Parsha for Kids: Vayikra 2023
Below is the transcript for this week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Vayikra 2023.
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Season 3 Episode 1:
Hello! My name is Chana and this is Parsha for Kids. The Parsha of the week is Vayikra. Vayikra means “And he called.”
But who called? And who did they call?
It was God. He was calling Moshe.
When God called to Moshe, He spoke to him about something called korbanot, or korbanos. The singular of this word is korban.
Now, you may have heard the word korban translated as sacrifice or offering, and the word korbanot translated as sacrifices or offerings. However, those translations of the word do not really give you the full picture. The word at the heart of korbanot is karov. Karov means to come close or bring close. And korbanot are ways for us to come close to God.
Sefer Vayikra is the third book of the Torah. And it is all about how we can come close to God. It focuses on many important ideas including the laws of using the Mishkan, what exactly the Kohanim (or priests) would need to do when they were in the Mishkan, what it means to be kadosh (or holy), and many mitzvot between us and our fellow Jews and human beings. For example, the famous mitzvah “Love your neighbor as yourself’ is found in Sefer Vayikra.
So what exactly are korbanot? They are gifts that human beings can bring to God, specifically animals, birds or flour offerings, either out of our love for Him or because we committed a sin and we want to atone for it.
The most important thing you need to know about us and God is that we are in a relationship with God. That relationship might look different for each one of us. Some of us might relate to God as a father or mother. Others might think of God as being like our husband or wife. Some of us might think of God as a leader or a strong warrior who can protect us. Since God is not human, he is not limited to only being one way or being one thing. We are able to see God in many different ways because God has many different attributes.
When you are in a relationship with someone, connecting with that individual is the most important thing. It’s important to connect to your mother, father, husband, wife or anyone else important to you. And the same applies to us and God. In times of joy, when we are happy, we want to invite God to join our celebration. And when we are sad, we want to turn to God for comfort. And if we have done something that was wrong, and we are sorry, we want to figure out a way to repair the relationship, fixing it in order to start over.
Korbanot are about relationships and connections. We will learn about the different types of Korbanot, who brings them, and how they go about it very soon.
Please note that many of the ideas and explanations in this episode are brought to you from the book series The Little Midrash Says.
TRANSITION
Throughout our history, people brought korbanot to connect with God. Adam, Hevel, Noach, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov and Moshe either brought korbanot themselves or built a mizbeach, altar, upon which to offer korbanot. An important distinction between Jewish people and other nations is that God made very clear He never wanted human sacrifice. He didn’t want someone to kill their child and offer their child up as a gift to Him. The way we know that is because God asked Avraham to offer up Yitzchak, but then He stopped Avraham from actually killing Yitzchak in order to show that is not what He really wanted. Instead, Avraham offered up a ram.
God explained that the animals that could be offered as korbanot were male and female oxen, male and female sheep, he goats, and she goats, and two types of birds: pigeons and turtledoves. Our Sages note that these are all domesticated animals. One is not permitted to offer up a wild gazelle, deer or antelope in the Mishkan.
God specifically chose domesticated animals and birds because they are peaceful. He wanted to convey that we too, as members of the Jewish nation, should aim to be peaceful and not get into unnecessary fights with one another.
A Jewish person is supposed to offer God the best korban he or she can afford. The same way you would want to give someone important to you a beautiful, high-quality gift, the point of korbanot is not simply to get them over with and out of the way, but rather to choose the best you have to offer God.
TRANSITION
There are five different kinds of korbanot. They are known as Olah, Mincha, Shelamim, Chatas (or Chatat) and Asham.
Olah is also known as whole burnt offering.
Mincha is also known as the flour offering.
Shelamim is also known as the peace offering.
Chatas is also known as the sin offering.
Ashahm is also known as the wrongdoing or guilt offering.
An Olah can either be an animal or a bird. It is an offering a person can choose to bring but does not have to bring. It must be a male bull, ram or he-goat. Even though a person can choose to bring an Olah, it still atones for some sins. These sins include if a person had wrong thoughts and repented for them, if a person did not fulfill a mitzvah because they did not known (for example, they didn’t eat Matzah on Pesach because they didn’t know that was a mitzvah) or if they did something that can be corrected by fulfilling a mitzvah- an example of that would be someone who stole but then returned the object they had stolen.
A Bird Olah is brought by a poor person who cannot afford the cost of an animal Olah. It is a pigeon or a turtledove. The kohen kills the bird, takes out its stomach and burns it on the Mizbeach with its feathers still on. Even though that does not smell good, the feathers make the bird look larger than it would if the feathers were all plucked off, and God wants the poor man’s korban to look as impressive as possible. This teaches us an important lesson. God is equally happy with the poor person or rich person’s korban. All that matters is that the person is bringing his korban with the best intentions in mind, in order to get close to God.
TRANSITION
A mincha is another korban that a person can choose to bring but does not have to bring. A person who is too poor to afford a bird offering can bring a korban mincha instead. This flour offering will cost less, but God will still treasure it.
There are different types of menachot. In some cases, the flour is mixed with oil and baked. Other times, the mincha offering is fried in a deep pan. No matter which kind of korban mincha it is, we are not allowed to sweeten them with honey, fruit juice or any other sweetener. All korbanot had to have salt placed on them.
One of the reasons for placing salt on the korban is because salt is a preservative that helps food stay fresh for a longer time. Putting salt on our korbanot reminds us that the korbanot are an everlasting form of connection between us and God. Nowadays, we put salt on our table when we eat our Shabbat meal, because our table represents a mizbeach.
TRANSITION
A shelamim or peace offering is something a Jew offers when he is happy and wants to eat meat with his family or friends. A regular person is not allowed to eat from the Korban Olah, which is entirely burned, or the Korban Mincha, which a Kohen can eat. But a regular person IS allowed to eat from the Korban Shelamim.
Some of us go out to eat to celebrate special occasions like birthdays, graduations or anniversaries. Many people often go to a steakhouse. But what if you wanted to invite God to be part of your celebration? A good way to do it would be to bring a Korban Shelamim at the Mishkan or Beit HaMikdash. An ox, cow, ram or female sheep or goat can be offered as a Korban Shelamim.
The slaughtered animal would be cooked and shared between the Kohen and between the owner and anyone he invited to dine with him. This korban brings shalom, peace, to all who share in it.
TRANSITION
At this point, the Torah teaches us about a korban that is not optional. It is a korban we must bring because of an avaira, or sin that we committed. It is called the Korban Chatat. This korban is offered for some sins people would have committed by accident, also called b’shogeg. B’shogeg can also connote negligence. When someone is negligent it means they should have been able to avoid this outcome if they had paid more attention, so even though they did not intend it, in a way, they are responsible.
For example, let’s say someone cooked on Shabbat because they didn’t know they were forbidden to cook on Shabbat. They would need to bring a korban chatat.
Alternatively, the person might know they are forbidden to cook on Shabbat. But they thought that Shabbat was just a regular Thursday when really it was Shabbat.
In both cases, the person made a mistake. Despite this, they still need to bring a chatat. This korban is the person’s way of apologizing to God for not having spent enough time learning the laws of the Torah in order to know what to do, or for not having paid enough attention in order to fulfill those laws- or in other words, for being negligent. Either way, the person is committing to try harder in the future.
There are also special situations where one brings a Chatat. These include: the korban of a Kohen Gadol who sinned, the korban of a Sanhedrin (which is the highest Jewish court of the land) that sinned and the korban of a king who sinned. When even the Kohen Gadol, Sanhedrin and king had to bring sin offerings to repair their relationships with God, Bnei Yisrael would be encouraged that of course they as regular people should bring sin offerings.
TRANSITION
Another korban that a person must bring is called the asham, or guilt offering. There are six reasons why someone might bring an asham, three of which come up in our parsha.
One must bring an asham offering for stealing money. He must also bring an asham offering for using the property of the Beis Hamikdash (such as eating from a korban he is not entitled to eat from, or using an object belonging to the Beit Hamikdash for himself). The third situation is called Asham Talui, an Asham of uncertainty. A person offers this korban if he thinks he committed a sin but isn’t sure. For example, he ate meat with fat but is not sure if it is a kind of fat called chailev that the Torah says we cannot eat. Since he doesn’t know for sure, he brings a korban just in case.
The only animal that can be used for an asham is a ram.
Some main differences between a Korban Chatat and Korban Asham are as follows. A Korban Chatat is status dependent. That means there are different procedures with this korban depending on whether the person bringing it is a regular member of Bnei Yisrael, a king or a kohen. The animal brought is also different. For a Chatat, we typically bring a she goat or female lamb, while for the Asham we bring a ram. There is also a lot more emphasis on sprinkling, pouring and placing blood with the Korban Chatat as opposed to the Asham.
There is a rabbi called Rabbi David Zvi Hoffman who lived from November 24, 1843 till November 20, 1921. He grew up within the Austrian Empire , headed the Yeshiva in Berlin, and published research on the Torah and the Mishna. According to him, another way to think about the difference between a Chatat and Asham is that a Chatat exists to purify us and remove sin from us. In contrast, the Asham exists so we can repay something we owe to God.
TRANSITION
Typically, when a person would offer a korban, they would place their hands on the animal’s head. This was called semicha. They would then say Vidui, making a confession about the things they had done wrong and were repeating for. This procedure did not apply when one brought up a Korban Shelamim.
According to Ramban, or Nachmanides, the person would imagine themselves as though they deserved to die due to their sin and the korban was taking their place. Having this vivid experience- feeling the animal under their hands, watching it die, seeing the blood sprinkled on the Mizbeach, and smelling the scent of the fresh blood, would all make a strong impression on the person. They would realize how lucky they were to be alive and how merciful God was to give them a chance to atone and start over.
Korbanot were an amazing method of connecting with God precisely because they helped people navigate all of their emotions. In life, people can feel a lot of different ways. They can feel happy, sad, ashamed, guilty, upset, angry and more. The important thing is to figure out how to channel these emotions in order to live a productive life.
God gave us a way to channel these emotions. If we had sinned and felt guilty and ashamed, there was a korban for that. If we were extremely happy and wanted to celebrate our child’s birthday, there was a korban for that. If we wanted to connect with God again after feeling distanced from Him, there was a korban for that. No matter what, we were never stuck simply wallowing in our emotions, but had a process through which we could connect with God and move on.
Korbanot are about connection, relationships and repairing relationships. Understanding this helps us understand why the Torah spent so much time discussing and describing them. When a relationship is important to you, you want to make sure it thrives and is healthy. If anything has gone wrong in that relationship, you want to make sure to fix it. And that’s exactly what korbanot helped us do.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week!
The main word in Korbanot is Karov, close. That’s because Korbanot were about coming close to God.
Korbanot exist in order to help us develop our relationship to God, and repair that relationship whenever we messed up. They also exist so that we can include God during our happiest moments. Realizing that korbanot are gifts we bring to God to build a stronger relationship with Him can help us understand why the Torah spends so much time describing them.
God views the poor man’s and rich man’s korban as equally valuable, which is why He made sure there was an option available to every kind of person to offer a korban. No matter what, and no matter how poor or rich you are, God wants to have a relationship with you.
If you have any questions or comments on this week’s episode, please email me at parsha4kids@gmail.com. That’s parsha the number 4 kids at gmail.com. Good Shabbos!
