adapted from Rabbi Richman on Temple Talk March 27, 2012
"The Temple offerings are symbolic on a cosmic level. They symbolize man identifying with various aspects of his own personality and life force and rectifying that. There is a tremendous amount of symbolism in the Temple offerings, but the main thing regarding the offerings is that Hashem takes pleasure when man does what He said to do.
"The Temple service is a 'psycho-drama.' It is a drama that has a profound effect on the mentality of the people involved in it. You can try and smooth talk your way out of the need for offerings today. You can try to be genteel and delicate about the Divine Service and just talk about the incense offerings. But the fact of the matter is that there are animals being offered on the alter of the Holy Temple.
"There is blood. There is slaughtering. Hashem said to do it in this way so that man can go through a deeper understanding of his own life force. And so that he can understand where he has gone astray and how he can make sure his Divine image is once again elevated. The experience of the Temple offerings draws a person closer to Hashem, hence the meaning of 'korban,' to draw close.
"The fact is today that we are not so close to Hashem. But the korban will draw us back. And again, without apologizing, the Temple offerings are a 'psycho-drama.' It is extremely tramatic. It is extremely jarring and unnerving. And that's okay, because it is real.
"We are spoiled rotten in our generation. We don't know what it means to realign ourselves; to receive a 'kick in the head' as it were, figuratively. We don't know what it means to see with a certain kind of bold clarity that our lives are sands running quickly through the hour-glass of time. The Temple service is an opportunity when Hashem says, 'I'm going to shake you up and make you realize that life is precious. Stop being an animal! Start living the life of a man.' That's what happens in the Divine Service.
"Do you have a problem with that kind of Divine Service? Do you have a problem with the One G-d of Heaven and earth running the show? If you've got a problem with that, look at the universe and where you fit into it. Because it's about you fitting into His universe, not about Him fitting into your little universe that you carry around."
BS"D
ReplyDeleteYou are right....and as an example for the offering-service we had/have, served Yitzchak Avinu.
Although human sacrifice is totally forbidden, Yitzchak new what was going to happen as a lad in his 30's, and agreed fully to this.
That Hashem showed Avraham Avinu the Ram to replace Yitzchak with, is the level we humans should try to get: Yitzchak nullified himself totally, brought his soul as a spiritual sacrifice, and the ram was only the physical replacement for an unfit and forbidden human-sacrifice. Ma'aseh Avot, Siman lebanim (The deeds of the fathers are teachings to the children).
What the spiritual impact was on his life we can read/understand from the commentaries on the Akedath Yitzchak.
But, now might also become clear how we humans should use our daily prayer: in the level as if we sacrifice(d) our own body and soul to G'd, nullified and void of any other motives. Only then we can truly approach G'd as HE is void of any haughtiness, arrogance and ulterior motives.
In the Sefer haChasisdim is a text that serves as a reminder for us: Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh.
The text and the melody to this Shabbat song can be found here and here:
The Text
http://www.zemirotdatabase.org/view_song.php?id=15
and the music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVv7K-TqRcY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L60gr5o-1J8&feature=related
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgb-PrQAm7I
Camie, thank you for this great posting.
This statement is really very well said:
ReplyDelete"If you've got a problem with that, look at the universe and where you fit into it. Because it's about you fitting into His universe, not about Him fitting into your little universe that you carry around."
It goes for all commandments, not just fot the Korbanot.
The little world we carry around - precious!