This week’s Torah portion covers Leviticus 6:8–8:36. The second reading in Leviticus is titled Tzav, which means “Command!” Like last week, the text dryly expounds on how the priests are to present the sacrifices in the tabernacle. Details include how they are to dispose of the ashes, eat the grain offerings, and maintain the eternal fire. Each type of offering—be it burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, or peace offering—has a distinct set of rules.
Be sure to subscribe to Bible Fiber on Youtube or Follow Bible Fiber wherever you listen to your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).
Ordination
The latter half of the portion describes the elaborate consecration ceremony for Aaron and his sons as they begin their service in the tabernacle. First, Moses had them bathe and issued their ritual vestments. As part of the ceremony, a bull was sacrificed as a sin offering, a ram was slaughtered as a burnt offering, and another ram was sacrificed as part of their ordination. Each time, Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the animal before it was slaughtered, and each time the blood was sprinkled on the base of the altar.
Upon the last ram, Moses took some of the blood and placed it on the ear, thumb, and big toe of the priests, all on their right–hand side. After their initiation, Moses instructs the priests to remain outside the entrance of the tabernacle for the next seven days. This is where the portion ends. Reading Leviticus in a vacuum, you may be scratching your head and wondering what all the talk about animal sacrifice and grain offerings has to do with righteous living.
The Exodus story echoes throughout history because it is a call to freedom and a reminder of the dignity of all those made in God’s image. The Ten Commandments are laced with lessons in morality that still apply today. The concept of Jubilee outlines an ideal society where everyone lives free from debt and with dignity. The heroes of the faith, from Abraham to Jacob to Moses, are virtuous examples of loyalty and sacrifice. Leviticus has none of that because it is more like an operating manual for priests to fulfill their duties in the tabernacle.
Faith Without a Sanctuary
What are Jewish people supposed to do with the manual now that there is no temple? At this point, they have lived far longer without a sanctuary than they lived with one. There are still those who know they are in the Levitical priesthood, but they have not had an altar to service or an animal to slay for 2,000 years. It isn’t as if the Jews ever had the chance to voluntarily phase out their sacrificial system; the Romans decided that for them. The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE abruptly ended the Jews’ most central form of worship. As they mourned the loss of their sacred sanctuary, they asked themselves how they were supposed to atone for their sins without a temple. Of the 613 laws, 150 pertain to temple worship. How were they to maintain God’s laws when a sixth of them were no longer possible?
According to the historic examples set by other ancient civilizations, the Jewish nation and religion should not have been able to withstand such an enormous crush to their identity. The expected next chapters in the Jews’ story should have been dispersion, assimilation, and absorption. They would have gone the way of the Mayans, the Aztecs, the Minoans, and the Nabateans. However, that did not happen.
One of the commands given to the priests was to keep the sanctuary fire burning perpetually; it “shall not go out” (Leviticus 6:13). The eternal flame was a practical necessity for the daily sacrifices, but even more so, it symbolized the uninterrupted connection between the Divine and his covenant people. With the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish people have gone through one crisis after another. But the embers of their eternal fire, spiritually and nationally, never went out even during the periods of violent winds. Without the ritual of sacrifice, they still maintained prayer, Sabbath, and a religious calendar that kept the fire going. These things have been the spark to keep people together across centuries and continents.
In addition to their rituals and practices, the Jewish people survived the loss of the temple because their prophets had already given them the tools they needed for a temple–less and even state–less religion. The prophetic books enabled them to survive such an outcome. Though Leviticus had laid out how to draw close to God through sacrifice, the prophets showed them other pure ways to walk in communion with their Creator. Prayer, study, and acts of lovingkindness were the new substitutes for animal sacrifice. They had been there all along, but now they were brought to the foreground.
The Sacrifices of the Heart
The prophets regularly critiqued the sacrificial system. They were not voting to abolish it, but rather to protect it from abuse and corruption. The prophet Amos was commissioned to warn the people that burnt offerings by the wealthy did not cover over the continuous abuse of the poor. Never one to mince words, Amos shared a message from the Lord:
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, and I will not look upon the offerings of well–being of your fatted animals. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever–flowing stream. (Amos 5:22–24)
As the smoke was still rising and the walls crumbling from the destroyed temple, the first–century rabbis looked to the words of Hosea for hope. Hosea 6:6 says, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai—a key revolutionary in the formation of post–temple Judaism—taught his followers that acts of lovingkindness and mercy were the primary means to approach God. The rabbis used this Psalm to encourage prayer as a substitute for sacrifice. Indeed, the Jewish daily prayer schedule mirrors the times of sacrifices offered at the temple. For Christians, the sacrificial death of our Messiah, Jesus, on the cross was the final sacrifice.
But Christians also risk leaning too heavily on the sacrifice of Jesus while ignoring God’s desire for us to live lives that are holy and pleasing to him. The apostle Paul exhorted Christians to present ourselves as a “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). We are the living version of the burnt offering, the offering that was wholly dedicated to God. The Greek word Paul uses for “worship” or “service” (logikēn latreian) is the same word used in the Septuagint for the priests’ ritual service in the tabernacle. He is essentially saying that the believer’s daily conduct is like our temple service, and we must avoid all that defiles us and embrace only that which purifies and cleanses.
Join me next week for our third Leviticus reading, and we will learn about what happened to Aaron’s sons and the unsanctioned fire! If you would like to get the study questions that go with this episode, visit our website and sign up for the newsletter: www.thejerusalemconnection.us
Shabbat Shalom and Am Israel Chai
Shabbat Shalom
Study Questions
1.The Discipline of the Eternal Fire (Leviticus 6:12–13)
The text commands that the fire on the altar “shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out.” The priests were required to add wood every morning and maintain the flame perpetually. What does this requirement of “constant maintenance” suggest about the nature of a community’s spiritual life? How do we balance the need for spontaneous “fire” or passion with the daily, disciplined “wood–chopping” necessary to keep a faith tradition alive?
2. The Consecration of the Senses (Leviticus 8:22–24)
During the ordination of the priests, Moses applied the blood of the “ram of ordination” to the right ears, right thumbs, and right big toes of Aaron and his sons. In the context of ancient ritual, this symbolized the priest’s total dedication to hearing, acting, and walking in the service of God. If we were to apply the concept of “consecration” to our modern lives, how would our daily interactions change if we viewed our ears, hands, and feet as specifically set apart for holy purposes?
3. The Prophetic Priority of the Heart (Amos 5:21–24, Isaiah 1:11–17)
The prophets frequently criticized the sacrificial system, not to abolish it, but to insist that it was meaningless without a foundation of justice and mercy. Hosea famously states that God desires “steadfast love and not sacrifice.” How do we ensure that our own religious “rituals”—whether they be church attendance, prayer, or study—do not become a substitute for the “weightier matters” of defending the oppressed and seeking justice in the world?
