As we come to the Torah’s middle section, we find ourselves with a book that often gets overlooked. Shorter than the other four books and interrupted by Purim and Pesach, it often just feels like a thoroughfare to get from the grand exodus narrative of Shemot to the fascinating real-life leadership struggles of Bemidbar.
Yet Vayikra’s place in the middle of the Torah should make us pause. As Maharal points out, everything limited by time or space has a beginning, middle and end. While we often celebrate the beginning or end, there are many instances that show the middle to be of even greater significance still. For example, the menorah’s middle branch is the one that all the other flames point to. The days of the week likewise surround the Shabbat. In both of these cases, the towering symbol of spirituality is in the middle.
Hence we should not be surprised if the Torah’s middle book actually represents the doctrine that gives the critical light to everything around it as well. And from there, it would no longer be a coincidence that Rabbi Akiva found the great principle of the Torah, ve’ahavta lereacha kamocha (Vayikra 19:18), specifically in this book.
From such a perspective, we may gain insight into why a book nicknamed Torat Kohanim, the law of the priests, is meant to help us understand the essence of what God expects from us. Ostensibly, the laws for the priests should be a work given only to the priests. Indeed, it is just such a perspective that prevents most of us from showing too much interest in this book. And yet it was given to all of us. I would suggest that the reason is that by the time we come to Torat Kohanim we have already been told that, on some level, all Jews are meant to be priests.
While the phrase, Mamlechet kohanim vegoy kadosh (Shemot 19:6) is often used for nice sermonics, it is rare for it to be treated with the weight that, in retrospect, Sefer Vayikra throws upon it. But in view of that connection, we need to pay more attention to the attachment of being a Mamlechet kohanim with being a goy kadosh. For one, the fact that kehunah and kedushah are the two main themes of Vayikra shows that they are things that go together: The one who wants to serve the spiritual needs of others must separate him or herself to a higher standard. And so many of Vayikra’s laws of kashrut, purity and others relevant to all Jews are meant to do just that – to allow for the Jews to become a mamelkhet kohanim, they also have to be a goy kadosh.
The sons of Aharon and their descendants serve as a model for the Jewish people. In their laws, we see a separation that is meant to be specifically for the sake of others. We all know that the priests don’t offer sacrifices primarily for themselves. So too, the Jews are not meant to separate primarily for their own benefit, but rather for the benefit of mankind as a whole. The Kohanim are there to show us the concept working close up, such that we will be inspired and understand how to adapt it for the world at large.
And that brings us back to the verse of veahavta. More than one commentator (for example R. S.R Hirsch, Malbim) has understood reacha to be speaking about all men. Indeed, it is interesting that the word achicha, your brother, which would clearly then mean the Jew, is not used here. In light of what we are suggesting, it makes perfect sense. The great principle of the Torah is that the Jew must help everyone. This is at the center of the Torah, and the rest is commentary. (I paraphrase Hillel who paraphrased Rabbi Akiva, as needed in presenting it to someone who was not yet Jewish.) And how he is to do so most effectively is the secret that Vayikra unravels.
Just as the priest who ignores Torat Kohanim cannot fulfill his responsibility to other Jews, so too the Jew that ignores Torat Yisrael cannot fulfill his responsibility to mankind as a whole.