The book of Vayikra (Leviticus) is mostly concerned with the
operation of the priestly and levitical system. One of the main
functions of that system is to offer korbanot ("sacrifices", though
that's not really a good translation). It can be pretty hard for
me to connect with most of this book.
I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) that the first korban that
Israel is commanded in is the Pesach lamb. (Tha patriarchs, and others,
offered sacrifices before that, but I think this was the first
commanded one.) The korban and its public after-effects,
the blood on the doorposts, were necessary to get us out of Egypt.
They were essentially private offerings (one per family). After this
the priestly system took over, with the priests acting as agents for
Israel.
Today we don't offer korbanot; we offer prayer instead. Since prayer
replaced korbanot, can we take any lessons from the text about korbanot
and apply them to prayer?
The big thing I notice is that the korban was a joint activity: the
individual brought the animal (or grain or fruit) and the priest
provided the ritual. Both are needed: without the individuals the
priests have nothing to do, and without the priests the individuals
can't do much. It's like this with prayer too: we have leaders who
act as facilitators, but we are each individually responsible for
doing our parts. The person on the bimah can lead us in the right
words, but we have to bring our intentionality. Either one by
itself isn't enough. Our tradition does support individual
prayer, just as Israel was individually commanded in the Pesach
korban, but in neither case can we act only individually.
It's not enough to stay home and be spiritual; we also have to
come together and support each other.
[Approximation of the mini-d'var for tonight's minyan, mentally assembled
on the drive home from work.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}