YU TORAH and OU TORAH Tsav (5772) – The Thanksgiving Offering By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Among the sacrifices detailed in this week’s sedra is the korban todah, the thanksgiving offering: “If he offers it [the sacrifice] as a thanksgiving offering, then along with this thanksgiving offering he is to offer unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and loaves of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil.” (Lev. 7: 12). Though we have been without sacrifices for almost two thousand years, a trace of the thanksgiving offering survives to this day, in the form of the blessing known as Hagomel: “Who bestows good things on the unworthy”, said in the synagogue, at the time of reading of the Torah, by one who has survived a hazardous situation. What constitutes a hazardous situation? The sages (Berakhot 54b) found the answer in Psalm 107, a song on the theme of giving thanks, beginning with the best- known words of religious gratitude in Judaism: Hodu la-Shem ki tov, ki le-olam chasdo, “Give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness is forever”.