I often end up in conversations with folks wanting to understand more about Judaism. This makes for interesting checkout lines at the grocery store and gates at the airport. Usually, I’m approached from a standpoint of someone that has very little background about our faith. And one of the things that I stress about Judaism, though it may seem like a minor detail, is how empowering it is. Every person has the ability to connect with God and spirituality at the same level. Even as a rabbi, I don’t have any more religious power than anyone else. You don’t need a rabbi to do a wedding or a funeral, and you don’t need a rabbi to carry out any single religious ritual. Every person has equal access to God and to our tradition. This is usually what shocks people the most.
We encounter this idea in this week’s Torah portion, Tzav. Despite the parashah being all about sacrifices, which we associate with the Priests who often carried them out, we are taught something unique about the ‘well-being sacrifice,' the zevach shelamim. This sacrifice is most easily thought of as a shared meal with God. It is from the yearning of the individual to be in relationship with God. About this particular sacrifice, God said to Moshe, “The offering to God from a sacrifice of well-being must be presented by the person who offers their sacrifice of well-being to God; their own hands shall present the offering to God.” (Vayikra 7:29-30)
The language here seems pretty precise - it must be offered by their own hands. On the one hand, this language seems somewhat superfluous. But in the context of Vayikra, the book where we learn about the sacrifices of the priests on behalf of the people, I think this language tells us something important about our own ability to connect. When we are looking for a relationship with God, we don’t have to wait for someone else to make that possible. Our very own hands have the ability to bring us towards what we are seeking; a shared moment with God is within our power.
We are often waiting for something external to bring us to a moment of spirituality. This zevach shelamim, the well-being sacrifice, is a ‘just because’ sacrifice, and it reminds us that we don’t need a reason to reach out and strive for a connection with God. We only need our own two hands, not anyone else’s, to reach out. Next time we are seeking something - closeness, meaning, a connection - let’s remember that everything that we need to establish that is already in our possession.
