Introduction
Throughout the book of Bamidbar, blocks of laws and ordinances are interspersed with narratives about the Israelites' journeys. It is generally understood that there is a connection between the narratives and the laws that come after what happened. Sometimes the connection between the commandments and the stories that precede them is easily understood and even self-evident: for example, the story of Korach and his company, who challenged the priesthood and the role of the Levites, is followed by various commandments regarding priestly and Levitical gifts. There are also cases where the connection is secondary, such as the laws of nazir and sota in Parashat Naso. In this week's parasha, Parashat Pinchas, the connection between the story and the commandments that follow is not at all clear.
Our parasha describes a census that was taken of all the adult males of the nation of Israel, and following the census, we find various commandments concerning the daily offerings (korban tamid) and the additional offerings (korban musaf) brought on Shabbat and festivals. At first glance, there seems to be no connection at all between the census and the daily and additional offerings. The question of why the offerings are discussed here is compounded by the fact that this is not the first time they are discussed: the daily offering is mentioned in Parashat Tetzaveh, and the various libations are mentioned in Parashat Shelach.
The Ramban explains the placement of the additional offerings in our parasha:
The reason for, "Command the children of Israel, and say to them: My offering, My bread for My fire-offerings" (Bamidbar 28:2) [being included here] is that after He had said: "To these shall the Land be divided" (26:53), He completed the commands relating to the laws of the offerings which they are to observe in the Land, since they did not bring any of the additional offerings [of Shabbat and the festivals] in the wilderness, as I have mentioned in Seder Emor el Ha-kohanim. Likewise, they were not obliged to bring libations in the wilderness, as I have explained in Seder Shelach Lekha. But now He charged those who were to come into the Land with the duty of bringing all [these offerings] there – the daily offerings, the additional offerings, and their meal-offerings and their libations. (Ramban, Bamidbar 28:2)[1]
The Ramban links the section of the additional offerings with the obligation of entering the Land. His words require clarification, but before we do that, we must understand the significance of the daily offering.
The daily offerings demarcate the daily service in the Temple: the korban tamid of the morning is the first sacrifice brought each day, while the tamid of the evening is the last sacrifice. However, this can be understood in two different ways in the two passages that mention the daily offering.
The Essence of the Daily Offering – Two Understandings
The daily offering is mentioned in Parashat Tetzaveh as part of a series of passages dealing with the construction of the Mishkan. It is evident in the book of Shemot that the essence of the Mishkan is in its serving as the house of God; the people come to commune with Him there, to encounter Him: "And they shall make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them." Accordingly, the daily offering is presented there as a cornerstone in the creation of a house for God, as it were:
Now this is that which you shall perform upon the altar: lambs of the first year, two each day, continually. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the second lamb you shall offer at dusk. And with the one lamb, a tenth part of an efa of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil; and a libation, the fourth part of a hin of wine. And the second lamb you shall offer at dusk, and you shall do to it according to the meal-offering of the morning, and according to its libation, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire to the Lord. It shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations, at the door of the Tent of Meeting, before the Lord, where I will meet with you (pl.) to speak to you (sing.) there. And there I will meet with the children of Israel; and [the tent] shall be sanctified by My glory. (Shemot 29:38-43)
The emphasis at the end of the passage on the site of the sanctuary, "there," indicates that the daily offering is a central part of the sanctuary's existence. Beyond that, in those same passages we encounter other "continual" mitzvot – the lighting of the menora, the incense on the inner altar, the showbread on the shulchan. The commandment of the daily offering on the burnt-offering altar fits into the same system, which is all designed to express the constant presence of the Shekhina in the sanctuary, as emphasized in the verses there.
In contrast, from the book of Vayikra onward, the primary focus of the sanctuary changes: it becomes a place for sacrifices and religious worship. Throughout the book of Vayikra, there is a central focus on individual sacrifices: the obligatory and free-will offerings, and the offerings brought by a woman after childbirth, a zav, a zava, and a leper. This trend continues into the beginning of the book of Bamidbar, where we find the offerings of a nazir and of a sota, and into our parasha, which deals with the daily and additional offerings, and from there it continues to Parashat Re'eh, where the Torah emphasizes that the sacrificial service must be conducted in a single designated place:
You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations that you are to dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every leafy tree. And you shall break down their altars… You shall not do like this to the Lord your God. Rather, to the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, to His habitation you shall seek, and there you shall come; and there you shall bring your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock. (Devarim 12:2-6)
While the emphasis on "place" might seem at first glance to echo Sefer Shemot, the purpose of "the place which the Lord your God shall choose" is not about serving as a place for the dwelling of the Shekhina; rather, it is to enable the proper offering of sacrifices.
In light of all this, the passage in Parashat Pinchas dealing with the daily offering must be read in a different light:
Command the children of Israel, and say to them: My offering, My bread for My fire-offerings, of a sweet savor to Me, you shall observe to offer to Me in its due season. And you shall say to them: This is the offering made by fire which you shall bring to the Lord: he-lambs of the first year without blemish, two day by day, for a continual burnt-offering. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at dusk; and the tenth part of an efa of fine flour for a meal-offering, mingled with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil. It is a continual burnt-offering, which was offered in Mount Sinai, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire to the Lord. And its libation shall be the fourth part of a hin for the one lamb; in the holy place you shall pour out a libation of strong drink to the Lord. And the other lamb you shall present at dusk, like the meal-offering of the morning, and like its libation, you shall present it, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to the Lord. (Bamidbar 28:2-8)
This passage emphasizes the component of the daily offering as a part of the world of sacrifices in Parashat Pinchas. In this perspective, the daily offering demarcates the world of sacrifices, since it defines a "day" in the sanctuary. The day whose hours are established in the Temple also defines the day of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel. The daily routine in the Temple is projected onto the daily routine throughout the land. To the degree the routine in the sanctuary is maintained, the regularity and continuity of the national routine is ensured. The profane draws sustenance from the sacred.
This duality regarding the essential nature of the Temple may seem familiar as a dispute between the Ramban and the Rambam,[2] but the dispute is not as polarized as it may appear. All agree that these two aspects are both present in the Temple: it is the focus of the resting of the Shekhina, and it is also the central place of worship and sacrifice.
It follows, then, that the repetition of passages dealing with the daily offering is not puzzling at all. As is often the case, there are two aspects to the essence of the daily offering: it is central to the resting of the Shekhina and the people's encounter with God, and it is also a vital component of the sacrificial service and the life of the people of Israel. Our parasha represents the daily offering as a significant component of the daily routine of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel, and thus it is understandable that it is placed after the passage dealing with the people's preparations for entering the land.
The Dangers
These two elements, the Temple as a place of worship and as a special place for meeting with God, are both fraught with the danger of becoming plastic and meaningless if they are disconnected from the rest of human life.
Disconnecting from the inner spiritual world – adhering to the formalities of ritual without internalizing the significance of these actions for the day-to-day conduct of the individual and of society at large – is a fundamental danger and was addressed by various prophets. I will cite the words of Yeshayahu, which echo these sentiments most clearly:
Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sedom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Amora. To what [purpose] is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? says the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I do not desire the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has requested this from your hand, to trample My courts? Do not continue to bring vain gifts; it is an offering of abomination to Me. New moon and Shabbat, the holding of convocations – I cannot endure iniquity along with the solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed seasons My soul hates; they are a burden to Me; I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; when you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood. Wash, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your doings from before My eyes, cease to do evil. Learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. (Yeshayahu 1:10-17)
Yeshayahu calls attention to the danger of offering sacrifices while in other areas, the people's behavior is distorted and corrupt. God does not want a sacrifice if the one who brings it continues to sin after its offering.
Yirmeyahu attacks the other approach presented above, which sees the house of God as a place where the people encounter their Creator. The notion that the Temple has an independent significance, in light of which all human decency can be abandoned outside its walls, is wrong and dangerous. Yirmeyahu criticizes those who think the existence of the Temple solves all problems:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust not in lying words, saying: The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these. For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and you do not follow after other gods to your detriment – then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words to no benefit. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer to Ba'al, and follow after other gods whom you have not known, and come and stand before Me in this house, whereupon My name is called, and say: We are delivered, in order to do all these abominations? Is this house, whereupon My name is called, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says the Lord. (Yirmeyahu 7:3-11)
Yirmeyahu's portrayal is extreme, comparing the house of God to a den of robbers. The existence of the house of God represents a step above basic moral behavior, and we must not think that its existence "saves" anyone who commits abominations.
The Cessation of the Daily Offering
The Mishna in Ta'anit lists the troubles that took place on the seventeenth of Tammuz, one of which is the cessation of the daily offering:
Five misfortunes befell our fathers on the seventeenth of Tammuz and five on the ninth of Av. On the seventeenth of Tammuz, the tablets [of the law] were shattered, the daily offering was discontinued… (Ta'anit 4:6)
Based on the above analysis, the cancellation of the daily offering entailed a double blow to the Jewish people: a blow to the encounter between the Jewish people and God by way of the Temple, and also the cancellation of the fixed daily routine that the Jewish people had in the Temple. In the face of this blow, we must try to achieve what the daily offering brought about in other ways.
We can see in tractate Berakhot how the Sages were able to create a new routine for the Jewish people; the Shema, prayer, and blessings that an individual recites regularly frame his day and give order to his day and conduct.
The interpersonal and social space of the community at large must also be built on a systematically ordered set of rules and practices that are so necessary for the maintenance of a healthy and well-ordered society. These two systems feed off each other and influence each other.
Normally, our hope and prayer is that the spiritual system of the individual and the community will illuminate and influence the earthly system of society. Our ancestors wisely supplemented the spiritual foundations by mandating daily (tamid) and additional (musaf) prayer services, in the spirit of "our lips will pay [words, in place of] bullocks" (Hoshea 14:3), in order to preserve those patterns of spiritual practice even in the absence of the Temple and its sacrifices.
On the other hand, the encounter between God and the people of Israel – the raison d'etre of the Temple – must be restored through the establishment of a just and moral society, upon which the Shekhina can rest. We must establish a society that brings God's word to the world and clings to God by following His ways.
We find ourselves in a time of severe crisis[3] and a fundamental undermining of the earthly systems responsible for shaping the proper relationships between man and his fellow man and between man and the society that surrounds him. There are voices on both sides that seek to unravel the common fabric of Israeli society, out of a sense of "neither you nor I shall have it" (I Melakhim 3:26); if the system does not run according to my will, I will burn it down. Such rifts and schisms are liable to lead to alienation from the fundamental spiritual system that was once accepted by society as a whole.
We are all called to wake up. First, the yeshiva students, by intensifying and strengthening their personal and communal daily and additional "offerings," and also society at large, by preserving the unifying and cohesive fabric with respect and listening and with a willingness to maintain a society of justice and righteousness, of kindness and faith. "Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and those who return to her, with righteousness" (Yeshayahu 1:27).
[This sicha was delivered by Harav Baruch Gigi on Shabbat Parashat Pinchas 5783.]
(Edited by Sarah Rudolph)
[1] See also the Ramban's remarks in Parashat Shelach (Bamidbar 15:2) regarding the relationship betweeen the passage in Tetzaveh and the passage dealing with the libations.
[2] See Hilkhot Beit ha-Bechira 1:1 and the different emphasis that arises from the words of the Ramban at the beginning of Parashat Teruma.
[3] This sicha was delivered during the period of great communal controversy about judicial reform.
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