Vayikra: and He Called-Details

Vayikra is a sacrifice how-to manual. It details numerous offerings, what they should entail, how they should be offered, and what they should be offered for. Some are feast offerings, some are sin offerings.  Great attention is given to the manner of slaughter and preparation of the carcass. Multiple options are given-if one can't afford a sheep, for instance, one is permitted to bring two turtledoves instead. Even a handful of flour (finely ground) can be used if nothing else is affordable.

Let's be honest, this is a pretty graphic parshah. If you're a vegetarian or animal lover I don't suggest reading it. And even if detailed instructions on where the bull's head or the sheep's innards should go don't make you queasy, nothing in the parshah relates to current life. We don't offer sacrifices anymore, so why would we need to know which sacrifices were brought for which sins, and how exactly the animal should be slaughtered, and so forth? What on earth can we learn, today, from Vayikra?

Several things stand out to me. The first is responsibility. The parshah details what sacrifices should be offered if an individual errs, if a ruler errs, and if the entire nation of Israel errs. All are given equal screen time, which says something interesting to me. When it comes to making mistakes and atoning for them, a king is no different from a beggar. Each must make the wrong right and each must bring a sacrifice. And not only are individuals held responsible for their deeds, but the nation as a whole as well. A group of people can do wrong, just as an individual can, and that group must make the wrong right-there is no shirking responsibility.

Another is the humanity in the offerings. Each wrongdoer must bring a sacrifice that is proportionate not just to his wrongdoing, but to his status in life. An offering meant to glorify God, or an offering meant to atone for a sin should be the best that a man can bring. And for some, that means an unblemished young bull; for some it might be a pair of birds; and for some, no more than a handful of flour. But each is given the same weight, because each is the best its bringer can do. The sacrifice is accepted with equal love and favor. We are each held to our own individual standard, not to each others.

The last thing is that the level of attention paid to the details tells us just how important these sacrifices were. It was not a matter of just slaughtering a bunch of animals and having a BBQ. There was meaning and purpose in each step, a right and wrong way to do it. The painstaking details tell us that there was no room for carelessness, no excuse for it. As complex and nonsensical as it might seem to us, there was a reason for the rules and it was important to follow them exactly. When your boss lingers on the details of a project and stresses the process, you understand that this is a very important project and you must not screw it up. When God spends an entire parshah intimately detailing the rules of sacrifice, we must have the same understanding.