: exactly what we need by a kurban, And of course
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  Speaker 1: a kurban requires sincerity. I see, I don't have to
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  Speaker 1: tell anybody listening that a sacrifice brought without sincerity is
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  Speaker 1: not only meaningless, it's counterproductive and our profits rail and scream.
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  Speaker 1: God doesn't want this. You're trespassing here. Who will ask
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  Speaker 1: you to do this? And do you think this is
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  Speaker 1: a fascinate to bring sacrifices? They're meaningless? Unless they're accompanied
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  Speaker 1: by moral improvement. Ritual without ethic is not only not good,
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  Speaker 1: it's bad. Then lack of ethic turns the ritual into
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  Speaker 1: a potential desecration of God's name. I wouldn't even say
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  Speaker 1: potential and actual desecration of God's name. So sincerity, and
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  Speaker 1: of course that's what we want to instill in our children.
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  Speaker 1: The question is, and we want to do for adults too,
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  Speaker 1: But this is where we start. It's very hard with adults.
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  Speaker 1: We've got to start with the kids. At the book
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  Speaker 1: of Kra, which has these themes. How do we instill
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  Speaker 1: purity sincerity in our children? So the opening Rushie in
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  Speaker 1: Safer by Ekra points out that sort of a strange
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  Speaker 1: language by yakral Mo. When don't we called to mosh
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  Speaker 1: Viya the bear? God spoke, So Russia said, the truth
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  Speaker 1: of matters Vayekra's always used it. We just say it.
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  Speaker 1: Here is a template, this is what it always is.
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  Speaker 1: But the door highlights it. Here Vajakra before God spoke
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  Speaker 1: to motion, he called upon him, and that's the calling
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  Speaker 1: of love. As Russia says, it's riba endearment, and Vakra
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  Speaker 1: shows the love of God towards the towards Mosha and
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people by Jakra. He called upon him, and
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  Speaker 1: if you want to instill sincerity and purity into our children,
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  Speaker 1: that we have to love our students. We have to
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  Speaker 1: love them. We have to love our students, love our children.
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  Speaker 1: Were teachers. Usually it's not the parents who's doing the teaching.
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  Speaker 1: So the teachers much love our students if they want
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  Speaker 1: to have great influence. I think this is especially true
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  Speaker 1: in our generation. You know, perhaps in earlier generations it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't as important, but I think that's the teacher is
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  Speaker 1: the student is turned off by the teachers, going to
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  Speaker 1: learn very little vishinante Levana. You should teach your children
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  Speaker 1: and as Reshi notes, Alu tell me these are your students.
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  Speaker 1: forward to learning with you next week.