Grasp the Moment
Parshas
Tzav
Not everyone has the
privilege of saying “thank you” to the Creator by bringing a thanksgiving
offering to the Holy Temple. The Talmud tells us that only people who were
recently delivered from extreme danger – an ocean voyage, a desert journey, a
serious illness, a term of imprisonment – can bring this special sacrifice. Why
is this so? Why can’t we express our gratitude for other momentous occasions in
our lives by bringing this selfsame thanksgiving offering?
Furthermore, we find
an anomaly in the laws of this sacrifice. The thanksgiving offering falls into
the general category of shelamim, peace offerings. However, we read in this
week’s Torah portion that there is less time allowed for eating the meat of the
sacrifice. The peace offering can be eaten for two days, but the thanksgiving
offering for only one day. Why does the Torah reduce the eating time of this
sacrifice?
The answers to these
questions are rooted in the fundamental concepts of the sacrificial service.
The purpose of the sacrifices is to foster closeness between the Creator and
ourselves. When we bring a sacrifice to the altar we are symbolically offering ourselves
up to Him, subsuming our hearts, our minds, our souls, our very lives in the
universal embrace of the Divine Presence. Eating the meat of the sacrifice, the Talmud explains, is an
extension of the sacrificial service. Through the act of ingesting the
sanctified meat, we connect to the transcendent concepts and symbolism of the
sacrifice not only through our intellectual and emotional faculties but through
our purely physical ones as well. In this way, the experience becomes total and
the connection is absolute.
When we bring a
thanksgiving offering, we take advantage of moments of outstanding inspiration
to forge a closer relationship with our Creator. Life is full of little
inspirations and numerous opportunities to express our gratitude to Hashem.
Most of these, however, do not move us to our core, and therefore, they are not
powerful enough to warrant a sacrifice. But when a person is reprieved after
staring death in the face, he is totally energized and exhilarated, and the
words of thanksgiving and joy he directs heavenward emanate from the essence of
his being. This sort of inspiration can be brought to the Temple and presented
to Hashem in the form of a thanksgiving sacrifice. This sort of inspiration can
be channeled to foster an everlasting closeness.
But inspiration is an
ephemeral thing. Like a flash of lightning, it illuminates our surroundings in
painfully sharp clarity and then is gone, leaving only a memory that slowly
fades away. During that moment, we gain a totally different and highly vivid
perspective of what is important and what is trivial. During that moment, we
have the ability to find new direction and meaning for our daily existence.
Later, it is too late. Therefore, the Torah limits the time period for eating the
thanksgiving offering. Grasp the moment! If we wait, it will be gone.
A high-level royal
minister was deeply involved in a national crisis situation. During this time,
while the king and his ministers conferred daily to discuss developments, the
king’s birthday came and went without the customary celebration. The crisis
eventually passed, and the conduct of government affairs returned to normal.
Shortly thereafter, the minister purchased a beautiful birthday gift and sent
it to the king.
A few weeks later, the king and his minister were discussing
the crisis and what could be done to prevent future recurrences.
“We can’t afford to go through something like this again,”
said the king with a wry smile. “Do you realize that I didn’t even receive any
birthday gifts this years because of the crisis?”
“Your majesty, have you forgotten?” the minister protested. “I
sent you a very beautiful gift. Didn’t you receive it?”
“Indeed, I did,” said the king. “And I thank you. Had you
given it to me on my birthday, I would have perceived it as an expression of
your joyous celebration of such an important day in my life. But it was given
several weeks later. It did not represent your sense of joy but rather your
sense of obligation. Much as I appreciate it, I do not consider it a true
birthday gift.”
In our own lives, we are often profoundly inspired during
times of great joy or, Heaven forbid, great distress. On these occasions, we
are inclined to take stock of our existence and resolve to make important
changes, either to improve our relationship with our Creator, to correct our
flaws and shortcomings or simply to spend more time with our families. When
this happens, it is important to translate our inspiration into action
immediately, for if we wait until we get around to it, more often than not we
never will.
Text Copyright © 2010
by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment