(א) בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּ֒שָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה:
(1) Blessed are You, Adonoy our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who sanctified us with commandments and commanded us to be engrossed in the words of Torah.
Ellen Dannin, "Drawing Close to Sacrifice," https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/drawing-close-sacrifice
When Adar comes in, our happiness is increased. But when Vayikra comes in, we feel as if the Promised Land of great stories and heroes is far, far away.
Torah scholars through the centuries have tried to give us reasons to rejoice in these endless passages on the most minute and bloody details of sacrifices, but it is hard to say they have succeeded.
But let me suggest a wholly different way of approaching these very difficult passages. Try embracing them. Try taking on the feeling of what it means to be living in a society in which this is the form worship takes. After all, this form of worship, using sacrifices as its center, has had a long history of success. It must offer people something for this to be the case. Use these weekly parshiot to explore what that might be.
In your study, consider also that all of us in every era will commit some form of sin. This means that every system needs to have a system of forgiveness and expiation. Compare how well our own system of public expiation on the High Holy Days satisfies this function compared with the system of sacrifices. Would the vividness of the blood and death of animals, who are dying as a result of our actions, make us want to amend our ways? Would it remind us that we too will die and force us to consider how we therefore want our lives to be remembered?
Rabbi Shefa Gold, "Vayikra," https://www.rabbishefagold.com/vayikra/
The medicine that Vayikra gives us for the ‘dis-ease’ of our alienation from God is described in the language of Korbanot, the “sacrifices.” Literally, Korbanot means “bringing ourselves near” again to God. The Korbanot were a powerful and effective means of engaging all of the senses, witnessing the power of Life and Death, and then sharing a sacred meal in the Presence of God. The result was experienced as total purification — removal of obstructions and a re-connection to the flow of God’s love and presence. And for a time this was a spiritual technology that worked well.
https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1616176635/wbtlaorg/v5xm9jcgx9knweai0lys/VaYikra-Five-Kinds-of-Offerings.pdf
Five kinds of offerings (Korban – from “karov” which means to draw close)
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Burnt Offering (Olah) – to connect with God, to offer something to acknowledge that everything comes from God, to express generosity. Everything is burnt but the skin.
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Meal Offering (Minchah) – made from grain. Part of the wheat harvest, a poor person’s olah, a gift to God. Eaten by the priests.
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Well-being offering (Shlaymim) – to celebrate a happy occasion. part of the animal is burnt, most is eaten by the priests and the family of the offerer.
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Sin Offering (Hatat) – to express atonement and be purged from an accidental violation of an ethical or ritual prohibition. Some of the animal is burned on the altar and no one benefits from the rest of the meat. It is taken outside of the camp and burned on a fire, along with the hide, head, legs and tail.
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Guilt Offering (Asham) – to repair damage done in certain cases, and where reparations must be made to those who have been harmed. After restoring justice, this offering is made to God. Part of the meat is burned and the rest given to the priest.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, "The Dimensions of Sin," https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/vayikra/the-dimensions-of-sin/
Imagine that your car has a faulty speedometer. You are caught driving at 50 miles per hour in a 30 mile an hour zone. You tell the policeman who stops you that you didn’t know. Your speedometer was only showing 30 miles per hour. He may sympathise, but you have still broken the law, transgressed the limit, and you will still have to pay the penalty.
That is what a sin offering is. According to R. Shimshon Raphael Hirsch it is a penalty for carelessness. [...] The fact that you have had to pay the price by bringing a sacrifice will make you take greater care in future.[...] The best way of putting things right is to make a sacrifice: to do something that costs us something.
In ancient times, that took the form of a sacrifice offered on the altar at the Temple. Nowadays the best way of doing so is to give money to charity (tzedakah) or perform an act of kindness to others (chessed). Charity and kindness are our substitutes for sacrifice and, like the sin offering of old, they help mend what is broken in the world and in our soul.
ואם לא תגיע ידו די שה, “if [one] is unable to afford the price of a lamb, etc.” seeing that people guilty of entering sacred grounds in a state of ritual impurity or swearing a futile oath, do not derive any benefit from committing that sin, the Torah made allowances for them if they found offering a lamb as sin offering a financial hardship, and offered two alternatives depending on their financial status. No such relief is granted to people who inadvertently ate forbidden fat, blood, or who ate on the day of Atonement, (thinking it was on a different date), or people performing forbidden activities on the Sabbath for their personal benefit. Anyone who had derived personal benefit by making use of sanctified animals or vessels has committed two sins simultaneously, and is also not qualified to avail [themselves] of what is written in this verse. [They are] viewed as if [they] had tried to steal from G–d. All these people have to pay for the value of the animal offered by the priest on their behalf.
Rachel Farbiarz, "Vayikra," https://ajws.org/dvar-tzedek/vayikra-5773/#f5
While the korbanot were an expressive site for our primal means of connection, they also reflected aspirations for a just and fair society. The sacrifices were based on each person’s means—a sliding scale from cattle to grain. The text scrupulously gave each level its due, pointedly noting that the humble grain offering was given from the offeror’s “soul,” not simply his or her person. And an exacting emphasis was placed on each korban’s ethical provenance—stipulating that it not be procured through theft or even unintentional misappropriation of another’s property
Gabi Kaltmann, "A Real Sacrifice," https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-real-sacrifice/
It goes without saying that G-d’s omnipotence does not need animal sacrifices- rather the purpose of korbanot was used as an expression of humility and nullifying our sins. In biblical times the size of one’s herd and the amount of livestock they owned was a determination of wealth and social status.
Hence whether atoning for sins or saying thanks to the Almighty, a person would attempt to express [their] gratitude and sincerity through bringing something of value through an animal. If they were financially unable to afford a whole animal, a poor person was able to bring a sacrifice of flour or oil, often to be eaten and shared by the priests or other Israelites.
This is why till today we still read about korbanot, despite the ritual performance being inactive for 2,000 years. The central theme of a korban was for the individual to donate and contribute something of value to G-d and the wider community - a notion which is eternal.