Our Rabbi's Message
March 6th 2009
By Rabbi Aaron KriegelThe Torah portions that we read these weeks are about the way we were once upon a time and a long long time ago. We did not always pray three times a day. In fact there was a time when we only prayed when we needed God's help. In those early times the way that we spoke to God was though sacrifice. And not anyone had the authority or the right to sacrifice. One had to be from the scions of Aaron. That meant that if an ordinary person wanted to thank God for a blessing or ask God for a favor, he had to bring a specific sacrifice for that want or need to the Temple.
The Temple itself did not look like the schul we worship in today. There were no pews; there was no rabbi or cantor. All was done by the High Priest or by other priests under his direction. You could tell who the priests were because of the special clothing that they were wearing. WE know exactly how they looked, for that is the substance of the Torah portion that we read today.
People did not have the opportunity to build a Temple in the area where they lived. There was only one Temple, and that was in Jerusalem, or wherever God asked the Tent of Meeting to be set up before our forefathers settled in Jerusalem. Consequently, one who had a desire to sacrifice had to make that long trek up the mountain to the holy city. There was no shortcut, and there was no other ways to travel save on foot. Times were very different back then.
Every year we read how we used to connect with God. Almost all of what we read has no relevance to the ways that we pray today. However, our rabbis believed that it was important to know what we used to do in order to understand that we are connected tour past, and to understand that society is never static. Changes take place because times change.
Orthodoxy of any religion seems to hold that things were always the way they are now. In truth things were never the way they are now. The reason that we read about the way we used to do things in this Torah portion is to teach us that while we cannot forget the past, we cannot hold on to it as an unchanging way to live. The Torah, a revelation that is more than three thousand years old, teaches that change happens. We cannot live as we lived three thousand years ago.
We read about the past to sanctify the way we approach God in the present. To forget the past is heresy. To live in the past is sinful.
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