This week's Miller's Musings is sponsored
by David and Dalia Mechlowitz wishing everyone a beautiful Shabbos
דבס''
MILLER’S MUSINGS
תזריעפרשת
All Burnt Up
The concept of impurity requires some understanding. It is not as many understand it a sign of some sort of defilement or something untoward. But, put briefly, it is in essence a void where there was once holiness. The process by which a woman became pure after birth, is one that requires both a burnt offering and a sin offering. The Torah puts them in that order, but, as Rashi tells us, although the Kohen read the relevant portions of the Torah in that sequence, the sin offering was actually brought first. The obvious question here would be why the Kohen did not read in the same order in which they were offered up on the altar?
Every offering that was brought in the Beis Hamikdosh was offered as a means to achieving a particular goal. But each one also represented a part of our general Torah observance. The Nachalas Eliezer tells us that the burnt offering that was consumed in its entirety by the altar’s flames, signified the end goal of our task in this world, when we have managed to devote all that we are to His will. The sin offering denoted an earlier part of the process to reach our purpose, where we work on detaching ourselves from our negative acts. That done, we must then focus on ensuring we are also actively doing that which is right. The order in which the korbanos were brought reflected this progression. But lest one become too lackadaisical and think that merely divorcing ourselves from sin is enough, the Kohanim reminded us by their reciting of the burnt offering passage first, what our ultimate objective must be, to give our entirety to Hashem in all we do.
Imagine starting a business or institution. What is the first question that must be asked? Surely, before one can go any further, the initial focus must be on what we are trying to achieve. Once this has been determined everything else is a consequence of this and every decision and function is judged on how it contributes to the overall goal. If the prime objective is to make money, everything that the company does must be in order to produce this result. Our purpose here is to connect with Hashem in all we do and in that way become attached to the only true good. When you consider that this is our entire purpose in being created and our sole objective of being here, it makes complete sense that we evaluate our lives accordingly. This is of course a process, but it is only logical that every aspect of our lives be examined for how we can use it to bring Hashem’s presence into it. We must work, we must eat, we must have leisure time, but there are always ways to elevate those times in some small way to create G-dliness in what we do. We owe it to ourselves to do so. It is the whole point of being here after all.
*May our Shabbos be spent in ways entirely for Hashem*
לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם
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