by Rabbi Russ Resnik

Biblical Hebrew is a concrete language, with few of the abstract or theoretical terms in which more modern languages abound. Thus, the normal term for worship is simply "avodah," meaning service, or even work. This term is essential to the whole drama of Exodus, of course.  The Israelites are serving Pharaoh, and the Lord says, "Let my people go, that they may serve me."

Service to Pharaoh doesn't look like worship at all. The Israelites must make bricks and build cities. More to the point, Pharaoh seems to think that the people belong to him. He can decide when and if they come and go, how much they must work, and whether they can cease from working. Service to God, in contrast, looks more like what we would call worship today. Moses requests that Pharaoh let the people take a three-day journey into the desert to have a festival (5:1, 10:9), and to bring sacrifices (3:18, 5:3, 8:27). With neither Pharaoh nor the Lord, however, does the servant-worshiper have to wonder what worship looks like, for the master provides concrete requirements.

When Pharaoh finally does let Israel go to serve the Lord, they escape through Yam Suf, the Sea of Reeds, and come to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. For the remainder of Exodus, forty percent of the book, they prepare a place of worship, and equip the worship leaders, the priests.
Finally, as Leviticus opens, the tabernacle is standing, and the glory cloud of God has descended upon it. The question in everyone's mind must have been "Now what?" The answer comes as the Lord provides concrete direction for worship through Moses:

Step one in worship is the offering.  Through all the details about sacrifices and priesthood that follow, the larger picture remains clear: The sacrificial system is about worship, and all worship involves an offering.

In our contemporary, consumerist setting, we might be tempted to think of worship as a commodity, an experience or event that we can acquire for ourselves. We attend worship services and listen to "praise and worship" bands, and decide which ones provide us with the best experience. We purchase CDs of worship music and are transported by its sounds as we clean house or drive down the highway.

Likewise, we might think of worship as a component, something that enhances our already rather crowded lives. We speak of entering worship, as if it were a particular state of consciousness into which we can come and go. Or we might speak of worship as if it were a section of the weekly service, or a preparation for the great sermon that is next on the schedule.

When we genuinely worship God we may, of course, have an experience, but this is never the real focal point of worship. Instead, Torah presents worship as something we do in response to the greatness of God, something that shapes the whole of our lives. In Tales of the Hasidim, Martin Buber recounts an insight that one Hasidic master gains from the opening of Leviticus:

Concerning the words in the Scriptures: "When any man of you bringeth an offering to the Lord..." [Lev. 1:2] the rabbi of Rizhyn said: "Only he who brings himself to the Lord as an offering may be called a man."

Step one in worship is bringing an offering to God, an offering that represents us as whole persons. Worship not a commodity that we gain, nor a component that enhances our lives. Rather, it is the act of presenting ourselves to God as ones who now belong fully to him. This truth, recognized by the rabbi of Rizhyn, is reflected in the text of Parashat Vayikra itself. For example, Moses' instructions in 1:2 begin with the Hebrew word ki, "When, if any one of you brings an offering to the LORD . . ." Moses doesn't command the Israelites to bring an offering, but regulates the offering that they will inevitably bring.  Why?—because presenting the offering is inherent to worshiping, the Lord. They have been set free from Pharaoh to serve the Lord, so they must bring an offering.

Furthermore, the offerings described throughout the rest of this parasha are of various types. They do not all involve sin and atonement. One category is the shelamim, which commentator Baruch Levine calls "the sacred gifts of greeting" (JPS Torah Commentary).  The offerings express various aspects of the worshiper's relationship with God, and ultimately the worshiper himself.

This presentation is intensely personal, and yet depends on the whole community, which together built and maintains the tabernacle, provides the priests, and surrounds the place of worship with their own dwellings.
In a couple of weeks, we will have an opportunity to present an offering as a community, which will include the personal offering as well. This year's UMJC Prayer Campaign, between Passover and Shavuot, will focus on Tikkun Olam, restoration of the world in Messiah, and include both personal and communal restoration. The offering of prayer is certainly an act of worship, and it is reinforced as we present this offering together as a whole community. Furthermore, the Prayer Campaign will culminate in another offering—a financial offering for Shavuot that will go to Messianic Jewish humanitarian efforts in Israel. Check out www.umjc.org for more details, and watch for daily prayer guides coming to this list.

Worship always involves an offering, ultimately the offering of oneself to God. Such worship reflects the ultimate sacrifice, Yeshua the Messiah, who came not only to provide atonement for our sins, but also to present himself fully to God, as an example for us.

To worship in this way, we need to counter the self-centered, consumerist values of our day that treat worship as one commodity among many, or as a component to our lives instead of the core meaning of our lives. In worship, as the rabbi of Rizhyn taught, a person must offer himself or herself to the Lord. But, of course, another rabbi taught the same truth many centuries earlier:

I exhort you, therefore, brothers, in view of God's mercies, to offer yourselves as a sacrifice, living and set apart for God. This will please him; it is the logical "Temple worship" for you. (Romans 12:1 CJB)

Shabbat Shalom!
Russ Resnik

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