• This Week's Torah Portion

It’s so easy to ignore texts or let calls go to voicemail. Often, we’re just too busy to answer the phone or we’re focusing on an important task. Sometimes, though, it’s someone important to us like a parent, child, significant other, or boss! How often can we ignore that call? In this week’s Torah portion, Vayikra, Moses receives a call that can’t be ignored or sent to voice mail. “Adonai called Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting” (Leviticus 1:1). Moses responds to that call in an incredible fashion! A Midrash teaches that every time God would reach out to Moses, the Holy One would utter his name twice, “Moses, Moses” in an expression of affection and urgency. Our prophet would respond in an equally dramatic fashion with a single word: hineini, “Here I am!” (Bamidbar Rabbah 14:21). Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, in her essay “The Deepest Meanings of Hineini, ” teaches:

“Hineini” is a pure, astonished, unguarded affirmation given before all the facts are known. It is a spontaneous, unequivocal commitment promising: “I am here,” where and as you found me, fully attentive, focused, all in.

It’s heartwarming that Moses was fully attentive the first time he met God and was equally fully present every time God called him. It’s astonishing! It’s even more incredible that it once again happens in this week’s Torah portion, at the very beginning of the Book of Leviticus. Moses is about to receive a long, tedious, and complicated explanation of korbanot (animal sacrifices). Over the course of multiple chapters in the Torah, Moses learns about the mitzvot to take choice animals, offer them up as burnt offering, and dash their blood against the side of altar to offer a pleasing odor to God. It’s nice to be called and great to be fully present, but perhaps that’s a conversation that Moses wished to save for another day! The author and teacher Ruby Namdar, in his commentary “A New Look at Sacrifice,” teaches that “Vayikra (‘God called’) can also mean ‘God read’, as if the name itself is an invitation to read new meaning into old texts and practices.” This what Jews have done for generations! We interpret and reinterpret our Jewish tradition to make the Torah meaningful to our modern lives. This Shabbat, we will NOT grab some pigeons, turtledoves, or lambs for sacrifice. Instead, we will find new ways to answer God’s call to build a deeper connection with the Holy One and with all of humanity. One reinterpretation given long ago by our sages is told by Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai in Avot DeRabbi Natan, 4:5. The primary activity of the Temple had been the offering of sacrifices to God. When the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., one of Rabbi Yochanan’s students began to cry. The great sage replied: “Do not grieve, my son, we have a means of atonement that is equal to sacrifice: the doing of kind deeds.” Rabbi Yochanan heard God’s call differently than the ancestors who came before him. Instead of animal sacrifice, he believed that our lives could be filled with holiness through gemilut chasadim, acts of loving kindness. These deeds not only substituted for these sacrifices of old, they superseded them. The laws found in this week’s Torah portion might be challenging for those of us living in the 21st century. Just as Moses heard one call and Rabbi Yochanan heard a different one, so too can we hear our own unique call today. What will be our response? What actions will we take for self betterment, bringing holiness to our communities, and repairing our broken world? We each hear that call differently. I can only answer that question for myself. I hope to live a life filled with study of Torah, meaningful communal prayer, and a deep commitment to justice. As we are called, may we answer as did Moses so long ago:“here I am; “ but may our response be one that is fitting and meaningful for our day.