Ziv: Parashat VaYikra

I, I am He who blots out your transgressions
Leviticus is the book of rules and statutes dealing with priests and it therefore begins with the various offerings that the priests should offer for the sins of individuals and the people. The first commandment begins with the words: “When any of you bring an offering...” (Leviticus 1:2) however in Hebrew this verse can be read : “When a man brings an offering...” or, more precisely : “When Adam brings an offering...”. Rashi wonders here about the role of our first ancestor and asks : “why this precision? just as Adam, the first man, offered nothing that was stolen, since everything was his, so you should not offer anything that is stolen”. But this parallel goes further than this: these sacrifices, as we have already said, represent the (pure) animals that Adam should have dominated (Genesis 1:26). The second chapter of our parasha begins almost identically: “When anyone presents a grain offering” (Leviticus 2:1), in Hebrew: “When a soul presents...” - and here are also included flour and oil. These elements represent the products of nature that God, in His grace, provided to man for his nourishment (Genesis 1:29). These sacrifices therefore are offered in order to make atonement for the effects of the first sin in the life of every man and woman in which the “nefesh” - the living soul - given by the breath of God (Genesis 2:7) has been wounded - even though it remains pure - as we say in the morning prayers : “the soul you have given me is pure”. This is also what we read in the Haftarah : “Your first ancestor sinned, and your interpreters transgressed against me” (Isaiah 43:27).
After the sacrifices of Adam and the soul, we come to the high-priest who, as we have seen at the end of Exodus, in the person of Aaron, is himself a new Adam. We have seen that Moses, in his role of “God” to Aaron (as God told him at the burning bush : “you shall serve as God for him” [Exodus 4:16]) is charged with “re-creating” Aaron. In our parasha, this high-priest is literally called “the priest, the messiah” (Leviticus 4:3). This is the first time this word appears in Scripture and the only context in which it is accompanied by the article. How should we explain this expression? It is possible that he is called “messiah” simply because this word means “the one who received the anointing”. But everything in the tabernacle including all of the priests were anointed with the same ointment (Exodus 40:15), why therefore single-out one priest over the others? Let us remember that the high-priest is a new Adam, who is also anointed to make atonement for the sins of the people as well as his own sins - to save them - which is precisely what is expected of a Messiah. The high-priest, therefore, plays a double role: he plays the role of our first parent and at the same time he plays the role of the future redeemer of Israel. Also, this ointment is not a simple religious act, but “their anointing shall admit them to a perpetual priesthood throughout all generations to come” (Exodus 40:15) - it is not just a “sign” of the priesthood, but it is the very foundation of the perpetuity of the priesthood. It is therefore by the anointing - and not by simple genealogy - that there will be a “perpetual priesthood”. We can see here that the Messiah is the ultimate high-priest and the one who shall ultimately reconcile the people to God by removing their sins : “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). Shabbat Shalom.