Reflections - Tzav - By Yizhar Hess Parashat Tzav consists, almost exclusively, of the laws of sacrifices. The modern reader reaches the verses of this parasha and squirms uncomfortably in his chair. It is unpleasant, in its essence—sacrificing animals out of praise and thanks or atonement—and in its detailed description of how to perform them. The parasha is dense with distressing colours, odours, and images: blood, sharp knives, animals innards, and the smell of burning matter. We can read the parasha literally, not looking for deeper understanding. Occasionally, the weekly parasha confronts us with subjects that detract from our enjoyment of Shabbat; we do not always want to deal with aspects of our tradition that are less attractive to us than others. But, attempting to ignore the role of sacrifices in our tradition would be futile, as the subject comes up more than just on a few Shabbatot a year. Every Shabbat, every Yom Tov, and every Rosh Chodesh, we add the Musaf service, a liturgical reminder of the extra (in Hebrew, nosaf, from the same root as Musaf) sacrifice that was offered on those days. Indeed, whenever we say the words of Musaf: ‘May it be Your will, Adonai, Our God and God of our ancestors that You will bring us up in joy to our land, plant us in our borders, and there we will perform our commanded sacrifices before You in their proper time and according to their rules’, we are forced to deal with a tangible description of performing sacrifices, not only as an historical record but as a hope and expectation to renew this tradition in our times. The worshipper asks the Sovereign of the Universe to return us to our land, where we will rebuild the Temple and renew the tradition of performing sacrifices. Do we truly want to reinstate the practice of offering sacrifices in the Temple? Masorti/Conservative Judaism has found a brave and creative way to deal with this question. In the Orthodox siddur, the Musaf service continues the above quotation with the following: ‘We will sacrifice before You in love as You have commanded.’ In Masorti siddurim published in North America, Europe, and in Israel, two words were changed, and the services continues differently: ‘(they) sacrificed before you in love as You have commanded.’ From future tense to past tense; from a concrete expectation to again perform sacrifices in all their minutiae, ‘we will sacrifice’, just as our forefathers did, to an historical record, ‘they sacrificed’, recognizing the value of the ritual in the past and evoking a metaphorical desire to renew our worship in a meaningful way today. This modern-traditional understanding very much speaks to me, giving me great pleasure whenever I read it. In my eyes, this change represents the courage of Masorti Judaism, courage that makes it eternally relevant. Yizhar Hess is the Executive Director of the Masorti Movement in Israel
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 15:09:35 +0000
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