Kol Tzedek
  • Spiritual Life
    • Hanukkah
    • Shabbat Links
    • Spiritual Care
    • Yahrzeits
    • Life Cycles
    • KT's Simcha Band
    • New Siddur!
  • About
    • Purpose, Vision, & Priorities
    • Calendar
    • Staff
    • Community Resources
    • Black Lives Matter
    • Israel-Palestine
    • Budget
    • Event Requests
    • COVID Community Guidelines
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Access at KT
    • Contact Us
  • Membership
    • Become a Member
    • KT Community Brit
    • Member Login
    • Update Your Sustaining Share
  • Learning
    • Members' Teachings
    • Torah School
    • Adult Learning
    • Rabbi's Blog
    • Rabbis' Sermons
    • The KT Library
    • Sha"tz Training Program
  • Ways to Give
    • Donate
    • Sponsor KT's New Sanctuary!
    • Sponsor an Oneg
    • Sponsor Captioning
    • Dedicate a Prayerbook
    • Friends of KT

Rabbi's Blog

The Call to Come Close

3/31/2017

 
This week we begin a new book of the Torah, the book of Vayikra, known in English as Leviticus, and known to the rabbis as Torat Kohanim, or Priestly Wisdom. On the surface, the heart of the book of Leviticus is procedural descriptions for temple sacrifices. And for this reason, it is often unappreciated in contemporary liberal circles. However what appears to be a story about blood and guts (quite literally!), is in fact a story about our longing for intimacy. 

The Hebrew word Korban קורבן, often translated as sacrifice or offering, in fact comes from the root קרב (kuf resh bet), and the verb לקרב (L'Karev) - meaning to bring near. While it might appear that the chapters of Leviticus are an interruption in the flow of biblical narrative, we are called to look closer at the priestly traditions because within them is revealed a value system that knows we humans crave closeness. We crave connection and community. We crave intimacy, in its many forms - even as we are scared, hurt and healing from it.
In a post on Facebook this week, Rabbi Michael Adam Latz commented:
"So entangled is our liberation and our quest for holiness, that the stories are never, in fact, separated: We read the Hagadah, the Pesach story, in the midst of reading the book of Vayikra. These moments, these holy pursuits, collapse into one another and erupt into Judaism's purpose: To cry out for a life of liberation and holiness, that to be a free people is to reach for heaven and earth in the same instant and try with all our strength and all our compassion and all our spiritual resolve to bring them together in one unified and holy embrace."


The book of Vayikra is the story of our human imperfection, our capacity to forgive and the closeness, the intimacy that comes from real teshuva - transformative healing. When God instructed Moses to cry out unto Pharoah, "Let my people go..." God specified, "...that they may be of service." Our freedom is not a means to an end. It is a call to come closer to each other, to our fragility and our longings, and to know that holiness lies in the space between us if we only have the courage to take a step in.

Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Ari Lev

Comments are closed.

    Rabbi's Blog
    ​

    You can search Rabbi Ari Lev's blog below:

    Author

    Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari brings Torat Hayyim, a living tradition, to Kol Tzedek through thoughts about prayer, justice, and community. 

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Office & Mailing Address: 5300 Whitby Ave, Commercial #2, Philadelphia, PA 19143 
 General Questions: (267) 702-6187 or [email protected]
Shabbat Services: 5300 Whitby Ave, Commercial #1, Philadelphia, PA 19143 
  • Spiritual Life
    • Hanukkah
    • Shabbat Links
    • Spiritual Care
    • Yahrzeits
    • Life Cycles
    • KT's Simcha Band
    • New Siddur!
  • About
    • Purpose, Vision, & Priorities
    • Calendar
    • Staff
    • Community Resources
    • Black Lives Matter
    • Israel-Palestine
    • Budget
    • Event Requests
    • COVID Community Guidelines
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Access at KT
    • Contact Us
  • Membership
    • Become a Member
    • KT Community Brit
    • Member Login
    • Update Your Sustaining Share
  • Learning
    • Members' Teachings
    • Torah School
    • Adult Learning
    • Rabbi's Blog
    • Rabbis' Sermons
    • The KT Library
    • Sha"tz Training Program
  • Ways to Give
    • Donate
    • Sponsor KT's New Sanctuary!
    • Sponsor an Oneg
    • Sponsor Captioning
    • Dedicate a Prayerbook
    • Friends of KT