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Self-Sacrifice

By: SFW Students & Alumna
Alexis Levy (SFW '08,'09)

As we begin Parshat Vayikra, we enter the world of the korbanot including the korban olah. Depending on the wealth of the person, the korban varies in value. If someone can afford to acquire an animal, then he offers either a sheep or a goat. If the person cannot meet the expense of buying an animal, then he brings either turtledoves or doves. When the pesukim teach about the bird alternative, we are told that the birds should be offered together with their feathers, without plucking prior to the sacrifice:

“V’Shisa oto bichnafav lo yavdil”

Rashi says on this pasuk that although the feathers cause a terrible smell when they burn, they are not removed before being placed on the mizbeach. Why is this the case? Why do we cause the Kohanim to suffer such an awful smell? The answer he gives is that, without the feathers, the bird would appear tiny and insignificant. This would cause the poor person, who had to bring a bird because of his financial situation, to feel upset and embarrassed. In order to avoid this situation, the Torah dictates that the Kohen endures the smell so that the korban looks more substantial and the poor person does not feel disgraced. The Kohen has to sacrifice his own feelings for the sake of another.

Further on in the parsha, we encounter the laws regarding the korban chatat. Ramban suggests that the korbanot have a direct correlation to Akeidat Yitzchak, and when we sacrifice an animal, it is really a substitute for sacrificing a human life – our own. Perhaps the Ramban can be explained on a deeper level than concluding that the ideal situation is to sacrifice our physical bodies. Maybe we can learn that the self-sacrifice that the korbanot correspond to is the sacrifice of our beliefs, our freedom and our supposed “basic needs” in order to follow the halachot and way of life that Hashem commands us to lead.

And so, in this parsha, we have seen two cases of self sacrifice, one for a fellow Jew and the other for Hashem. As the Ramban comments on the concept of “Kedoshim Tihiyu”, it is possible to be a “naval birshut HaTorah”; we can live our lives following the letter of the law and still not be true Jews. The Torah requires us to go the extra mile, beyond the letter of the law, to live our lives as lechatchila Jews. The Korbanot which we can only offer in the Beit Hamikdash, symbolize a time when we are living as a nation on the ultimate level. However, that does not mean that the lessons we learn from the korbanot are not relevant today. On the contrary, maybe they are even more important today if we want to return to who we really are as a nation, a mamlechet kohanim v’goy kadosh. We all have the potential to be Kohanim; and this necessitates us to approach our lives as avdei Hashem with an attitude of mesirut nefesh, both for the Klal and for Hashem.