1. Life Activities That Call For Offerings
Introduction - In addition to the times and occasions that we have already
discussed, the mitzvot guide us to draw near God when we have been
engaged in certain important activities of life. Today’s discussionwill center
on many such activities, why we might be drawn to make offerings because
of them, and what all of these ancient provisions might mean to us in our
own lives and times.
XVII-XVIII.Read Leviticus 3:1; 22:30. These mitzvot concern what is
commonlytranslated as the peace or the thanks offering. More accurately,
it is the offering of wholeness or wellbeing. Subsequent verses in Leviticus
3 provide greater detail about this offering: it is voluntary; a portion is
reserved for God; a portion is for the priests; and a portion is to be eaten by
the offerorand guests. The traditional explanation of this offering was that it
was to commemorate the fulfillment of a vow, to express thanksgiving, or
simply to serve as a free-will offering.
What do you see as the rationale and/or cause for this offering?And why
and how might we make such offerings in our own time?

2. (It could be made when a personbecomeswell from illness or returns
home safely from a journey. More broadly, it could occasionour expressing
gratitude for many other blessings as well.
We marry. We give birth. We have successin business or other activities of
life. We pass special milestones in life. We fulfill vows. Sometimes, we may
even join with others to promote wellbeing in our community or act in ways
that spread peace or create wholeness. More generally, we may simply be
grateful for life. In all these instances, we wish to express gratitude to the
Source of all such blessings, along with those who help draw us near to
God and serve as our life’s closest companions.
The manner of this offering feels familiar. We generally celebrate happy
occasions or outcomes in life with meals, sometimesbanquets. The
differencewith this offering is that we acknowledge mostdirectly in our
celebration that our good fortune owes significantly to God and that our
service is significantly on behalf of God,rather than its being accidental,
human-made, or mostly on our own behalf.
One could see multiple occasions forsuch offerings in our own time. I think
in a way we had such an occasionwhen we completed our study in this
class last year. Perhaps we’ll do it again this year. Wouldn’t the return of
those doing missionary work be such an occasion? Or the successful
completionof a major project in the church? Or the business or civic
success ofmembersof the church? Or the completionof service on a
major church or civic project? Or the successful mediation of differences of
groups within the church or our broadercommunity and a return to
harmony and peace?

3. The beauty of such voluntary offerings as zevach shelamim is that there’s
no limit to the occasions forthem other than either the number of such acts
of good or the feelings of gratitude for them! In effect, we say that when we
live in the world in accord with holiness or are the beneficiaries of it, we
should return to sacred space both to express gratitude to the Source of
holiness and to dedicate ourselves even further to living in the manner of
our mission.)
IX-XXVIII. Read Leviticus 5:1-11,4:13, 27, 6:18; Numbers 5:6-7, 15. This
relates to the offering called chatat, commonlytranslated as the sin
offering.
A. What sort of wrongdoing might this be for, and what might it not be for?
What’s behind the idea that upon straying we would want again to draw
near to God? What might the offerings we bring on such occasions be?
What desirable effect might they have?
(Traditionally, it’s been thought that this is for “unintentional” wrongdoing, in
the sense that intentional wrongdoing requires more, the requisite
punishment for such action as well as getting right with any persons
harmed by such action.

4. Perhaps, also, it’s when we miss the mark, fall short in living, as to what we
know to be God’s expectations of us. We sincerelyconfess, express regret,
make things right with those hurt, and resolve not to repeat the error as we
also make an offering in sacred space.
What a blessing this is. We need not permanently bear the weight of
iniquity. God wants us back. We humankind are not perfect; we err. We do
look back often and see error and often have regret for it. Often, we bury
our feelings and/or twist and rationalize our error into something we try to
forgetor deny, or something we actually try to blame on others.
As we have learned, these mitzvot give us a path to acknowledge what
we’ve done, confess, purge our feeling of error, make a heart of regret and
return known to God, and seek in greater wholeness to return back more
fully to God’s path. Perhaps the offering we bring of time and/or resources
could be used to help us (and the ministers who help teach and guide us
and others) in facilitating prayer and various ways of returning and living as
God wishes for us.
Note the importance of confession. Chinuch makes the important point that
through confessionwe show that we will not treat the “All-Seeing-Eye”of
God like a non-seeing eye. In other words, confessiongoes beyond making
us whole with others and endeavoring to be better and more careful the
next time; it also recognizes God as present and sovereign.

5. B. This chatat offering could be brought by an individual, a priest, a leader,
or the community generally. We’ve learned about its value to us as
individuals. What might be its value with respect to these others who are
also called upon to bring it when appropriate?
(First, as to the priests, this mitzvah helps us and our priests put aside the
assumption that priests live error-free lives or that we need to pretend they
do. What a burden such an assumption puts on the priest! Could it be that
priests drift into deepersinfulness because they feel pressured to hide what
they’ve done or otherwise act as if they are mostly or always error-free?
We should unmask the pretense of priestly perfectionand permit our clergy
(as well as our other “priests,” such as the inner priests)to be released
from the darkness of hidden errors. The priest should be able, with all of us,
to confessand make offeringsin drawing near to God when missing the
mark. Isn’t it a greater act of holiness to repair and return than to pretend
and cover up?
Aren’t the problem and the need just as real forour leaders? We generally
won’t let our leaders truly admit error and maintain leadership status,
unharmed in our esteem.Isn’t it too often the case that we let them do the
faux mea culpa or punish them? Why should we be surprised that leaders
so rarely admit error?
And as to the community, when was the last time you recall a community
admitting error and taking clear and strong action to confess, restore, and
return? Whether in religious, social, racial, or political groups, when error
occurs, the response too oftenseems to be to ignore it, let it go and hope
for the best, or blame someone else.I don’t think any of those responses

6. are pleasing to God,any more so than when a community stands by
without remorse or response to unsolved killings.
Chinuch on the bringing of a chatat offering by the Great Sanhedrin: “They
will take to heart through the performance of this act, the lowliness of the
errant beastly spirit, and the worthiness of the intelligent spirit, which is
straight and pure. Thus, as a result of this purifying thought, they will
foreverbe vigilant and successfulin all their rulings.”
These ideas are why these mitzvot are a real gift from God.)
XXIX-XXXIII. Read Leviticus 7:1, 5:15-18,21-22,25; Exodus 29:33.These
are the mitzvot that guide as to the asham offering, generally called the
guilt offering.There is some uncertainty and overlap between this offering
and chatat. In fact, technically, it appears in many instances to be an
offering brought as a result of wrongdoing close in nature to what we just
discussed, though perhaps somewhat worse. But, from the text, can you
detectthe aim of this offering and suggest a more universal purpose both
offerings togethermight serve?
(It appears that while chatat effects a purification of sorts from the sin
committed and the wrong done that are typically unintentional, asham
repairs or ransoms the wrongdoer in certain ways from the guilt the
wrongdoer may bear as a result of a sin that may have beenintentional and
more serious, even if we’re uncertain about certain aspects of what we did.

7. Asham is especiallyimportant if we feel we’ve done wrong but are
uncertain of it and its impact. So, instead of pretending we have no guilt or
storing up the guilt we feel and expressing it in numerous unhealthy ways
that can be rather devastating, we have a healthier and more valuable
means here for dealing with certain consequencesof our errors.
As a result of these various offerings, we have a Divinely lit path for dealing
with much of our waywardness. The steps involve recognition, confession,
righting the wrongs we’ve done others, then drawing near God with prayer
and offerings, supporting our priests who help us draw near, and then
feeling shalom from God in our going forward in our lives.
How much manifestly better off our mental and spiritual health would be, as
well as our behavior toward ourselves and others, if we could incorporate
these mitzvot in some meaningful way in our lives. Indeed how much closer
to holiness (and how much closerto living out the two great
commandments) we would be, if we were to do so.)
XXXIV-XLVI.Read Numbers 18:15:Numbers 15:20;Exodus 13:2;Exodus
23:19;Deuteronomy18:3-4; Exodus 34:20;Deuteronomy 26:5;
Deuteronomy12:17-18.
Why would we be expected to redeem a first-born human being and offer
up of the first-born animals and the first fruits? How might we do this in our

8. modern times and lives? And how would doing this affect our relationship
with God and others?
(A. There might be a link betweenthese mitzvot and ancient practices of
offering up the first-bornto God. There certainly seems to be an echo of
that night of our redemptionfrom Egypt. While the Egyptians who were
contemptuous of God literally paid with their first-born, we feel bound in our
free choice to be yoked to God to redeem,through offeringson behalf of,
our first-born.
Why? Our sages say the first-born are the strongest or bestof our
production. The first-born are surely the first experience we have personally
of the miracle of creation. Will birth occur? Will life emerge? Willthe land -
dead from winter - grow living crops? Will an animal or human being give
birth for the first time? This first life is our most tangible first knowledge of
the work of the Creator. We consecrate our first-born and first fruits to
acknowledge our understanding and gratitude for the miracle of creation
that God regularly performs inour lives and in our world. Chinuch: “We
acknowledge our Creator upon benefiting from the blessing with which He
has blessed us.”
Isn’t this manifest as well in those ideas and things we create for the first
time that represent miracles of the intellect and the spirit that are also
God’s gifts to us? When a personbrings forth an idea - whether religious,
scientific, artistic, governmental policy, commercial, or other - that person
must be inspired to ask: “where in the world did this come from?!”Does this
creation involve our own imagination, talent, and skill, as surely does the
farmer’s with agricultural techniques? Yes, indeed. But people of faith
understand that the Source of all blessings is behind all this, fundamentally
responsible and due our gratitude.

9. Chinuch puts it this way: “A person has nothing in this world other than
what God apportions to each of us in His kindness….Aftera person has
invested much effort in his worldly pursuits, and has finally arrived at the
moment when his efforts have borne fruit, at which point the first of his fruit
is surely as beloved to him as the pupil of his eye, he immediately offers it
to the Holy One, blessed be He.”
Also: this lets “the fulfillment of His command supersedeour personal joy
upon the ripening of our crop.”
B. We could and should make our own offerings today. Examples might
include a contribution to our modern-daypriests or our places of worship
for nurturing our lives and our creations, a commitment of service, or, in the
case of our children, a dedicationto teach the child of the special blessing
and purpose of his/her birth.
Further, as with first fruits and crops, we take a portion of the yield of the
first profits or other yield of our first creations and make suitable offerings of
them. This could also be first dollars of our paychecks, our allowance, or
our interest and dividends.
We could even make a special ceremony out of the first fruits of a business
or other enterprise, not as a tribute to ourselves as is typically done, but as
a tribute to God, those who serve us with God,those with whom we work,
and those whom we serve.

10. As Chinuch says: “Through this remembrance of God and acceptance of
His sovereignty, by following his mitzvah at a time that might otherwise be
used for personal celebration,…we will be worthy of further blessing, and
our produce will be blessed.”
C. It is crucial to note that these offerings are to be made and consumed in
sacred space. As we beginto close out our discussionof sacred space, it is
timely for us to be reminded again of its importance. Sacred space is that
space where we draw near to God to strengthen our mission to be holy and
bring holiness in the world. By understanding that the Source of our
blessings is God and commemorating that understanding with these
offerings in sacred space, we both support sacred space and further its role
in promoting the ways we live in the broader world. Indeed, by
commemorating our work in the world in these ways, we extend holiness to
that work.
Let’s rememberthat the call for first fruits that we just read from
Deuteronomycomes right after Moses’recitation of God’s promise of the
land. How beautiful is that? In other words, the truths we’ve just been
discussing regarding the Ultimate source of our blessings and our proper
acknowledgement of that Source through gratitude, prayer, and service are
primary to our living in God’s land of promise.)
Conclusion