III-1 Vayikra Coming Close
of the sacrifice was not so much the gift, but how it was given. Just as Moses counted every little ring and hook for the Mishkan, so God accepts the smallest sacrifice as if it were the biggest.
Each sacrifice was salted. (Lv 2:11-13) A preservative, salt symbolizes the covenant made on Mt Sinai.God's love is everlasting. Salt heightens the flavor. Honey and leavening were forbidden additions. They change the nature of the sacrifice. So it is with spirituality, we need to develop our own qualities rather than adding superficialities or mingling strange elements. We need to bring out the hidden qualities rather than trying to be something different than ourselves.
Moreover, the opening of Vayikra begins, "Vayikra el Moshe" and God called to Moses... Midrash explains that the aleph at the end is reduced because of Moses' humility. Moses wanted to write "vayikir" which denotes happenstance such as the calling of Balaam, not the divine calling of the angels to one another, declaiming "holy, holy, holy." God was no hallucination to Moshe, but he made a compromise with God. "Vayikra" is written with the final aleph was reduced. Moshe didn't want others to feel excluded because he was personally called; the call extends to us also.
"Rav Naftali Amsterdam was a disciple of Rav Yisrael Salanter. He once came to his teacher and said, "Rebbi, if I had the head of the Shagas Aryeh and if I had the soul of the author of the Yesod v'Shoresh haAvodah and if I had your personality traits (midos) -- then I could truly be a Servant of G-d." Rav Yisrael responded to him, "Naftali -- with your head and with your heart and with your personality traits you can be Naftali Amsterdam. That is all you have to be. You do not need to be the Shagas Aryeh or Reb Yisroel Salanter or anybody else."
Rav Frand, Vayikra 5764: Mincha Offering: Leavening Agents and Honey: No. Salt: Yes http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/5...
FOOTPRINTS: &&&&&&&&&&&
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Lifeline, Terumah 5763 re: gifts http://www.torah.org/learning/lifeline/5... "G-d spoke to Moshe, saying: 'Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me; from every man whose heart desires [to give], take my offering.'" [Ex. 25:1-2]
Yanki Tauber, Terumah: Anatomy of a Dwelling http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article.as...
Rabbi Eliyahu Hoffmann, Olas Shabbos, Terumah: It's the Thought That Counts http://www.torah.org/learning/olas-shabb...
FURTHERMORE: &&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Rabbi Neal Joseph Loevinger, The Spirituality of Business Ethics http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/We...
Rabbi melissa Crespy, Fellow, JTSA Vayikra 5762 http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/57... regarding sin offering and reparation
Rabbi Yisroel Ciner, Parsha Insights, Vayikra 5762
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