3405 Gulling Road, Reno, NV 89503
3405 Gulling Road, Reno, NV 89503
Rabbi Sara led our discussion last time, beginning at Leviticus 1:16, which is about removing the bird’s crop and throwing it and contents into the ashes east of the altar. Verse 17 is about tearing the bird open, by the wings, without severing it, and then burning it to smoke–on the wood that is on the fire that is on the altar–to make a burnt offering with an odor pleasing to YHVH. Bekhor Shor says that a bird is no less pleasing to God than a bull if the heart of the one offering it is directed toward heaven.
This brings the animal offerings to an end. Rabbi Sara reminded us that there are three separate animal offerings—herd, flock, and bird–and, in addition, there are grain offerings. A grain offering is called mincha.
Moving to grain offerings, R. Sara pointed out that the oil is refined and grain ground both by hand. She suggested the grains might be wheat, barley, and millet—but that we probably don’t have a taxonomy of ancient grains.
We discussed contemporary Judaism and whether Jewish movements are distinguished by their degree of practicing halachah (Jewish law), as Robbie was told by one of his teachers. R. Sara stated instead that we all have rabbis we follow, indicating that it is more complicated than simply degrees of halachic practice. Judaism, she stressed, is a set of rules by which a person chooses how and why they practice. (In other words, we’re always choosing from among the rules and based on our understanding of why we are practicing.) R. Myra, in a similar vein, stated that we have communities of which we wish to be a part. She stated that our Judaism is a matrix of those practices interacting.
Chris discussed what we do in our Jewish practice and called it apprehending God (with the stress on the interesting term, “apprehending”). R. Sara mentioned bringing God close (takriv). Chris mentioned sitting in front of a Buddha statue and contemplating it. An interesting juxtaposition with this is Bekhor Shor’s idea (above) of directing your heart to heaven.
Apprehending God, bringing God close, turning your heart to God, all of these are ways of thinking of Jewish practice, including the practice of Torah Study.
Our artwork is two more paintings from Archie Rand’s The 613, Not to Burn Yeast or Honey on the Altar, Leviticus 2:11 (left) and Not to Omit Salt from Grain Offerings, Leviticus 2:13 (right).
Rand illustrated each one of the 613 mitzvot. It’s not always clear how his illustrations fit their particular mitzvah. The young men are collecting honey, honey they’d like to sacrifice? The man in the boat is an old salt? What would he sacrifice? How would honey collectors and sailors sacrifice? How would they apprehend or come close to God? It’s hard to say.
