severed heads - vayikra 2011

8/3/2019 Severed Heads - Vayikra 2011

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Vayikra

Severed Heads

Elchanan Shoff

If his offering is a bird and he shall sever its head (with his fingernail)Vayikra 1:14-15

When person offers a bird as a sin offering, he severs the head using a process called

melika. But when he severs the head of the bird, he should take great care not to severit entirely, teaches the Torah.1 The birds brought as offerings are doves, and theJewish people are compared to a dove2, so what is done to the dove hints to whatshould be happening to the person offering the sacrifice. 3 The neck is broken fromthe back, explains the Sefer Hachinuch,4 to remind us not to be too stiff-necked, andbe prepared to change our ways that led us to sin. But the head is not to be entirelyremoved from the body, for the mind is always meant to lead the heart, explains theNoamHamitzvos5. It can never be removed from it. We are to remind ourselves thatour sins would not have occurred had we let our intellects lead the way, and forcedour hearts and emotions to simply follow.

The Torah, when talking about the mind, uses the word lev, heart.6 But why? Thegreat R. Avigdor Miller7 explained that ones knowledge is only truly called knowledgewhen it penetrates his heart. We can agree that insulting someones mother to his faceis usually the wrong thing to do. If someone insults another persons mother, weknow that it is wrong. But when someone insults your own mother, your heart beginsto beat faster. Your knowledge has penetrated your heart. It beats faster based upon what you know to be right and wrong. That is true knowledge. As long as theknowledge is only in your brain, and remains separated from your heart, and youractions, it is not truly knowledge. And yet, life is about this very journey from theintellect to the heart. You have known today, and you shall bring it home to your

heart, that Hashem is the Lord, there is no other aside from him.8

1 Vayikra 5:8, Chulin 21b2 Shabbos 49a3 Sefer Hachinuch 1244 ibid5 Mitzvah 1246 Radak and ibn Ezra to Tehillim 16:97 Sing You Righteous p. 168 Dvarim 4:39. See Chochma Umussar 1, 128 of R. Simcha Z. Ziv, the Alter of Kelm.


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There is a nation that stands for the separation of the head from the heart. They arecalled Amalek. The very name Amalek is made up of the words am nation, andmalak, Amalek emerges as a nation ofmelika.9 Thegematriaof Amalek is 240, as isthe gematria of safek, doubt.10 Amalek is about acting as if one is not quite certain.They were a people who knew that they would get scalded if they attacked the Jewishpeople11 and they knowingly did so anyhow. They are a people of melika, for theyrefuse to allow what they know in their head to penetrate their hearts. They inheritedthe essence of their ancestor Esav12 who had a head in the right place,13 and knewright from wrong, but would never allow that wisdom to penetrate his heart. This iswhat was behind Hamans Amalkite attack on the Jewish people in the Purim story.

And they stood at the bottom of the mountain.14 When the Jews stood at Sinai, oursages teach us that Hashem held the mountain over them like a barrel 15. He said to

them, If you accept the Torah, all is well. If not, your graves will be there. Fromthen on there was a great16 weakness in the [relationship that the Jewish people hadwith] the Torah. However, they once again accepted it in the time of Achashverosh,as it says17 the Jewish people fulfilled and accepted upon themselves and theirchildren they fulfilled what they had accepted long ago.18 Rashi19 tells us that it wasout of love for the miracle that Hashem preformed for them that they accepted theTorah out of love.

The significance of Hashem raising the mountain20 over the heads of the Jewishpeople at the time of the Torahs giving is immense. R. Meir Simcha of Dvinsk21

9 Torah Or (of R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi) to Tetzaveh p. 8510 See Zohar 2, 65a Hashem said, you said is Hashem among us, or not I will put you into thehands of the dog and right then And Amalek arrived,.11 Rashi Dvarim 25:18 s.v. Asher Karcha12 See Shem Mishmuel Tetzaveh-Shushan Purim s.v. Bigemara13 Esavs head was buried in the Cave of Machpelah, see Targum Yonason to Bereshis 50:13. Arizal

wrote that Esavs head was connected to holiness, see Yaaros Devash 2, 15. See also Derech Sicha ofR. Chaim Kanievsky vol. 1, p. 100. See also Mareh Hapanim to Yerushalmi Taanis 4:2, and Ben

Yehoyada to Eruvin 53a.14 Shemos 19:1715 Regarding the significance of the barrel, see R. Yosef Yoizel, the Alter of Novhardoks MadregasHaadam, Tikkun Hamidos p 27. See also Daas Zekenim and Rosh to Dvarim 32:10 who understand

that the concept of the mountain being like a barrel was described in the Torah (Dvarim 32:10) asyou surrounded them.16 The word great here, is in fact understood by Chida in his Dvash Lifi (Mem, 29) to meaninsignificant. For we find regarding the Kiddush of Shabbos day, which is less important than theone at night, and is called kiddusha rabba, the great kiddush, for in Rabbinic Aramaic, often somethingis called by its extreme opposite, a blind person is called sagi nahor, one with much light, and so on.(See Maggid Mishna to Rambam Hil. Shabbos Ch. 29)17 Esther 9:2718 Shabbos 88a19 s.v. Biymei20 Regarding why specifically a mountain was put over their heads, and nothing else, see Toras Emesin Kol SIfrei R. Nosson Adler to Yisro.


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explains that in fact, the meaning of this bizarre sounding story is that the Jewishpeople were forced into a relationship with Torah by the clarity that they experienced.There was no doubt at Sinai about what was true and what was not. They saw reality,God, and Torah, and they were forced to accept it. It became clear to them that ifthey were not to accept the Torah, they would be reduced to corpses, and the worldcould not continue to exist. And yet there is a great deal of weakness in such anarrangement. A decision of the mind, while firm, lacks the luster of one that perhapscame from lack of clarity but strength of heart. A man who marries his wife becauseit was a very well thought out plan, and he sees on paper that it ought to work, has adifferent relationship that the person who makes his choice out of love, when thingsare less clear. The Purim story was the chance for the Jews to take the relationshipthat was based upon truth, and inject some passion into it. Out of love for themiracle done for them, they renewed their relationship.22

The Purim story occurred in a time of darkness, in exile when the Jewish peoplecould not clearly see the hand of God. His name is not even mentioned in theMegillah! But in fact, the Purim experience was about a time when intellectuallythings were not as clear as in the past, but emotionally, the opportunity was there toconnect with the heart. And that is the connection that solidifies a relationship. It isthe one that lasts, and the one that gives depth. When a person commits tosomething even in a time of darkness, without knowing what will come, in sicknessand in health, that is true commitment.

This is how we beat Amalek, and his descendant Haman, who came to attack us.They are armed with knowledge as we are of what is right and wrong. They disregardit. Our job is to internalize it. When we do that, Haman is hung, and we drink. Oneis obligated to inebriate himself on Purim until he can no longer distinguish betweenhow cursed Haman is, and how blessed Mordechai is.23 When we get that drunk, weare dismissing our minds. Because Purim is not a holiday for the mind, it is one forthe heart. Only when we have a little less clarity can we demonstrate how deep ourcommitment really runs. When all is sunny, and one makes a commitment, he mayneed to wait for the cloudy times until he discovers the depth of his commitment.

In the Spanish Inquisition, when Jewish people were forced to abandon their lives, or

convert to Christianity, one great Rabbi who was witness to this horrible time, R.Yosef Yaavetz,24 in his Or Hachaim,25 records something remarkable. In the exilefrom Spain, from where we were exiled due to our many and egregious sins, most of

21 Meshech Chochma shemos 19:1722 See Alschich in Toras Moshe to Shemos 19, where he explains that this was not a new relationship,for the Gemara clearly says that they once again accepted. It means that the first one was not useless,it was simply renewed.23 Megillah 7b24 Also known as the Chasid Yaavetz.25 Chapter 2


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those who were glorified for their wisdom, and remarkable deeds all traded in theirreligion on that bitter day, while the simple and uneducated people sacrificed theirbodies and money to sanctify their Creator. It is only when something is in ourhearts that is it truly real. Sometimes, that is easier to accomplish when our minds arenot there.

The path to avoiding sin again is to make sure that the head of that bird is stillconnected to the body. Our heads can never be disconnected; we must always knowthat there is little value to all of that knowledge unless it enters our hearts. For in fact,our hearts are what Hashem really wants from us after all.

R. Yisrael Salanter once said, The greatest distance between any two points in theuniverse is the distance that separates our minds from our hearts.

severed heads - vayikra 2011

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