Monday, March 11, 2013
Parshat
Vayikra
Vayikra 1:1 – 5:26
5 Nissan 5773 / March 15 – 16, 2013
Vayikra 1:1 – 5:26
5 Nissan 5773 / March 15 – 16, 2013
Please Pass the Salt
by Zvi Bellin, MHHQ
by Zvi Bellin, MHHQ
ב:יג וְכָל-קָרְבַּן מִנְחָתְךָ, בַּמֶּלַח תִּמְלָח,
וְלֹא תַשְׁבִּית מֶלַח בְּרִית אֱלֹהֶיךָ, מֵעַל מִנְחָתֶךָ; עַל
כָּל-קָרְבָּנְךָ, תַּקְרִיב מֶלַח.
2:13 And every meal-offering you shall
season with salt; neither should you remove the salt of the covenant of your
God from your meal-offering; with all thy offerings you shall offer salt.
Do you know the story about the sad ocean
waters who complained that they were too far away from G-d? The Midrash teaches
that when the upper waters were separated from the lower waters on the second
day of creation, the lower waters threw a bit of a hissy fit.
“Why should the upper waters have all the fun,
hanging with G-d in heaven? What about us?”
G-d, being a good
listener and problem solver, answered, “Hey beautiful lower waters, don’t fret.
In the future there will be a group of people called Israelites, and they will
be commanded to worship me through sacrifices. In order to cheer you up, I am going
to add on a rule to their sacrifices that the salt that comes from you will be
sprinkled on each sacrifice that they put on my alter. So through your salt you
will make it up here bit by bit.”
This appeased the waters and all was good and
happy.
Rabbi Yaacov Kaminentsky points out that when
saltwater is boiled, it is the water that rises and the salt that stays behind.
It is as if we are commanded to put the “rejected” part (what is left behind) on
the alter. And this is basically what Rabbi Kaminentsky concludes. The salt not
only involves the element of water in the sacrificial process, but it also
reminds us that every part of this physical world can serve as a prayer to the
Divine, even if we think it is something that should be left behind.
When we remember that the Hebrew word for
sacrifice (korban) also means to come close, a beautiful
teaching emerges. The one thing that was constant in all the sacrifices was the
salt. No matter what the reason for the sacrifice, for peace or guilt, sin or
celebration, through the salt the Israelites added a piece of themselves that
they felt was unworthy to bring close to the Divine.
This is a transformational process. What I
might want to reject about myself is ultimately accepted by God. The pieces of
myself that I struggle the most with are ultimately the constant piece of me
that ties my whole story together.
I am pretty sure that heaven is not actually above us in outer
space somewhere, and I doubt that the message of the salt story is that we are
closer to God when we are higher up in the sky. I think the message is that we
get closer to the Divine when we allow more of ourselves to come close. We can
learn to appreciate that the “rejected” parts of ourselves are also weaved into
our lives and are in all of our prayers.
0 Comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)