Monday, March 18, 2013

Daily Aliya for Tzav, Sheni (2nd Aliya)

Aliya Summary: This Aliya discusses the priestly meal offering, brought by the High Priest twice daily, and by every priest on the day he is first inducted into Temple service. The laws of the Sin Offering and Guilt Offering, also discussed in last week's Parsha, are also repeated with added details. An important principle discussed is a vessel's absorption of sacrificial meats cooked therein, and the possibility of purging (certain types of) vessels of the vestiges it absorbed -- a concept which is very germane in the laws of kosher. This section concludes with a discussion regarding various gratuities the priests were entitled to take from the different offerings and sacrifices.

The Kli Yakar points out that the Torah commands the bringing of the Chatat and Asham (the Sin and Guilt offerings) in the same place in the courtyard of the Beit HaMikdash as the Olah in order to protect the feelings and privacy of the sinner. People who see someone at that place can now assume that they are bringing an Olah and will not automatically jump to the conclusion that the person has sinned. This is similar to one of the reasons given for the Amida being a silent prayer - this protects a davener from the embarrassment of something they might include in their prayer.

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