Voices of WRJ: Vayikra

by Ann Fishkin This week’s Torah portion, Vayikra, is from the third book of the Torah: Leviticus. Vayikra, which is the first word in the book, is Hebrew for "and God called.” In this Torah portion, God calls Moses into the tent and explains the different sacrifices that atone for guilt or sins, and distinguishes between sins committed inadvertently and sins committed on purpose. For many crimes, animal sacrifice was a way to gain forgiveness from God. These sacrifices ceased to be practiced when the Temple was destroyed and are completely foreign to our lives today. But, we still need to atone for our sins, especially if we want to live with integrity and at peace with ourselves and with our God. Let me back up a minute: I always like to define my terms before I start speaking about them. This helps keep us on the same page. The big term here is 'sin.' Webster defines sin as a “transgression of the laws of God.” However, the Hebrew root for the word sin means "to miss" something, "to fail." It signifies a failure of mutual relations and corresponds to the modern idea of 'offense' rather than doing something wrong. Missing the mark is something we all do. Let me make a confession here – I have sinned. I have missed the mark. I have tasted grapes before buying the bag. I know I shouldn’t do it. You know you shouldn’t do it. Still, we do it anyway. At least, I was until I was preparing for this d’var Torah. Let’s be clear that there are major sins and minor ones. Eating a grape or two without paying is a minor one, but it is still missing the mark. What kind of person am I if I do something offensive when I know it is wrong? How comfortable am I with myself? My conscience, what I believe to be the voice of God in my heart, tells me that I have done wrong. I have missed the mark. I have taken something that did not belong to me without paying for it. This had me thinking that I had started down a slippery slope of more serious "mark-missing.' Backing up again to terms in our Torah portion, 'sacrifices' or 'offerings' are usually the translation of the Hebrew word korbanot. Both of these words suggest a loss of something or a giving up of something. But korbanot comes from the root kuf-reish-bet which means “to draw near.” So this leads me to believe that the primary purpose of offerings is to draw us near to God. It is our everyday behavior of living without missing the mark that is all important in drawing near to God. If sin damages our relationship with God (and I believe damaging a relationship with another person is considered to damage our relationship with God) how do we repair that relationship? The Torah portion prescribes korbanot, sacrifices, for atonement. Atonement can be seen as "at-one-ment” which conveys the Judaic concept of “reconciliation with God.” But, since the time of the destruction of the Temple, the rabbis have taught that forgiveness is obtained through repentance (t'shuvah), prayer (t’filah), and good deeds (tzedakah). When I have sinned against another person, I must make restitution to and ask for forgiveness from that person. This is my repentance, or t'shuvah. For my sins of tasting the grapes, I probably don’t have to find the owner of Giant and make amends, but then again, maybe I should discuss this with the store manager. We all know that on Yom Kippur we sit in prayer to ask God to forgive our sins from the past year. This allows us to atone for our transgressions between ourselves and our God—t’filah. This year I will be sure to ask forgiveness for the sin of stealing just a little bit. I will promise not to take another step on the slippery slope. Tzedakah refers to the religious obligation to do what is right and just, which Judaism emphasizes as an important part of living a spiritual life. To live with mindfulness will lead us to do what is right. I think I’ll give a little extra tzedakah to a food pantry, not because it removes my guilt, but to mindfully do what is right and just. Our tradition also teaches that atonement only comes when I no longer commit the sin for which I am seeking forgiveness. I can’t replace every grape I’ve ever sampled, but I can now stop tasting the grapes before purchase. If I really want to make sure I am not getting a bag of sour grapes, I will either ask the produce sales person “How are the grapes today?” or I will ask if I can taste a grape. I know that now I will no longer have this uncomfortable feeling in my gut because of the grapes. I hope this simple example will prompt you to think about your everyday life and see what you can do to ease the uncomfortable feeling from missing the mark. As Women of Reform Judaism, we are role models for our families, our congregations, our communities, and our world. Let’s remember t'shuvah, t’filah and tzedakah as we move through our days. Ann Fishkin is co-chair of the WRJ Mid-Atlantic District Convention in October 2016, to take place in Baltimore, MD, and already working on it! She is the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Sisterhood Past President, where she is still active in their Judaica shop and is chair of their award-winning Uniongram program.