Parashah of the week: Vayikra

Asham sacrifices are part of reparation for what are clearly intentional crimes – b’mezid in Hebrew: robbery, embezzlement and the like.

Meanwhile, Zornberg dives into psychology, asking why unintentional sins need atonement at all. She suggests that even if a sin is committed out of ignorance, once the consciousness shifts and we realise the error, we bear a responsibility, feel a sense of guilt and require absolving of a burden: we can call these our slip-ups.

The flip side of this is those situations when we err yet excuse ourselves, coming up with reasons why we did no wrong: our moral blind-spots.

The dual concept of slip-ups and blindspots feels very contemporary to me, and a more complex take on “intentional” and “unintentional” sins. Some believe they never do wrong, while others feel guilty about everything. Perhaps we all carry both sides within us – Jewish guilt and entitlement intertwined.
Korbanot provide accountability without self-flagellation. For those who over analyse every interaction, however b’shogeg, there’s an accessible process for closure and release. For those who never admit fault, even leaders, there’s accountability.
In an era where world leaders face court – or try to evade it – Vayikra offers a dignified system of justice at all levels of society.

And for those of us who can lie awake at night over-analysing conversations and wondering if we offended someone, there’s a release for that too.

Vayikra isn’t an easy book to access or relate to, but I encourage us to look beyond the animal anatomy and gore. With a little help from sensitive scholars – from the scientific to the psychological – there is wisdom to be mined.

Rabbi Lorie is rabbinical scholar of Jofa UK