Vayikra(Leviticus 1-5)

Nobody Wants Your Sacrifices

It's your wife's birthday. Her favorite flower is an orchid. Where you live, Orchids run at about $4 a stem, a bouquet is going to set you back $50-$60!

You have a series of choices:

1. The florist has some week-old orchids he'll give you for $2 a piece.

2. Buy some wild flowers - $10 max.

3. Get her the great wrench set you've always wanted (at least it won't die after a week).

4. Give her the cash and let her make the tough decisions!

Now for all rational people, isn't 4 the right answer!? Didn't we evolve out of the barter system, so that we got what we wanted and didn't end up with a dozen sheep and two pounds of potatoes when we sold the family cow?

How is it that this ancient custom of guessing and agonizing over a present for your Cousin George or your Aunt Bessie, who you haven't seen in 10 years, still remains. Give them the cash!

Buying your wife a $1,000 pearl necklace may be a great sacrifice on your part. But it is not going to do the trick if she doesn't like pearls. No one wants your sacrifices!

HOW TO REALLY CARE

If you understand all this, you understand the real meaning of "sacrifice" as we read in this week's Torah portion.

Firstly, sacrifice is a bad translation. When we bring cows, sheep and goats to the Temple in Jerusalem, the Hebrew word is "korbon." This has its roots in "being close." No word in the English language approaches a good translation, though conceptually it relates to a "gift."

When you give your wife a gift, it isn't a sacrifice (at least it shouldn't be!). It isn't even the most effective way of getting her what she wants -- give her the cash!

Don't tell me it's the thought when you bring her the week-old orchids or even when you have an account with the florist who delivers the same flowers every year (whether you remember or not!).

What we are looking for in a present is evidence that you care. You care enough to go out of your way. You care enough to think about it.

But do you really care? Does the $60 bouquet prove that you care? Not really, not always.

Nothing in life counts unless we care. If you don't care, then it doesn't matter if we lose it or not. The more we care, the more precious it becomes to us. The more we care about important things, the more meaningful our lives become.

Want to care more for your spouse? Easy! Buy her/him a present -- every week!

The more expensive, the more time, the more effort, then the more you will care.

WHY THE BLOOD AND GUTS?

Do you want to care about life more? Do you want to care about a relationship with God more? Would you like to feel life is more precious than you feel at the moment?

Not easy things to muster up. Of course, if you've ever walked out of a car wreck, without a scratch, looked back and saw a heap of metal -- you soon get a feeling of how precious life is. There is no toy, no vacation, no house, no piece of jewelry that is worth that feeling. But do we have to walk away from death to feel it?

Hmm ... the power of walking away from death. When you see a real, live animal die in front of you, you feel it. You get a real sense of the value of life.

We bring an animal to the Temple and the priest slaughters it before our very eyes. That's not a "sacrifice." That's getting real with life, that's waking up, that's caring!

But, you say, how can we do that to an innocent animal? That's another question, for another time. But for now, at least we begin to understand how meaningful sacrifices are.

BRAINSTORMING QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Question 1: Make a list of the 5 things you care about the most.

Question 2: What have you given up in the past? How has that made these things more dear to you?

Question 3: If need be, how much would you be willing to give up for these?