Parashas Tzav
“Zos toras ha’Olah” – this is the teaching of the Olah (6:2). The Olah is brought as atonement for not having performed a positive commandment with the concentration and the enthusiasm it deserves.
The whole purpose of creation was to create a platform for the fulfillment of the mitzvos aseh, the positive commandments, like using one’s hands to hand out charity, using one’s head to wear tefillin and one’s body to wear tzitzit, etc. G-d created us with 248 limbs corresponding to the 248 positive commandments of the Torah. For example, the fourth finger is called kemitzah because it is designed to fulfill the mitzvah of scooping up the flour of the Minchah offering to be placed and burned on the altar (Kesuvos 5b). If we misuse our limbs for the wrong purpose, we defeat the mission of our existence. We might as well return to the dust of the earth we came from. As we say in the Amidah of Yom Kippur, “Afar ani bechayai,” we become like the dust of the earth in or own lifetimes. That is why the Olah has to be entirely burned to ashes on the altar.
“The kohen shall wear his linen vestments including his linen pants” (6:3). We have already been told about the priestly garments in Parshas Tezaveh and Pekudei. Why are we told about them again here? The message is the same as that of the Korban Olah. We were put here on earth for a higher purpose. We are asked to refine our animal instincts. The human urge to procreate was designed by G-d as an incentive to build families, the building blocks of society, not to cheat on one’s families and destroy civilization. Clothes should be worn to cover up one’s basic instincts, not to expose them. The word “begged,” which means clothes, comes from the word “bagad,” which means to be unfaithful. The first task of the kohen is to remind himself how to behave by wearing modest garments of containment. Only then can he be an example to the rest of Israel.
The first thing the kohen does the morning after an Olah was burned is to lift up yesterday’s ashes and place them near the altar. This procedure known as “Terumat Hadeshen,” which was conducted each morning before offering up the sacrifices of the new day, was there for G-d to show His appreciation for our efforts of the preceding day. Like a spouse who keeps the gift of his or her close one nearby as a reminder of their love, G-d files away the ashes of yesterday’s sacrifice in the archives of His memory.
Whereas the animal Olah sacrifice of the rich person must be entirely burned on the altar to demonstrate that the wealthy are prepared to return to G-d some of their prize possessions, the Minchah offering of flour and oil brought by the poor person was not required to be entirely burned (6:9). A fistful called the Kometz was burned on the altar and the remaining part called the Shirayim was eaten by the kohanim. The poor person, for whom the sacrifice of part of his daily bread is harder on himself than the sacrifice of an entire animal is on the pocket of the wealthy, does not need this message of total sacrifice. Sharing his meager rations with the kohanim demonstrates to G-d that even the poor understand the importance of charity.
Like the poor, the kohanim had no possessions of their own. They were entirely dependent for their livelihood on the grace of G-d and the donations of the people. “The kohanim shall have no inheritance among their brethren. The L-rd is their inheritance.” (Devarim 18:2). This was deliberate so that the kohanim not confuse their elevated position in society for some sort of landed gentry.
Indeed, the concept of the kohanim’s total reliance on G-d and on the donations of others was so essential to their effective representation of the people that they were not allowed to perform any sacrificial service before they themselves brought a Korban Minchas Chinuch, an inaugural Minchah offering (6:12 and Rashi there).
The Minchas Chinuch, which each kohen brought once a lifetime prior to his first temple service, emphatically drove this subservience to the people home. First of all, the inaugural offering could not be an expensive animal like those brought by the wealthy, but had to be an inexpensive meal offering like those brought by the poor. Second, although the kohen was permitted to eat from offerings brought by others, he was not permitted to eat of his own Minchas Chinuch offering. The kohen’s entire Minchah offering was burned on the altar.
Even the kohen gadol, who was so close to royalty, was made to internalize the same message of dependence by bringing a Minchas Chinuch before assuming office. In fact, so concerned is the Torah that the pride of the kohen gadol might prejudice the forgiveness of his people, that the Torah obliges the kohen gadol to bring his own humble Korban Minchah twice a day. Known as the Minchas Chavitin, it reminded him that his daily existence depended on G-d and the people. Like the Minchas Chinuch, the Minchas Chavitin, too, was entirely burned on the altar denying the kohen gadol the right to share in any of it.
“Zos toras ha’Chattas” – this is the law of the sin offering. The Chattas is in a different category than the Olah. Unlike the Olah, which atones for not performing the positive commandment with the proper dedication, the Chattas is brought to atone for a sin committed inadvertently.
The Torah tells us that the Chattas is to be slaughtered “bimkom (in the place) where the Olah offering was slaughtered” (6:18). We know that the Olah was slaughtered in the north (1:11). So why waste words? Why not simply say that the Chattas must be slaughtered in the north?
What the Torah is saying is that the reason one now finds oneself in the position of bringing a Chattas is because one did not bring an Olah. Had one done so, one would not have descended to the level of transgressing a negative commandment. So now, bimkom, instead of bringing an Olah, one finds oneself bringing a Chattas.