Vayikra

The sicha for parshas Vayikra is in Vol. III of Likkutei Sichos.

Chumash Vayikra is primarily a description of the main avodah, the main service in the Mishkan, the Tabernacle of bringing the sacrifices. Since the Torah is eternal, which means everything in Torah is meant to teach us how to serve G-d for all times, we therefore have to assume that concerning the sacrifices even though they are not brought at this time because there is no Bais HaMikdash, yet they are a lesson for us even today in our lives.

The purpose of “asu li Mikdash”, building a Mikdash, is that every Jew should make a place of holiness, so that G-d can rest not only in it but also in everyone of us, in the heart and home of every Jew. Even now when because of our sins we are physically displaced from our land and the Bais HaMikdash is destroyed, yet when a Jew builds his house and conducts his family life in a manner of kedushah, of holiness, then he can be certain that this conduct, this kind of a life, will bring about a forgiveness for the sin that had brought the destruction. And by building his home, he is also building the Bais HaMikdash and causing G-d to dwell, as He did then, within us, and with G-d’s presence comes all the blessings for everything that we need in our lives.

The main avodah in the Bais HaMikdash, as mentioned before, was the sacrifices. The primary sacrifice was the korban tamid, which was brought daily in the morning and evening. Before all other sacrifices there was the morning korban tamid and after all other sacrifices there was the evening korban tamid. The korban tamid teaches us how our ordinary daily life should be.

The routine life of a Jew is that he doesn’t have to bring to the mizbeach, the altar, everything that he owns. The korban tamid was only one lamb with a little bit of wine and oil, some flour and salt, nothing more than that. And not every Jew had to bring his own lamb. There was a communal donation, and from that money the korban tamid was brought every day, which represented the entire people since everyone had contributed towards it. Even though every person really donated very little financially, yet as a result, the Jew received all the blessings and all the goodness that came from those sacrifices.

The sacrifices teach us therefore that G-d does not demand of us on a daily basis that we give away everything and leave nothing for ourselves. G-d does ask of us, of every Jew, that whatever we give, we give with our whole heart. It is not the quantity that is important but the quality. How much money, how much of one’s possession one gives away to G-d is not the main consideration. It is how he does it - with his whole heart.

And then even if the amount that he gives of himself, or of his wealth, is not a great amount, however it is a little bit of all sorts of contributions that make up the world. As we mentioned before, the korban was made up of a lamb, which is an animal, and flour and oil and wine, which comes from plants, and salt which is a mineral. So a little bit of every part of the world, of every type of possession that a person has, since he is doing it with his whole heart, with enthusiasm and with joy, he is doing it the way G-d wants, then this little bit that he gives, brings in return the full measure of blessings, just as it did then when the korban was literally brought to the altar.

There is something else we learn from the korban tamid.  Even though it was only brought twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, yet it is referred to in Torah as a constant korban, korban tamid. This tells us that even the time between the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice and from the evening sacrifice to the morning sacrifice, is influenced by the sacrifice. So the first thing in the morning, before getting involved in any other kinds of activities, we bring a sacrifice because the sacrifice is not only important for that moment in the morning, but that it has to influence everything else that we are going to do, and everything else that is going to happen in the course of the day.

And so we learn from this concerning our own homes and the conduct in our homes. At the very first moment of our day, immediately upon waking up we devote ourselves completely to the service of G-d, like the sacrifice, by saying  “modeh ani lifanecha melech”. By doing this, as soon as we open our eyes, we thank G-d for giving us back our soul and we acknowledge G-d as the King. As we know, the way that a person behaves in the presence of a king is that he devotes himself with his entire heart and soul. This devotion, this committing oneself at the beginning of the day, has an influence on all the hours of the day, no matter whatever activities he is going to be involved in, they will all be influenced and they will all feel the affects of the modeh ani with which he started the day. Therefore throughout the entire day, he will have that devotion and that commitment to the King, to the Creator of the world, which brings him all the blessings that a king provides and that a creator provides.

Bringing the korban tamid also entailed sprinkling the blood from the animal on the altar and burning its fat on the altar. Blood represents enthusiasm, energy, excitement. Fats represents pleasure, as pleasure, enjoyment produces fat. So the first step of the day in the life of a Jew is the firm resolution when he makes his korban by saying modeh ani, that whatever he is going to be involved with, he will devote all his enthusiasm, excitement and energy to G-dliness, to pure and holy activities, and that his pleasure will also be derived only from that which is pure and holy. Then G-d helps to fulfill that resolution, to actualize it throughout the entire day, bringing G-d’s blessings of success in all the activities of the day and night.

Concerning the korban tamid, the Midrash says that the morning korban brought forgiveness for sins that were committed in the course of the night and the evening sacrifice brought forgiveness for the sins committed during the day. This means that when a Jew commits a sin, there is always the korban that is coming that can bring a healing and forgiveness for what preceded it. G-d gives every person an opportunity to correct his sins. He can therefore correct the past.

A person in the course of his life goes through many difficult tests and is not always able to rise to the challenge of a certain test and does what is not allowed. But if he takes upon himself once again to devote himself completely to G-d, and he says with his whole heart “modeh ani lefanecha melech” which is the true meaning of the korban tamid, then that brings forgiveness for what had transpired previously in the course of the day.

Beginning with the Alter Rebbe, each generation of Rebbes taught us in Chassidus that even when a Jew fails and does a sin, he must not become discouraged at all, certainly not become hopeless, and in no circumstance is he allowed to lose his optimism for the future. Rather he has to strengthen himself, to straighten out what has become crooked and to complete that which he had failed to complete, and hope that G-d will accept that as his tshuva.

And this tshuva finds its expression in the modeh ani lefanecha melech. When we say this in the morning, and we engrave in our mind and in our heart, a thankfulness, a gratitude and devotion to G-d, and we make a solemn resolution that the blood and the fats, the excitement and the pleasure will all be holy and pure, then G-d forgives us for what happened before, and erases the sins that had been committed in the earlier part of the day, and at the same time, G-d gives His blessing in the fullest measure, physically and spiritually, not only for ourselves but for our entire family.

This conduct, this “modeh ani” sacrifice also brings the ultimate blessing, that Moshiach comes and builds the Bais HaMikdash and takes us all out of our internal and external golus and brings us all to the Holy Land, and then we will all merit to see even with our physical eyes the bringing of the sacrifices in the Bais HaMikdash speedily in our times, amen.

Sacrifices in general are brought to bring forgiveness for unintentional sins. Even though the act of the sin was done unintentionally, the fact that a person can commit a sin out of carelessness, without thinking, shows that he is not where he should be in his mind. If he was what a Jew should be, then even unintentionally he would not commit a sin, as it says, “no sin occurs to a tzaddik unintentionally”. The fault lies in the fact that he had previously indulged his animal soul to such a degree that he has become attached subconsciously to that which is unholy and as result was eventually drawn towards the sin without realizing it and committed the sin unintentionally.

These sins that a person commits unintentionally without any kavanah, any forethought, actually indicate the deeper state of mind than that which is indicated when a person behaves consciously and purposely. What a person does unthinkingly shows where his true devotion lies, and that’s why the acts of a tzaddik whose pleasure is only in G-dliness will always be holy activities. A person who can unintentionally commit a sin shows that his pleasure lies in unholy acts.

This means in a certain way the unintentional sin is worse than the intentional sin. When a person sins intentionally, it is possible that his connection to the sin is only superficial. At the moment he thought of some reason that compelled him to sin. As soon as that reason goes away, he has no further interest in the sin. It is only in the act that he sinned, not in his inner state of mind. When a person sins unintentionally however, that shows where his instincts lie. Without thinking he instinctively is drawn to that which is unholy. That’s why an unintentional sin needs a korban, to bring a cleansing and to put the person back into the state of mind where he ought to be.

This is why the Arizal says that a person who is careful to avoid even an iota of chametz on Pesach, is guaranteed that he will not sin the rest of the year. How can we promise a person that has freedom of choice that he won’t sin? The meaning is that he will not sin unconsciously, because by devoting himself to the avoidance of chametz, he is committing himself to a holy state of mind, which will protect him from unintentional sin.

In Vol. VII of Likkutei Sichos, the Rebbe speaks about the posuk at end of the parsha  “when a person sins, and does something wrong to his friend”. The Rebbe explains that the Torah is saying that when a person sins, it may seem that the sin is not so serious because he only sinned against his friend, ben adam l’chavero, and not against G-d, ben adam l’Makom.  However the Torah concludes that by cheating his friend, he is really cheating G-d. A sin against another human being  is in essence really a sin against G-d. All mitzvahs, the Rebbe explains, are really for G-d’s purpose, even those commandments which make sense and that seem to be for the benefit of the other person, even those mitzvah are really for the benefit of G-d.

That’s why if a man gives another person an object to take care of for him, and the person needs to collect from the man a previous loan, which he refuses to pay, technically one may think that the person should be allowed to keep the object and not return it in place of the money owed to him. The Torah tells us that we are not allowed do that since we were trusted to give back the object. This is implied in the modeh ani where we thank G-d for giving us back our neshama. Even though we are indebted to G-d, and G-d could claim that He keeps the neshama in place our debt, yet every morning G-d returns our neshama, and that is what we mean by “rabbah emunasecha”, great is Your faithfulness.

This is because even a mitzvah between a person and another person affects G-d Himself; it has an affect in the higher worlds and the total purpose for which G-d created the world. If a person were to think, another person entrusted me with an object of a certain value, and this other person is really not such a nice guy because he owes me money and he doesn’t want to pay me, what would be so terrible if I would keep this object in place of what he owes me? Why should we go beyond the letter of the law and give back the entrusted object, simply because it was given in good faith and we shouldn’t violate that faith. It doesn’t seem to be so compelling.

The truth is that even those mitvahs that G-d gives us that seems to be simple instructions of decency between man and man are really essential to G-d Himself, and all mitzvahs are ultimately between man and G-d. Therefore in all mitvahs, we have to be as careful as we would be with a mitvah that directly affects G-d. As the Rebbe says here in the sicha, every sin is to small degree the sin of idolatry. Anytime we do something that G-d does not permit, even if we fail to do that which G-d expects, we are actually denying G-d’s ownership of the world and we are stealing from Him. We are denying Him what is His, and we are taking that part of the world that G-d entrusted us with, out of the realm of G-d’s possession and we are saying that this will not become part of holiness, will not become a dwelling place for G-d, because we are keeping it for personal, human purposes.

So every sin that we commit, anytime that we fail to do what we are supposed to do, we are cheating G-d out of that which is rightfully His, because everything that G-d created in the world is meant to become a dwelling place for Him. And by not fulfilling the mitzvah, by not acting the way G-d entrusted us to act when He gave us this portion of the world, if we don’t use the physical objects that are our possession in the world for the G-dly purpose for which they were intended for, then we are actually creating an imperfection in G-d’s dwelling place, making the world an imperfect home, and stealing from G-d that which He entrusted to us.

And so when we are commanded to do the same between man and man, it is a reflection of that which we are obligated to do with G-d. By cheating a friend, we are actually destroying G-d’s plan, therefore the thought that we have to be careful in the mitzvahs between man and G-d but we can be a little less careful in the mitzvahs between man and man borders on idolatry because we are saying that some parts of the world are not directly affected by G-d or are not directly involved with G-d, and that is a denial of G-d’s oneness.

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