Parashah of the week: Tzav

Week Two of the Book of Leviticus. Chapter 8. Focus. This is just the beginning. To the modern reader, all that detail about animal sacrifices makes the Book of Leviticus, especially the first few chapters, rather hard work.

Of course, we’re not the first generation to have to dig a little deeper in the descriptions of the blood and animal entrails to find a relevant meaning. Animal sacrifices were the form of worship of the time, probably quite unremarkable in context.

The language of sacrifices is distracting, especially if you’re at all squeamish, and in an age where meat often comes pre-packed from the supermarket. But the message is actually about our relationship with God and the world around us. All the themes of prayer today – of community, of petitioning God, of repentance and giving thanks – they are all to be found, that is if you can sift through the historical detail, in the sacrificial cult.

So here in verse 22 we have a ram. And there’s Moses. And Aaron and his sons. And at the beginning of verse 23, the verb vayishchat, literally “he slaughtered”. It’s a different form of the word shechitah (ritual slaughter for kosher meat) or shochet (the one who performs shechitah). Exactly the same pattern is found in verse 15 (with a bull) and in verse 19 (with a previous ram).