ויקרא ✦Vayikra
LEVITICUS
LEVITICUS AIMS TO shape the Israelites into a holy people and to safeguard the purity that it considers essential for contact with the holy. The Hebrew name, Vayikra (“and [God] called”), refers to God’s summoning Moses and giving him the instructions that constitute most of the book. The English name “Leviticus” refers to Levi, a son of Leah and Jacob and the ancestor of the priests.
Leviticus reflects the perception that God’s created world is fundamentally harmonious, good, and orderly (as in Genesis 1). To preserve God’s orderly world, where everything has an assigned place, Leviticus specifies what must be done whenever boundaries are wrongfully crossed, be they boundaries of the body, time, or space—such as between sacred and non-sacred, or between life and death. In this book’s worldview, anyone who breaks God’s ordained harmony can—and must—repair it. Rituals, including sacrifices, serve to cancel or neutralize damage done to the created order and thereby restore the equilibrium.
In Leviticus, a person’s body, the sanctuary, and the community each constitute a microcosm of the universe in its sacred aspect. Each reflects and has an impact upon the larger, integrated whole. Consequently, holiness and purity are relevant to all aspects of Israelite life; they apply not merely to the sanctuary, but also to the body and the home. Therefore, the book legislates laws about food (Leviticus 11), sexual relations (Leviticus 18 and 20), and ethics (Leviticus 19), in addition to providing extensive instructions about sacrificial offerings (Leviticus 1–7). Although the priests have a unique role, all Israelites must be holy, for God is holy (see at 19:2).
Contemporary scholars ascribe Leviticus to priestly circles also responsible for other portions of the Torah (such as Genesis 1, the Tabernacle accounts in Exodus 25–40, and most of Numbers). Such scholars often differentiate between two priestly writings: the Priestly collection (Leviticus 1–16) that they call “P,” and the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17–26) that they call “H,” with Leviticus 27 as an appendix. While P emphasizes the unique privileges and responsibilities of the priests (defined as Aaron and his sons), H widens the notion of holiness to apply to all Israelites. For P, the priests (kohanim) and the Tabernacle are the exclusive intermediaries (and guardians) with regard to God’s holiness; H, however, focuses on the people themselves as the vehicle for God’s holiness.
Although Leviticus mentions only one woman by name (the otherwise unknown Shelomith; see at 24:11), many of its teachings clearly apply to women as members of the Israelite community. Like the men, women are bound by the book’s various laws and must refrain from actions that may contaminate God’s sanctuary or the community. In addition, Leviticus includes three types of laws uniquely relevant to women:
1.Regulations about the processes by which women regain access to the sanctuary after childbirth and menstruation. These conditions, like other conditions that pertain to the nexus between life and death (such as seminal emission for men), require ritual purification before normal life patterns may be resumed (see at Leviticus 12 and 15).
2.Laws about sexual relations. Regulations about prohibited sexual relationships demarcate for an Israelite male those women whose sexuality belongs to another man and are therefore forbidden to him; they also identify kinship structures that help locate women in the family constellation (see at Leviticus 18 and 20). Laws like these indicate that typically a woman’s sexuality is only partly under her control. For example, as Judith Wegner notes, “an unmarried girl’s biological function belongs legally to her father.” According to Wegner, this does not mean a man could do with his daughter as he pleased. Rather, “the Torah certainly expects a father to protect his daughter’s chastity until she reaches puberty and is married off” (“Leviticus,” 1992, p. 45; but see Acharei Mot, Another View, as well as at 18:10–17 and 20:17).
3.Laws specifically concerning women in priestly families. These include regulations as to whom a priest may marry (see at Leviticus 21), as well as when women may partake of the special holy portions designated for the priests.
Through all of these regulations, Leviticus shows, even when not addressing women, how women contribute to Israel’s quest for a holy life.
—Tamara Cohn Eskenazi
A Call to Approach God
PARASHAT VAYIKRA (“and [God] called”) introduces one of the most challenging texts for contemporary readers. This portion begins the instructions on how to approach God by means of sacrificial offerings. Animal sacrifices are foreign to most modern readers and offensive to many. They were, however, integral to most recorded worship practices in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean regions. Sacrifice continued well into the Common Era as the major way to approach the gods and to thank or appease them. Provisions for animal sacrifice are also included in the Koran, the sacred text of Islam.
Scholars of religion, attempting to understand the practice of animal sacrifice in the ancient world, suggest a number of possible explanations for why the practice endured. The rationale most frequently expressed in extrabiblical sources is that gods need to be fed as well as propitiated. Furthermore, life and fertility are gifts from the gods—gifts for which humans must show appreciation by offering something precious in return. In agricultural societies, the intimate connection between livestock and persons fostered an understanding that certain domestic animals could substitute for a human life. While these suggested explanations pertain to explicit reasons, some scholars link the pervasiveness of sacrifices in antiquity with a community’s unacknowledged desire to reduce violence. Ritual slaughtering of animals as opposed to random killings, the explanation goes, would channel people’s aggression into a socially constructive function and away from other forms of violence.
Israelite religion officially rejected an older idea that God requires sustenance like human beings. Nevertheless, it kept the practice of offering sacrifices as a way of serving God. The Hebrew word usually translated as “sacrifice,” korban, implies coming close to God (the root k-r-b that forms korban also means “to come near”) and is better translated as “near-offering.” One underlying rationale for many biblical sacrifices is to express gratitude for one’s good fortune; another rationale is that it is a means of returning the best to God—much like the payment of rent to a venerable landowner. In addition, certain sacrifices are aimed at helping people deal with the guilt of wrongdoing and with the impurity of sin, so that Israel would be on good terms with their Deity.
Sociologically speaking, sacrificial rites in antiquity served to bind community by providing a common meal that made scarce and costly meat available to many. Certain sacrifices functioned like a neighborhood barbecue celebrating a modern holiday: an opportunity to socialize and to eat well. Leviticus, however, seems to sanction killing an animal and eating its meat only as part of a sacrificial offering.
Although sacrifices form the major focus of this parashah, the concluding section expresses a deep concern with social and economic justice (see 5:20–26). Defrauding another person constitutes a sin against God; yet one must make amends to the injured party before offering a sacrifice to God.
The legislation in this parashah applies equally to Israelite women and men. Its terminology is pointedly gender inclusive, implying that women are expected to bring offerings. A later passage, Leviticus 12:6–8, explicitly addresses a situation in which a woman must bring two of the sacrifices mentioned in this parashah. Other biblical texts also describe women’s participation in sanctuary-centered activities. In I Samuel 1, Elkanah’s wives—Hannah and Peninnah—regularly visit the sanctuary with him, as do his daughters. Moreover, he and Hannah present and slaughter the offering that she has brought there, as payment for a vow. Many scholars hold that women’s religious activities were even more extensive than can be garnered from these texts (see Another View; “Women in Ancient Israel—An Overview.”) Nevertheless, Leviticus authorizes only men from the family of Aaron to serve as priests in the sanctuary (see in the next parashah at 6:2).
—Tamara Cohn Eskenazi
Outline—
I. PROCEDURES FOR THREE TYPES OF BASIC OFFERINGS (1:1–3:17)
A. Burnt offering—olah (1:1–17)
B. Meal offering—minchah (2:1–16)
C. Well-being offering—sh’lamim (3:1–17)
II. PROCEDURES FOR OFFERINGS TO RESTORE ORDER (4:1–5:26)
A. Purgation offering—chatat (4:1–5:13)
1. Introduction (4:1–2)
2. When the priest incurs guilt (4:3–12)
3. When the congregation incurs guilt (4:13–21)
4. When a leader incurs guilt (4:22–26)
5. When anyone else incurs guilt (4:27–35)
6. Specific cases that require offerings (5:1–13)
B. Reparation offering—asham (5:14–26)