When the Torah Rises
It does not suffice for us to study Torah. We must instill it with fire so that the Torah itself rises and you rise with it. This will surely help Moshiach lead us to a higher world— a world of freedom, peace and goodness.
A Cryptic Midrash
This week’s parsha continues the Torah’s discussion of the various sacrifices that were offered in the Mishkan, the portable Sanctuary in the desert and later in the two Temples that were built in Jerusalem.
The parsha opens with the following commandment:
“This is the law of the burnt-offering: It is the burnt offering which burns on the Altar all night until morning.” The Altar’s fire shall burn with it.”
There is a cryptic Midrashic statement on this verse that reads as follows:
“The student of Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma asked him, ‘When is the Son of David coming?’ His response to them was, ‘This is the law of the burnt-offering.’”
The obvious question here is what is the connection between the coming of Moshiach and the law of the burntoffering?
An Exercise in Numerology
One approach to this question focuses on the numerical value of the introductory word “Zos-this,” in the verse: “This is the law of the burnt offering.” The numerical value of the word “zos” is 408, which is the same as the cumulative value of the three words that highlight the service of Yom Kippur-the Day of Atonement: tzom-fasting, kol-voice of prayer, mammon-money for charity.
In many prayer books these three words appear above and parallel the words of: Teshuvah-repentance or return, Tefilah-prayer and Tzedakah-charity. Fasting is intended to facilitate our repentance. We use our voices to express our most heartfelt prayers, and we give our money to tzedakah.
These three items provide us with the power to break through the barriers in Heaven and procure atonement for us on Yom Kippur. Similarly, it is these three things that will enable us to break through the barriers of exile and bring about the final redemption through the “son of David.”
Teshuvah is explicitly mentioned in Maimonides’ code of law as a force that will bring about the final Redemption: “Israel will do Teshuvah and they will be redeemed immediately.”
Tefillah-prayer is also mentioned by our Sages as the means to bring about the Redemption. Indeed, according to the Midrash, our daily prayers were designed precisely for that purpose. G-d wants us to show our concern for the plight of the Jewish people, materially and spiritually by praying to him to bring the Redemption. Our prophets and sages thus composed the Amidah-Shemonah Esrei (the “standing-eighteen benediction” prayer recited three times every week day) to express our most heartfelt pleas for G-d to bring an end to suffering and pain, return us to our Land and restore our Temple.
Tzedakah, likewise, has been mentioned specifically by our Sages as the means to hasten the Redemption. In the words of the Talmud: “Great is tzedakah for it hastens the Redemption.”
The Substitute for Bringing Burnt Offerings
A simpler way of explaining the connection between the words “This is the law of the burnt-offering” and the coming of Moshiach can be suggested based on the Talmudic comment on this same verse:
“Whoever studies the laws of the burnt offering is as if he had actually brought the burnt offering.”
In other words, when we study the section of the Torah that deals with the offerings in the Temple that we cannot bring in the current day and age, it is as if we have actually made that offering.
Inherent in that statement are two lessons:
First, the study of Torah takes the place of those rituals and commandments that we cannot physically perform because of the constraints that we have been placed under due to exile conditions since the destruction of the Temple.
Second, the study of the laws concerning the offerings— that we will only be able to make in the future when the third temple is built by Moshiach—is the very catalyst that will make it happen. When we study the laws concerning these offerings, and, more generally, when we study any part of Torah that deals with Moshiach and the Redemption, it generates the energy that will bring Moshiach and the Redemption.
This perhaps is what Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma had in mind when he gave his students the cryptic reply as to when “the son of David will come.” By responding with the words “This is the law of the burnt-offering” he implied that when we study the laws concerning the burnt-offering and the like, we actually make it happen. Studying Torah, and particularly, when we study these laws of Torah, hastens the arrival of Moshiach and the final Redemption at which time we will see the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem amidst world peace, universal harmony and G-dly light.
Taking the World to Higher Places
On yet a deeper level it may be suggested that Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma was emphasizing the specific sacrifice known as an “Olah-a burnt offering” Literally, the word Olah means “going up.” When the Olah offering was brought in the Temple it represented taking all elements of creation and elevating them. A burnt offering involved salt, flour, oil and wine that accompanied the animal and a Kohain-Priest, human being who made the offering. Hence all four levels of existence—inanimate, vegetation, animal and human— were involved in this ritual, the underlying theme of which was to elevate the entire world to a higher G-dly level.
Thus, Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma was trying to teach his students that the process of Moshiach requires our efforts to elevate ourselves. Reaching higher; never staying in one place—on the spiritual plane, of course. But even that does not suffice. One must also attempt to take the world around us to higher places, by utilizing all of the world’s resources that are at our disposal for higher and nobler purposes. This, Rabbi Yossi, perhaps, meant is the force that will prepare us for and hasten the coming of Moshiach—“the son of David.”
And finally, it may be suggested, Rabbi Yossi was intimating that the way to bring Moshiach involves the manner in which we study Torah. The words “This is the law of the burnt-offering” can also be rendered: “This is the elevation of the Torah.” And the Torah continues to describe the fire that must be left to burn on all Altar upon which the burnt offering was placed.
Permeated with Fire!
The message we can derive from this on a spiritual level is thus:
If one wants their Torah learning to rise and thereby elevate us as well it must be permeated with a constant fire. Torah learning—unlike the study of other subjects— must be instilled with fiery passion, enthusiasm and holiness, for it to rise above the level of a mere intellectual exercise and to have the maximum of power to change the person who studies it and to also affect the rest of the world.
Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma’s message to his students was:
It does not suffice for you to study Torah. You must instill it with fire so that the Torah itself rises and you rise with it. This will surely help Moshiach lead us to a higher world—a world of freedom, peace and goodness.
Our Sages tell us that just as we were redeemed for the first time in the month of Nissan, so too will we be redeemed in the month of Nissan. This has been interpreted to mean that in this month the energies of Redemption are especially powerful. Our “little” contribution to this effort is to internalize the lessons of the “laws of the burnt offering.”
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Tzav by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
