Spirituality
TORAH PORTION
Draw Near To God
Parshat Vayikra: Leviticus 1:1-5:26;
Isaiah 43:21-44:23.
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his week's parshah, Vayikra, is
comprises the first five chap-
ters of the Book of Leviticus.
It continues the story we have been
reading in the last chapters of the Book
of Exodus regarding the building of the
Tabernacle.
In Leviticus, we read of
what is to take place at the
Tabernacle — namely, the
sacrifices that are the peo-
ple's mode of worship. Five
sacrifices are described:
the olah (burnt offering),
minchah (meal offering),
zevach sh'lamim (sacrifice
of well-being), chatat (sin
offering) and asham (guilt
offering).
It can be difficult to relate
to this since we no longer
offer sacrifices. Rabbi Harvey J. Fields,
in his commentary on the parshah,
explains it quite beautifully:
"[Sacrifices] were meant to unite
the worshiper with God. By offering
sacrifices, a person said thanks to God
or sought forgiveness for sins. The
drama and beauty of the sacrificial
service, along with the music, prayers,
and strong odors of incense, created an
atmosphere of awe.
"In presenting a sacrifice, one was
giving something important of oneself
to God. For the ancients, the smoke of a
burning sacrifice on the altar was proof
of a person's love and reverence for
God and for God's commandments." [A
Torah Commentary for Our Times, vol.
2, p.100]
And so the obvious question is:
How do we today recapture that sense
of awe of the sacrificial ritual, that
drawing near to God? Even before the
Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in
70 C.E., and with it the ability to offer
sacrifices, prayer was the way that most
Jews drew near to God. Not everyone
could make the trek to Jerusalem to
offer sacrifices at the Temple, so prayer
developed as something that people
could do in their home communities in
order to communicate with and draw
near to God.
No one knows for sure when the
prayer ritual began. It is assumed
that the prayer ritual began during
the Babylonian exile when there were
weekly gatherings to read scrip-
ture. My teacher, the late Dr. Jakob J.
Petuchowski, noted that during the
period of the Second Temple:
"[the people] would gather in their
own town for scripture reading and
prayer at the identical times at which
their representatives, sent to Jerusalem,
were 'standing by' to wit-
ness the sacrificial rites [at
the Temple]. That was the
institution of the ma'amadoth
(bystanders); and it is not
unreasonable to assume that
those local gatherings, devoted
to scripture reading and prayer,
had a considerable influence
on the development of the
synagogue." [The Liturgy of the
Synagogue, p.46]
Prayer is the most tradi-
tional way in which we draw
near to God. But there are other ways
as well. Meditation, which some would
say is similar to prayer, is one method.
Another is study. By studying our sacred
texts and traditions, we communicate
with God.
For some, the best way to draw
near to God is through nature: spend-
ing time out in the beautiful world
that God has given us, basking in the
warmth of the sun or sitting in the
shade of a large tree, watching the
squirrels hunt for nuts or the birds fly-
ing through the air, closing our eyes
and listening to the sounds of the natu-
ral world.
All of these — and more — are
beautiful ways to draw near to God.
The ancients used sacrifices in order to
enhance their relationship with God, to
draw near to this God that they could
not see. And that is the challenge that is
set before us even today: to draw near
to this God that we, too, cannot see.
Each of us must find our own unique,
individual way to draw near; we will
find that life is much richer if we do
so. I
Amy B. Bigman is the rabbi at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek in East Lansing.
Conversations
How do you draw near to God?
Why should we try to draw near
to God?