Shabbat Tzav

Written by Eli Freedman Tuesday, 04 April 2006

Shabbat Tzav

This week the Save Darfur Coalition has called for a week of prayer from all faith communities. Clearly they weren’t really thinking much about the Jews and all the Rabbis who had to write sermons because this week’s parasha is Tzav, another gory filled portion about the antiquated notion of animal sacrifice.

In this weeks parasha, the five sacrifices (from last week) that the priests are to perform are described more fully (6:1-7:38), limitations on the consumption of meat are delineated (7:17-27), and details about the ordination of Aaron and his sons as priests and the preparation of the Tabernacle as a holy place are given (8:1-36). Again, we find ourselves looking at a set of commands that no longer resound with us as modern Jews, so how can we look at this parasha in a modern context.

Especially when we are faced with shocking statistics like, in Darfur, since 2003, 400,000 people have died, 2.5 million people have been displaced and 3.5 million people risk starvation. Each day, over 500 innocent people die from violence, malnutrition and disease. The people of Darfur experience horrendous crimes, including gang rapes of women and girls, burning of homes and religious buildings, killing of babies, and other atrocities. Despite their efforts to help civilians, relief organizations have been targeted and aid workers have been arrested by the Sudanese government. Government-backed militias, known collectively as the Janjaweed, have systematically eliminated entire communities and continue to do so. The government has not only denied involvement with the massacres, but its police have also attacked displacement camps. Recent reports show that while violence continues, survivors in overcrowded refugee camps are threatened by disease and famine. If the violence continues and people do not receive adequate aid and protection, many more Darfurians will die.

According to Abraham Joshua Heschel, the three cornerstones of Temple Judaism, the Priesthood, the Temple and Sacrifice were replaced by Rabbis, Shabbat, and Prayer.
Just as the sacrifice or korban in Hebrew was a way of communicating and trying to get close to the divine, so too is prayer in our age.

I, however, do not think prayer alone is an adequate replacement for sacrifice. I believe that sacrifice, besides pertaining to drawing God near, contained an element of giving of ourselves that prayer does not fully have. Therefore, prayer must be paired with tzedakah, righteous charity, in our attempts to reach the divine. Tzedakah is not just about giving the occasional spare change to the JNF, or donating to some charity, tzedakah is about tzedek, justice, and striving for it; as it says in Parashat Shoftim, “justice justice, you shall pursue.” Don’t just give your money; give your thoughts, your time and your energy. And by combining prayer and action, I believe we can bring ourselves closer to the divine. The Jewish theologian, Jack Riemer wrote:
We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end war, for we know that you have made the world in such a way that man must find his own path to peace within himself and with his neighbour.
We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end starvation, for you have already given us resources with which to feed the whole wide world, if we could only use them wisely.
We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to root our prejudice, for you have already given us eyes with which to see the good in all men, if we would only use them rightly.
We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end despair, for you have already given us the power to clear away slums and to give hope, if we would only use our power justly.
We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end disease, for you have already given us great minds with which to search out cures and healings, if we would only use them constructively.
Therefore we pray to you instead, O God, for strength, determination and will power, to do what we can, to do what we must, to do instead of just to pray, to become instead of merely to wish.
So what can you do then… Visit http://www.savedarfur.orgor http://www.protectdarfur.organd educated yourselves, as Judaism teaches education is the first step towards action as it says in Talmud, Shabbat 127a, “The study of Torah is equal to them all because it leads to them all…” You can pray; individually, or as a community. But as we’ve seen, prayer is not enough. You can act! Donate money, but also donate your time, write to your mps, sign online campaign statements and go out in the streets and protest in the next rally. But don’t just be silent — to quote the overly quoted Pastor Martin Niemoeller, “I was not a Jew, so when they came for the Jews, I did not speak. I was not a trade unionist, so when they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak...” He continued in a similar vein, finally saying, “and then they came for me, and there was nobody left to speak up for me.” Well, now they have come for the Darfurians, will we speak up?
Eli Freedman