Focus… Vayikra II
by YeriYah Wolf

          Today my focus will be not so random because, In my reading of this last weeks Parashah, I found a heavy underlying rhythm, a ‘back beat’ if you will. The text seems innocuous enough simply pointing out what to present as an offering. Here it is as translated into English and published as the New International Version:

Lev 1:2

2        "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock. (NIV)

          Here we can translate the same verse to carefully explore its meaning, the obvious the subtle and the inferred.

Vayikra 1:2

          You must notify the sons of Israel , commanding them by saying:

           “Earthling men, when you present your sacred offering of beasts to YHWH, bring it from your herd or from your flock, (you may) bring these for your sacred offerings.

          One:

          The command is given to the ‘sons’ of Israel or ‘B'nei Yisrael’.  If we translate these words we find a declaration… ‘ the living inheritors of the ones reigning as Mighty’. The relevant question is, just who are the offspring of those who reign as Mighty? Are they the kiss-up, internationalist, the novo-socialist, the peace at any price land swappers?

          Two:

          Adam is the Hebrew word used here which indicates a mortal made from earthen clay. We are told in Bereshit 2:5 that YHWH withheld precipitation, thus keeping all seeds dormant because there was yet no earthling man (adam) to work the soil.

          Three:

          Do you notice the triple use of the possessive form of ‘you’? If ‘YOUR’ is an essential ingredient necessary for these offerings to be acceptable, could it be that a land based agricultural economy was to be the obligatory basis for our nation and its people? If we are commanded to be a land based economy, what justification can we find for deeding our essential resource to our sworn enemy?

          Four:

          The requirements of compensatory sacrifice do not include human flesh. Human sacrifice is common to many cultures but not to His chosen one, His selected and intentionally shaped culture of which we are struggling to be part and parcel.       

          In my opinion, we too easily fly over these words that because of their depth demand our most careful deep and plodding scrutiny. Could it be that altitude and velocity can inversely affect attitude?

Focus Index