This sheet on Leviticus 3 was written by Tammy Jacobowitz for 929 and can also be found here
Meet the “mincha” offering. Humble in composition (a bit of flour, some oil, spices and salt) and easy to prepare. You could make it in a pan, a griddle or an oven. A bit of the offering would be burnt; the rest would go to the priests to eat. Compared to the fancier sacrifices detailed in the surrounding chapters, the mincha could slip unnoticed. Quite unremarkable.
But in Leviticus 2:3, this simple offering is called the “holy of Holies” among the cadre of offerings. What accounts for this designation?
You might recall that the earliest offerings on biblical record are also called a “mincha”. Cain and Abel, in Genesis 4, each give a mincha offering from their immediate possessions, fruit and cattle respectively. These parallel offerings leave us with a negative association because of the tragedy which ensues in their wake. But before the disappointment, rage and jealousy, Cain and Abel reach out across the human-divine divide. As implausible as it seems, they wish to share what they have with God, to gift God what He has gifted them. Do their mincha offerings express gratitude? Prayer for more? Or perhaps a basic, simple gesture to create closeness? The mincha, that beautiful, paradoxical human attempt to reach outwards and upwards.
The rabbis of the Midrash suggest another direction to distill the sacred nature of the mincha. Made of the most basic ingredients, the mincha offering was accessible to even the poorest of Israelites. Humble in presentation, the Bible nevertheless tells us that God prizes the mincha above all others. To the human eye, more is better. We judge ourselves on the same objective scale. Who donated more: money, time, or commitment? But God, insists the Midrash, does not adopt the same scale. What measures from God’s perspective is the quality of the offering to the individual. What did it mean to you, in your life, with your set of circumstances, to devote your money, time or commitment? God is attentive to each individual on his or her own standard. And the poor? The ones who barely have what to give? Their offering is the holiest of holies, because what they give is practically all they have. As the Midrash says, “it as if they gave their very lives”.
Dr. Tammy Jacobowitz is the chair of the Tanakh department at the SAR High School in Riverdale, NY
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