The Haftarah that is read for Parshat VaYikra, by both the Ashkenazic and the Sephardic Communities, is taken from the Book of Yeshayahu, 43:21-44:23.

Parshat VaYikra brings us to a mysterious set of ideas within Judaism.  These refer to the Temple worship and its heavy involvement with animal sacrifices.  These sacrifices of animals have to be seen against the backdrop that one of the Seven Noahide Laws, moral and legal “Commands” inscribed by the Creator upon the conscience of all of humanity, is “Ever min HaChai,” the Prohibition against eating a limb torn from a live animal.  It is also directly connected with the central concept within Judaism that one is prohibited to cause unnecessary pain or cruelty to animals.  This is known as the Prohibition of “Tzaar Baalei Chayim.”

“Adam HaRishon,” First Man, together with Chava, the first “First Lady,” were placed into the Garden of Eden and obligated to live on a vegetarian diet.  After they violated the “First (and Only) Commandment,” not to eat from the “Tree of Knowledge,” they were summarily ejected from the Garden.  In an argument over sacrifices (the animal sacrifice was accepted; the sacrifice of produce was not), the First Murder was committed, by Kayin, the Older Brother, against Hevel, the Younger.

Ten generations after Adam and Eve (Pirkei Avot 5:2), the un-civilized world is destroyed by the Great Flood, and G-d permits Noach and his family, the family that survived on the Ark, to eat meat (Bereshit 9:3).  It is as if G-d has said to Man, “First let’s take care of your not killing each other; afterwards, you can return to worrying about the killing of animals.”

In the Book of Bereshit, there are occasional references to sacrifices, offered by the Patriarchs and others with whom they came into contact.  But, in a defining moment, “Akeidat Yitzchak,” the “Binding of Yitzchak as a Sacrifice,” and events in the immediate aftermath, the Torah makes clear forever that human sacrifice is abhorrent to its values.

The second Book of the Five Books of Moses sees the construction of the “Mishkan,” the Tabernacle, one of the main purposes of which was to serve as the site of Divine Worship until the Holy Temple was built.  And it is clear that that worship will entail sacrifices, from the requirement for the Copper Altar and the Gold Altar.

Now we come to the Book of VaYikra, in which the Torah provides the details of the many sacrifices.  The RAMBAN explains the Sin-Offering as a gesture of Mercy on the part of G-d.  For if a creature created by G-d, using his free-will, dares to sin before Him, he should thereby forfeit his own life.  But HaShem accepts in place of that, the life of an animal, life for life, blood for blood.

The RAMBAM appears to suggest in “Moreh Nevuchim,” the Guide for the Perplexed, an aspect of sacrifices that make it seem that they are only for the         purpose of substituting, in the mind of the Jew of ancient times, for the sacrificial forms of worship of surrounding religions.  But this is clearly not the dominant motif in the RAMBAM’s thinking, for in the Mishne Torah, he is quite clear that in the time of the Mashiach, when the Third Temple is built, at a time when “Knowledge of the L-d will cover the earth as the waters cover the seabed,” there will be a resumption of the full sacrificial worship.

In the Book of Devarim, where Moshe reviews the events that occurred at Mt. Sinai, where HaShem “revealed Himself,” in Clouds of Glory to the People, he explicitly says that no visual image was seen by the People.  “Be exceedingly careful and do not jeopardize your lives by a fatal error, for you saw no visual representation when HaShem spoke to you out of the fire at Horev.” (Devarim 4:15)

Here, at the beginning of the Book of Vayikra, in the first Haftarah, the Prophet Yeshayahu attempts to clarify the relationship between G-d and Man; in particular, how G-d is to be worshipped, at  a time when the Jewish People seemingly were headed in the wrong direction.

The Prophet points out the absurdity and “Chutzpah” of idol worship.  First of all, Man has gotten the relationship backwards.  He is the created being, not G-d.

The Talmud says that in general, mockery is forbidden.  But one subject is subject to and well deserving of mockery.  That is idol-worship.  And here Yeshayahu indulges in that mockery.  How foolish it is for man to take a log, even of the best timber he can find, saw it in half and throw that half into his fireplace or into his oven to bake his bread.  And then to use all of his energy and creative skill to paint and decorate the other half, set it up on a pedestal, and bow down before it!

Once Man, and especially the Jewish People, stop worshipping the creations of their own hands - be they automobiles, computers or rocket ships, and return their prayerful gaze to where it belongs, the Creator of the Universe, that will set the stage for Redemption.  And then will we find occurring the fulfillment of the “passuk,” the verse “for HaShem has redeemed Yaakov, and Yisrael, in whom He takes pride” (Yeshayahu 44:23).

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel