Freedom and Sacrifice - Parashat Vayikra
Today, we opened Sefer Vayikra - the Book of Leviticus. This book is mostly interested in the sacrificial system and in concepts of ritual purity and impurity. Today, we read about the rules and regulations of various sacrifices, none of which we are currently able to perform, because we do not currently have a Temple. And since so many of us are currently concerned with the practicalities of Passover preparations, the rather less relevant rules of Parashat Vayikra might seem a little strange to us. It occurred to me this week that the system of Torah reading always puts us in the Book of Leviticus in time for Passover. Passover, the holiday that it so clearly and intricately linked with the Book of Exodus, apparently never occurs when we’re still in the Book of Exodus. We always enter the Book of Leviticus just a few short weeks before Passover. But it apparently didn’t occur to our ancestors to stretch out the readings in Exodus and condense the readings in Leviticus in order to...