In preparing to present this D’var Torah, I asked some of my more learned and experienced Drash-giving friends, and Bob, for advice. What I learned is that traditionally you start by seeing the week through "Parshat Hashavuah eyes". You read the Torah portion, the Haftara, the chapter leading up to or following the portion, some scholarly works, and the commentaries of our sages for inspiration and guidance. You take notes, decide on your topic and you write your drash. But I was inspired by something else and decided to break from tradition. Instead of looking at the week through Parashat Hashavuah eyes, I tried to see this Parashat Hashavuah through the "Eyes of the Week".
How many people here had a Shabbat dinner last night that included an appetizer, soup or salad and perhaps some roasted meat, chicken or a vegetarian casserole, side dishes, and then ending with something sweet, either cakes or fruit or both, for dessert? Did you eat it with family and friends? Did you invite someone new from the community? Did you have enough to eat?
THAT is what I want to talk about, and THAT is what this week's parasha is about – having enough to eat.
Many of you know I like to travel to Israel, and it is through my travels and connections with the LA-Tel Aviv partnership of the Jewish Federation, and specifically the "Pressman Academy/Magen twinning program", that I’ve developed meaningful friendships and connections with people in the Tel Aviv community and in Israel in general.
Partly because of this relationship, I was recently invited to sit on the Health and Human Service Committee of the LA-TA partnership and 10 days ago had the opportunity to meet with members of a Task Force on Hunger and Poverty, a group of governmental and non-governmental professionals from Tel Aviv visiting Los Angeles. They came here to meet with local organizations to learn how Jewish Family Services, Chrysalis, P.A.T.H., and Abraham’s Tent, and places like The Hirsh Kitchen, SOVA, Los Angeles Mission, and Gramercy Place Shelter, accomplish the enormous task of allocating services and funds to the hungry and poor Jews and non-Jews in the city of Los Angeles.
But why a task force on hunger and poverty from one of Israel’s richest and most cosmopolitan cities? Most people who travel to Israel know Tel Aviv as the city of bustling restaurants, cafes, and clubs that are open until 5:00 in the morning. It’s a city of shops and boutiques with the latest in fashions and jewelry. And it’s a city with a booming real estate market. That is why I was shocked and saddened to hear that the Task Force was not only here to learn from us, but to report about the severe poverty and hunger in Tel Aviv and throughout Eretz Yisrael.
This is what I learned:
The most recent studies from the Department of Sociology at Bar Ilan University, which was presented by a Bar Ilan professor, one of the Tel Aviv Task Force members, show that while Israel continues to advance in computer and biotechnologies, the immediate cost of terrorism –- the price to protect the civilian population from further acts of terrorism, and, the drain on the Israel’s tourist economy during the years of heightened terrorism, has been tremendous and has created an enormous economic burden for which Israel was not prepared.
Up until recently, the media and the Israel government failed to make public the connection between growing poverty in Israel and the ongoing price of terror. The Israeli government saw it as an embarrassment, as they would rather us (non Israeli’s) focus on positive developments, such as advances in technology and medicine -- that come out of the country. The fact is, the gap between the rich and poor has widened and Israel is rediscovering severe poverty for the first time since 1977.
Also visiting Los Angeles was the director of Community Resources of the Tel Aviv Municipality’s Dept of Welfare. She told us that today in Israel, unlike any other time before, hunger has become a serious concern. The numbers are astonishing; one and a half million Israelis of all religions are living below the poverty line, of which three quarters of a million are children. Poverty and hunger impact almost a quarter of all Israelis.
Today we read from the first several chapters from the book Vayikra. Vayikra means "And G-d called". The Parasha opens with G-d calling out to Moses and explaining the purpose of the sacrifices and, in gruesome detail, the nature of the sacrifices themselves.
The word for sacrifice, "Korban", means "to draw near". Does this mean that by making sacrifices one is drawn nearer to G-d?
At the end of each description of each sacrifice in this portion, the Torah refers to the scent of the burning sacrifice as "an offering of pleasing odor to G-d". What is the significance of this phrase and why is it repeated after the instructions for each sacrifice? . . . . . Think about what happens to you when you smell the aroma of a Bar-B-Q being carried on the breeze. You inhale the pleasant scent and turn your nose to follow in the direction from where it is coming. The smell of baking bread, chocolate cookies, or any savory food has the same effect.
So, perhaps the need for a pleasing odor is to make it easier for G-d to find us at the time we make our sacrifice--to draw G-d and G-d’s holiness nearer to us.
There are five sacrifices described in this Parasha: the Olah -- burnt offering, the Minchah -- meal offering, the Ze’vach Sh’lamim -- sacrifice of well-being, the Khatat -- sin offering, and the Asham -- guilt offering.
I’d like to focus briefly on Chapter 3-verses 1-17, the Zevach Sh’lamim, the offering of wellbeing, also referred later in Vayikra as a "Thanksgiving Offering". This offering was generally made when one would want to show his or her gratitude, and it is the only sacrifice mentioned in this Parsha in which the sacrificer actually partakes in eating the sacrifice. If you’ve read the Parsha, you know that with this sacrifice, only the fat and certain organ meats are offered to G-d, while other specific parts of the animal are offered to the priests. That leaves the majority of the meat to be eaten by the sacrificer. And the law is such that this offering had to be consumed within a day of the gift.
So if anyone here has ever seen more then a side of beef cut up, you know it would barely fit into a huge freezer and would probably feed a family of 6 for an entire winter.
But given the lack of commercial freezers in the time of the Mishkan, what did the sacrificer do with all the cooked meat? He invited all his family and friends, and perhaps even strangers who happened to be around the Mishkan, to celebrate his gratitude with an offering of pleasing odor to G-d and a delicious Bar-B-Que for the Kahal.
So what’s the relevance of Zevach Shelamim today?
Today, when we celebrate our gratitude to G-d we usually do it with our friends and family, and usually around a festive meal. Whether it’s a personal Simcha like a Bar or Bat Mitzvah or Wedding, or even Shabbat dinner or a Chag, there is always a festive Seudah associated with it. We invite our friends and family to enjoy delicious foods and wine, have conversation, learn Torah, laugh, sing, and bless G-d for our bounty and wellbeing. In a way, our dining room table has taken the place of the Mishkan for the Zevach Sh’lamim.
So why did I start off this D’var Torah by asking you about your Shabbat dinner last night and telling you of my meeting with the group from Israel, and how does this all relate to Parshat Vayikra? A week from Wednesday each of us will no doubt be participating in our own or someone elses Zevach Sh’lamim, offering of Good Will, when we celebrate our freedom from Mitzrayim. We will sit down to a Pesach Seder with family and friends, read the Hagadah and eat a delicious and plentiful meal. But when we read the words: "Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat", will we gloss over the words too lightly? Take a minute and think about the hungry and less fortunate here, in Israel, and around the world who on next Wednesday will sit down to meager Seders?
One suggestion is to enhance your Seder with the "Hunger In Israel Awareness" project of the shul’s Israel Action Committee. The Israel Action committee created a wonderful new component for our Seder, including background information on hunger, suggested acts of Tzedaka, and a beautiful reading to accompany the Maggid, which remembers the thousands of hungry, mostly children and elderly, in Israel.
It’s very important to look are our world and to look at our week through the eyes of the Torah. That’s one of the ways in which we bring holiness and meaning to the world around us. In ancient times we performed sacrifices to bring us closer to G-d -- today we Daven and perform all sorts of rituals. But how do we draw G-d nearer to us? We do this by showing our good will and gratitude, through acts of kindness and gifts of Tzedaka.
Next Wednesday, at your Seder table, your Mishkan, when you invite all those who are hungry to come and eat, remember that it is an opportunity to draw G-d nearer to you by sharing with others your Sh’lamim.
Shabbat shalom.