THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Vayikra

“Every meal offering that you offer to the Lord, do not make it leavened (chametz): for no leaven (se’or) or honey (devash) may be turned into smoke as an offering by fire to the Lord” Leviticus 2:11

In detailing the laws of sacrifices, the Torah singles out two substances that cannot be included in an offering to God: leaven and honey.

To understand the significance of this seemly obscure law, we need to explore the purpose of offerings in general.

A person offering a sacrifice is a person who is coming to God with intentions of self-rectification and purification. It is understood that the symbolism of both leaven and honey contradicts such a journey. So what do these two things represent? According to the commentators (as well as intuitive logic), sweet honey seems to represent lust and weakness of selfrestraint in the face of physical pleasures.

This is, of course, the antithesis of a sacrifice whereby one puts their service of God before their own worldly desires.

There are differing opinions as to what exactly leaven represents.

The medieval commentator, the Sefer Hachinuch, explains that leaven takes a long time to rise, symbolic of laziness. In order to encourage the positive attribute of alacrity in service of God, we don’t add leaven to our offerings.

Rashi sees leaven as a symbol not of laziness but of arrogance. Just as yeast grows the dough as it swells with air, haughtiness creates a false sense of importance. This is the negative trait that is being avoided by leaving out leaven from offerings.

I think these two opinions present us with two contrasting types of people.

The first is one who has a natural tendency towards laziness. This person gravitates towards procrastination. Their challenge in their service of God is to have enthusiasm in their mitzvot.

There are some people who don’t have an inherent inner struggle with laziness. These people have a hard time understanding how people could waste hours of their lives avoiding tasks and responsibilities. When these A-type personalities come across the first type of person, they may find that some arrogance crawls into their heart. They may feel over-important and over-confident.

Some may argue that the ambiguity of the symbol of the leaven obscures its meaning. But in truth it makes it more universal, allowing it to resonate with many different types of people. REBBETZIN SHALVIE FRIEDMAN