Maayan Granot – Year 8

Raise your hand if you have ever sinned. Don’t worry because this parashah is all about sins and how to repent for them, as well as offerings.

The Book of Vayikra is about laws that tell us what we should and should not do, and what is right and what’s wrong. Most importantly, the book of Vayikra also tells us how to fix mistakes that have been made and how to repent our sins.

Everyone makes mistakes, that’s a part of life. Even the Kohanim and Moshe made mistakes, some greater than others, some with greater punishments, but all with the same lesson – that we can learn from our mistakes, and know not to do them again. Now, I’m not saying that we should all go around and break laws because we learn from them.

This parashah talks about how if we steal something from another, tell a lie about another or ourselves, then the only way we can make it up to that person is to be honest. Give back what you took, tell the truth about whatever you have said. You must also make a sacrifice for the sinner to be forgiven.  

If you think about this in a more modern context when someone does something wrong they also have to make a sacrifice. Not with a ram, because I’m not sure how many of us just have a ram casually lying around. Instead consider something like not having technology for a certain amount of time, or not being allowed to go to an arrangement that we had planned. All of these sacrifices that we make are in order to repent our sins. As I said before, the most important thing is that we know that what we were doing was wrong and that we should not do it again.

The book Vayikra repeats all of the laws and punishments so many times and whilst doing this teaches that if we do something wrong there will always be a consequence, no matter how many times you repeat it. If we make a mistake there will be a way to fix it. This will usually be a sacrifice, but it’s something that we have to be willing to make if we sinned in the first place.

Parashat Tsav also discusses the guilt offering, brought for sinning unintentionally. This shows us that even though we might hurt someone unintentionally, we’ve still hurt them and have to make it up to that person.

Our parashah ends by talking about the fellowship offering, an offering to show your appreciation to God. Moshe also told the people that all of the fellowship offerings should be brought individually. These offerings symbolise how grateful each person is.

So, this week, try to think about the lesson we take from our mistakes. As well, try to think about the offerings we make or should make.