Vayikra: Just Me and You

By Eric Lenefsky

The first halacha born out of our parsha is that korbanot cannot come from stolen property.

דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם אָדָם כִּי יַקְרִיב מִכֶּם קָרְבָּן לַיקֹוָק מִן הַבְּהֵמָה מִן הַבָּקָר וּמִן הַצֹּאן תַּקְרִיבוּ אֶת קָרְבַּנְכֶם

“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘If any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, of the cattle shall you bring your offering, of the herd, and of the flock.”

While the gemara learns this law out from the fact that the פסוק says מכם, Rashi interestingly quotes a different source from the מדרש. The fact that the פסוק uses the word אדם and not איש is meant to teach us that just as אדם הראשון never offered anything stolen – since everything belonged to him – we must not offer stolen goods; rather our korbanot need to belong to us.

Nearly half a millennium later, the כלי יקר took the comparison with אדם הראשון and went one step further.

He explains that when אדם הראשון brought his קרבן, not only did everything belong to him, but he was also the only man alive. No one else was there; he was truly alone. Yet, in his state of solitude, he offered a קרבן as an expression of his relationship with הקב”ה. Facing no societal pressures to do “the right thing,” the first and only man does it anyway.

As a chevra, we find ourselves at a time when we are not all in close physical proximity. We aren’t all (or even mostly) in Hakotel, YU, or the heights anymore, and as people finish up semicha and their degrees, the rift will only widen (until the Hakotel Yishuv takes off that is).

The high expectations we all have for one another are dimmed by our differing domains and busy life schedules. That being the case, it is incumbent upon us to follow in the footsteps of the world’s founding father. We must make sure that even without the chevra seeing if we do x amount of learning or y amount of mitzvos that our עבודת ה׳ remains at the standards we believe in. It is an opportunity to prove to ourselves what we truly hold valuable and to better define our relationship with God. May we be zoche to live up to this holy task and live truly authentic Jewish lives.

Shabbat Shalom