Leviticus - Cycle One - 0601-0836 - Tsav

Imagine. What if the vision of every man was placed on an altar? What if words, truths, and dreams were offered‐up to God? What parts would we save for our bodies and minds? What would be kadosh to God? Why? How would we discern kadosh from kadosh of kadosh? Would the focus be on the prophet giving the message? On the priest? On the act?

In Tsav these questions come at us hard, with exponential power in the command form of the word to command. Rashi sums them up in his interpretation of line 8‐5. And Moses said to the community this is the thing the Lord has commanded to do. In other words these things have all been commanded to me by the Holy One so do not say that I am doing them for my own honor or for my brother’s honor!

Last week I had a conversation with the rabbi at my temple. I wanted to find a parasha in a dream the night before. It had to do with a priest. But like any dream, it was a blur. “Could this be him?” Smiling, the rabbi pointed in a book at a genealogical tree.
“No.”
“Him?”
“Nope”
“Him?”
“I doubt it.”
I was finished. But the rabbi wasn’t.

“Dreams and visions,” he chuckled, as he looked up. “Dreams and visions.” Then it hit me. I could see soul after soul wondering into the rabbis office to share a nourishing vision, an appetite for dreams, the purity of the study if there was studying, a big piece of the yummy pie of divine consciousness. Forgive any edge here. The super‐spiritual is a choice food and many (with good intention) like to munch‐out not for the sake of God but for the sake of their grumbling bellies. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. It’s just the way it is.

That moment, I was struck by the rabbi’s gentle humor. Was I being misunderstood? I sighed. I was just looking for a parasha. But I was learning more in the search.

And how does this relate to Tsav? Tsav commands the laws of the priestly offerings. Why then does it seem that everyone is being commanded? Well, to put it mildly, because we are. We are being commanded to study the act of offering, to maintain inner purity so that as little as possible is lost, to see how this sacred act, in the guts and smoke of Torah, can lead beyond ego.

We are being commanded to see how the future messiah is not a man but the offering‐up of one collected people beyond human form, to work towards a world in which the purity is sanctified and in which transmission and reception are one. Perhaps that’s why we are commanded to study laws that mostly involve the priests. Because they are for us to witness, and to become, boundaries and all.

Let’s look at 7:31. The kohen shall cause the choice parts to go up in smoke and afterwards the breast belongs to Aaron... Here, Aaron must discern the spiritual from the earthly, give all possible to God. He (the priest) receives the breast because it comes next, because of the difficulty of discernment. It is the heart, El Shaddai, so close to the soul, a place of vision and protection (see Exodus 28:30). Lesson: the heart is our meeting place to God.

Let’s look at 7:6. All the male priests may eat (the rest of the guilt offering). It shall be eaten in a kadosh area because it is the kadosh of kadosh. There’s so much kadosh here, our divine sparks streaming into one powerful point. Of course we can’t substitute it (Rashi). You can even say that the kadosh of kadosh is the altar within us. And why the word male? To exclude female? Perhaps to exclude the changing physical, that beyond human form. Perhaps when we are fully kadosh of kadosh we are no longer beings concerned with eating the rest of the guilt offering. Lesson: We live on the altar of consciousness, offering ourselves up…and we also live in the world of constant preparation.

Finally, let’s look at 6:2. Why the small mem in mokdah? Well, the mokdah is the center of the altar where the actual burning takes place. It symbolizes the merging of divine and earthly light, where we become one, where there aren’t priests or prophets. It is the one kadosh of kadosh. Therefore, humility is necessary. Lesson: On that level, we are in the altar, not the altar itself.
Lesson of all three: We are being commanded to study how to open our hearts and enter the kadosh of kadosh and become the offering. We are being commanded to learn how to rise and connect beyond human form and certainly beyond ego.

So, for the time being, may we focus with detail on what is good to offer to God and what is good to eat. May we move beyond the ego in ourselves and in our connection with others. As we become kadosh of kadosh may we understand that we are in constant approach and preparation. As beings in preparation may we honor the need to discern boundaries. In learning the laws, may we reach for a purity that joins reception to transmission to the offering. And (when we are ready) may our hearts open the gates to the altar of divine consciousness, and may we all rise up beyond human form into the one radiant vision.