I really like chapter 23 as well! I’m in YeHoVaH’s “schedule book” throughout the year to draw close to Him in a special way.

I wish I could get more people to see that truth!

Continued.

Thanksgiving offerings are described in Ps 107 and fit in four categories: safe return from a journey, release from prison, recovery from illness, and safe return from a sea voyage. The joy the offeror felt was shared with the Priest and with God as well as the meat of the offering to fellowship together in a meal of rejoicing. A family member beats cancer, a husband/wife, parent or child returns from the battle field. We throw a party to highlight the joy all are feeling.

• 
  Keith Johnson
  February 12, 2019 at 8:54 am  /

  Thanks Ken for posting this information! VERY helpful!

• 
  Judith Damminga
  February 13, 2019 at 10:48 am  /

  This is a teaching I came across from Aleph Beta which I have found very helpful. Hope you all enjoy it also!

  I think that if we look carefully enough we’ll find that there’s one other ritual process described in the Torah – only one other – that contains many of the very same elements that we’re going to find in our own induction ceremony. So let’s take a look together and see what we can come up with.

  At the very beginning of this whole induction ritual, after Moshe gathers all of the people to watch, the verse tells us the first thing that happens to the priests. Vayakrev Moshe et Aharon v’et banav vayirchatz otom bamayim. Moses brought Aaron and his sons and he washed them in water. What other process involves washing the subject in water? Okay let’s continue in our induction ceremony. The next bunch of verses describe how Moshe dressed Aaron in the new priestly garments that they were required to wear during the service. So again, let’s think, does the concept of putting on fresh clothing as part of a ritual procedure remind us of anything else in the Torah? Okay let’s gather some more clues, let’s continue reading in our induction ceremony. Vayitzok mishemen hamishcha al rosh Aharon – and Moses poured the anointing oil on Aaron’s head. Does that sort of pouring oil on someone else’s head, does that happen in any other ritual?

  After Moshe sacrifices one of the animals; V’et hadam yatzak al yesod hamizbayach vayekadsheihu – and he poured the remaining blood at the base of the altar and sanctified it. Lechaper alav – to atone for him. Why are we talking about atonement? Why would anybody need atonement? Was there a sin that we missed in the text? Rashi here says that the verse doesn’t mean that the priests needed atonement, it means that the altar itself was now ready to atone for people in the future. But a later verse in the same induction ceremony actually is more explicit that it may very well be the priests that need atonement. K’asher asah bayom hazeh tzivah Hashem la’asot lechaper aleichem – that which you will do on this day, G-d commanded you to do in order to atone; Aleichem – for you. It does seem that there is some element of atonement that really is taking place here for the priests. They need forgiveness for something. The question of course is, for what? Remember this is an induction procedure, what does that have anything to do with forgiveness? But that’s our fourth element, this theme of atonement.

  Let’s continue. After all the sacrifices are slaughtered so the verse describes a very strange ritual. Vayikach Moshe midamo – Moses took of the blood; Vayiten al tenuch ozen Aharon hayemanit – and he put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear; V’al bohen yado hayemanit – and on the thumb of his right hand; V’al bohen raglo hayemanit – and on the big toe of his right foot. What a strange set of steps. But again this isn’t the only place we find this ritual, it actually takes place ONLY one other time in the Torah, it’s in that other ritual procedure.

  Now let’s look for one last clue. After the completion of all of the various rituals as part of this induction ceremony, it concludes with a final step. Uphetach Ohel Mo’ed teishvu yomom valailah shivat yamim – and from the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, you will sit day and night for seven days. Now seven days is a pretty common theme in the Torah, but there’s only one other context in which someone like the priests here stays outside of a tent for seven days before being allowed to re-enter. And, it’s the same place where all of these other elements I described above appear too. Where is that place? What’s that other ritual procedure?

  The answer is just a few chapters away, in the purification process of the Metzora. The Metzora – the leper – is excommunicated and before he can be considered cured of the affliction that he contracted he has to go through a sort of a ritual purification process.

  V’rochatz bamayim – the Metzora had to wash himself in water, just as the Kohanim were required to. Next; Vechibess hametaher et begadav – the Metzora obviously didn’t put on any special priestly garments, but he did have to launder his clothing, he actually had to put on fresh clothing before he re-entered the tent, just like the Kohanim. Vehanotar b’shemen asher al kaf haKohen yiten al rosh hametaher – the Kohen took the oil that remained on his palm and he put it on the head of the Metzora. That’s precisely what Moshe did to Aaron.

  Throughout the purification process of the Metzora the verse tells us that the purpose of it all is for atonement. Vehe’ala haKohen et ha’ola v’et hamincha hamizbaycha – and the Kohen brought the burnt offering and the meal offering onto the altar; Vechiper alav – and it atoned for him. So here, as opposed to with the priests, we actually know what the Metzora needs atonement for. The Sages list the number of sins, slander being the most common one, that can actually bring about this strange malady of Tzara’at. So before the Metzora could return to the camp he had to atone for those sins. In our Parsha it’s not clear what the Kohanim actually need atonement for – we mentioned that. But at least the parallels between the two is very clear. Both processes are granting atonement for the subjects.

  V’lakach haKohen midam ha’asham – and the Kohen took from the blood of the guilt offering; V’natan haKohen al tenuch ozen hametaher hayemanit – and he put it upon the tip of the Metzora’s right ear. V’al bohen yado hayemanit – and the thumb of his right hand. V’al bohen raglo hayemanit – and on the big toe of his right foot. That’s exactly what was done to Aaron and his sons in the induction ceremony in our Parsha, the words are identical, and, as I mentioned, these are the only two places in which this happens in the entire Torah.

  Lastly; Vayashav michutz l’ohalo shivat yamim – he sits outside his tent for seven days, just as the Kohanim had to sit outside the Ohel Mo’ed, the Tent of Meeting, the Mishkan.
  Now if there were only a few of these parallels we might have been able to chalk it up to coincidence. But the combination of all of them makes it seem like there really is some sort of essential connection. So the question is of course, what is that connection? What do the parallels mean?

  The purification of the Metzora is really like a birth. While the Metzora was afflicted it was as if the communal aspect of his life was dead. All of the sins that the Sages tell us brings about the affliction of Tzara’at such as speaking slander, theft, stinginess, all of those sins are actually interpersonal sins. When the Metzora sinned he actually made a choice to separate himself from the fabric of the community. He mistreated others, he betrayed his relationships. He considered himself to be really a cut above everyone else. So it’s as if we come in and say to the Metzora, fine, if you don’t want to be part of this community, leave. His communal identity was destroyed because he preferred to focus only on his individual self. When he spoke ill of someone else, when he broke those relationships, he chose his own isolation. So the purification process was like undergoing a rebirth of his communal self. It was a necessary step to rejoining the very community from which he isolated himself.

  Is it possible that the parallels between the two ritual procedures are actually teaching us that something similar is going on to the Kohanim? Maybe they in a way are being reborn too? If that’s true, then just like the Metzora, the Kohanim cannot enter the camp – this time it’s the Mishkan, the Tabernacle – until they go through this birth process. So what is this birth process? What are they being created or born into that they weren’t before?

  The Mishkan is really our human replication of creation itself. Just as G-d carved out a space in G-d’s world for us, we carve out a space in our world for G-d. But the Mishkan is not the first time that there was a special space in this world for G-d. The first place was the Garden of Eden. It was a place in which G-d’s presence was actually felt, it was as if G-d and mankind really just lived together in the Garden. But after the sin of the tree of knowledge we were kicked out of the Garden and that was the last time we had that special space with G-d, until now. The Mishkan seems to be a recreation of the Garden itself.

  When we were kicked out of the Garden, Keruvim – these cherubs were stationed to keep us away from the Eitz Hachaim – the tree of life. In the Mishkan, these cherubs were actually stationed to usher us in, to give us access to another type of Eitz Hachaim – the Torah itself, which Proverbs actually refers to as the tree of life. Before we were kicked out, how did Adam and Eve encounter G-d? Through G-d’s voice. In the Mishkan that’s precisely what we encounter from above the Ark, it’s G-d’s voice. The Kohanim are about to join a new community, a community with G-d, just as Adam and Eve had been a part of so many years before.

  You know, the reality was that G-d didn’t just make His presence felt everywhere in the world, but G-d did tell us how to create a place in which G-d’s presence would return. He appointed a certain family to be the Kohanim, to represent the rest of the Israelite community in their interaction with G-d. It really was a re-creation of Eden. But before these Kohanim, before these representatives entered that new community with G-d, they have to go through a ritual process just as the Metzora had to do before re-entering his community.

  But it really seems like it’s only a half parallel. Yes, the Kohanim went through a birth process before joining a new community, but the Metzora had to be reborn because he or she had sinned. A part of them died, that needed to be revived. That’s what the ritual process was. But it doesn’t seem like any of that’s true with Kohanim, it doesn’t seem like they did anything wrong. Remember earlier we saw that the induction ceremony seems to imply that the process granted the Kohanim atonement, remember; Lechaper alav.

  Perhaps there really was a sin, a sin that didn’t allow them to be part of this community with G-d beforehand. But maybe the sin wasn’t their own sin but the sin of their great, great, great, great grandmother and grandfather, the very sin that kicked us out of the Garden in the first place, the sin of eating from the tree of knowledge. Years ago humanity was kicked out of G-d’s Garden, years later we try to re-create that garden, we try to rebuild that bond with G-d. But before the Kohanim are able to rejoin this special community with G-d in the Mishkan they have to atone for the very sin that required us to build the Mishkan in the first place.

  Now, if the parallels between the induction ceremony of the Kohanim and the ritual purification process of the Metzora really are true, then there’s still one more thing that needs to be answered. As we mentioned, the Metzora before he goes through this entire purification process is really considered like a dead person. There’s a part of himself, the communal part, that has withered away and died. Do we find anything like that by the Kohanim? Did a part of themselves die? Did perhaps the communal part of themselves die? I think we’ll find that the answer is yes.

  Yes, the Kohanim are being brought into this new relationship with G-d, but when they are, they’re also being in a way removed from the larger community of the Israelite people that they were a part of before. What do you think life was like for the Kohanim before they were inducted into the service? Well I imagine it was like everyone else’s, they would hang out together, the Kohanim would invite other people to their homes to eat dinner, to play games, to have fun. But now what’s life like? Can they still invite people over? Well the Kohanim are given very special food to eat that no one else in the Israelite community can eat. Do they have time to hang out with others? They have service to take care of. As they enter this new relationship with G-d, as they enter this new community, it seems that they’re really leaving another one.

  Interestingly, the word that the verses use to describe this new, special status for the Kohanim is Kadosh – holy. But holy is not the best translation of the word Kadosh. The real translation is separate. Yes, they are joining a new community, but they’re also separating themselves from a previous one. It’s almost as if a communal part of themselves has withered away and died, just like the Metzora. The truth is, we still see this happen all the time today. Rabbis and communal leaders have constituents, they have communal responsibilities, they have people that they have to take care of, and in that process, yes, in a way they develop closer relationships with the community and with the people in it, but they’re still a large gap. When they took that leadership role they really did in a sense separate themselves from that community. Yes, they still interact with the people, but they’re not really friends like they used to be, not as a peer, not as an equal. While their leadership is noble and commendable, they’re sacrificing a lot.

  Perhaps these parallels are also highlighting what’s going on with the Kohanim. Yes, they’re entering into this new relationship with G-d, they’re joining this new community, but we, the larger audience of the Torah, shouldn’t forget that they were part of our community as well. It’s not easy losing out on that part of the community, it can be very, very lonely. Communal leaders experience this all the time. The Kohanim must have experienced this as well. But these parallels are making us aware of that loneliness, so we can do our best to be sensitive towards it and really include them to the best that we can in the larger community.

Continued.

Peace offering (shelem) – well-being/thanksgiving offering (could be male or female animal from the herd). It was used to express gratitude to God for “freewill,” “vow,” and thanksgiving offerings. Joy/rejoicing was the central theme in these offerings.

Freewill offerings was a spontaneous byproduct of one’s happiness. Perhaps this was an especially treasured gift from God’s perspective. The gift was not commanded or requested.

Thanksgiving offerings are described in Ps 107 and fit in four categories: safe return from a journey, release from prison, recovery from illness, and safe return from a sea voyage. The joy the offeror felt was shared with the Priest and with God as well as the meat of the offering to fellowship together in a meal of rejoicing. A family member beats cancer, a husband/wife, parent or child returns from the battle field. We throw a party to highlight the joy all are feeling.

Continued… (seems to be limit on each post)

Grain or cereal offering – food offering to God (portion to God and rest baked and given to Priests)

The grain or cereal offering was a shared meal between God and the Priests. This was most typically an offering made at the Pilgrimage Feasts–first fruit offerings from the harvest (barley or wheat).

Peace offering (shelem) – well-being/thanksgiving offering (could be male or female animal from the herd). It was used to express gratitude to God for “freewill,” “vow,” and thanksgiving offerings. Joy/rejoicing was the central theme in these offerings.

Freewill offerings was a spontaneous byproduct of one’s happiness. Perhaps this was an especially treasured gift from God’s perspective. The gift was not commanded or requested.

Offerings after the completion of vows are seen throughout Scripture. This was symbolic of the completion of the vow. It highlighted the return to ordinary after successful fulfillment of the vow. Perhaps life choices and interaction with others was restricted during the time of the vow. Now life returned to normal.

Thanksgiving offerings are described in Ps 107 and fit in four categories: safe return from a journey, release from prison, recovery from illness, and safe return from a sea voyage. The joy the offeror felt was shared with the Priest and with God as well as the meat of the offering to fellowship together in a meal of rejoicing. A family member beats cancer, a husband/wife, parent or child returns from the battle field. We throw a party to highlight the joy all are feeling.

Hi

Here is a summary (really high level points) of Jacob Milgrom’s Leviticus

God was making a way for the people to commune/fellowship with Him regularly through the Temple.

Whole burnt offering – food offering to God (male of the herd). Offered to be accepted by God. The offering (and motive behind it) is so beautiful to God that it is described as a sweet smelling offering. He finds satisfaction in the offering. The question then is, can man bring an offering so acceptable as to satisfy God? God describes the whole burnt offering to be just that–acceptable and satisfying Him.

As we saw in Exod 29:39-46, God promised to sanctify (establish a holy, set apart status) the Sanctuary with the morning and evening whole burnt offerings. The offering of the herd was to be burnt wholly on the altar.

God’s reaction to the satisfaction of the whole burnt offering is to “cover” or “atone” for the people. There is no “sin” in focus with this offering at all. The “atoning” is more about meeting a holy requirement and God responding by making His servants in the Temple and the Sanctuary complete and set apart for His purpose.

The common people could bring a whole burnt offering as well.

Grain or cereal offering – food offering to God (portion to God and rest baked and given to Priests)

The grain or cereal offering was a shared meal between God and the Priests. This was most typically an offering made at the Pilgrimage Feasts–first fruit offerings from the harvest (barley or wheat).

Peace offering (shelem) – well-being/thanksgiving offering (could be male or female animal from the herd). It was used to express gratitude to God for “freewill,” “vow,” and thanksgiving offerings. Joy/rejoicing was the central theme in these offerings.

Freewill offerings was a spontaneous byproduct of one’s happiness. Perhaps this was an especially treasured gift from God’s perspective. The gift was not commanded or requested.

Offerings after the completion of vows are seen throughout Scripture. This was symbolic of the completion of the vow. It highlighted the return to ordinary after successful fulfillment of the vow. Perhaps life choices and interaction with others was restricted during the time of the vow. Now life returned to normal.

Thanksgiving offerings are described in Ps 107 and fit in four categories: safe return from a journey, release from prison, recovery from illness, and safe return from a sea voyage. The joy the offeror felt was shared with the Priest and with God as well as the meat of the offering to fellowship together in a meal of rejoicing.

Example today in our culture is a family member beats cancer, a husband/wife, parent or child returns from the battle field. We throw a party to highlight the joy all are feeling.

Highly recommend picking up Milgrom’s book/commentary.