The Weekly Sedra – Vayikra – Self-Sacrifice, 
It Doesn’t Really Kill

On a freezing winter night as Napoleon layed under his warm covers, he was overcome by a sudden bout of thirst. Considering that in order to satisfy his craving he would have to leave his cozy conditions and go outside to fetch some water, he contemplated ignoring his nagging discomfort, but was quickly overcome by a powerful sense of shame.

“Napoleon! You have become all but lazy,” he said to himself. “There is evidently no difference between you and the common yokel.” With that, he tore himself out of bed and proceeded out the door to fetch himself some water.

By the time he walked across the field, where the fresh water was stored, he thought to himself: “Bonaparte, you really ought to be embarrassed of yourself. You are so weak you’d do anything to avoid a little discomfort. Have you no willpower to prevail over a tad of thirst? There is obviously no difference between you and the ordinary Joe.” He immediately retuned to bed without touching a drop of water.

Upon relating this story, the Chasidic master of Lublin, (The Chozeh) concluded: “This is what I call strength of character.”

When asked to give an informal talk to a group of religiously uncommitted Jews, I discussed the idea of self-sacrifice. The facilitator – obviously not overly impressed – asked why I chose this topic. “These are not religious people,” he argued, “are you trying to blow them away?” My answer was rather simple: “I chose this topic because it captures the essence of Judaism.”

Self-sacrifice is not very popular in Western culture, to say the least. It is arguably the very antitheses of everything our society admires and encourages. The idea of seeking-out and indulging in as many pleasures as possible is inculcated into the human psyche from the moment of birth. Wherever we turn, we are introduced to a new form of entertainment or pleasure, which plays to our base instincts. We are repeatedly reminded how much we need and “deserve” it. Indulgence is what drives our economy and how we measure success.

But what does it say about the quality of our character? It is not hard to understand that continuous pandering to our animalistic dimension is not going to produce a very pretty result. Does our skyrocketing level of divorce, road rage, crime and depression, have anything to do with this? I’ll leave it for you to decide.

What’s clear is that if we desire to achieve a modicum of self-refinement – to transcend an animalistic existence, it must begin with some degree of self-discipline.

Animal sacrifice was a central part of the service that took place in the Temple, yet the Temple is not only a physical structure that existed in a given time and place, it is rather an ongoing phenomenon that occurs within each one of us.

The sacrifices discussed in this weeks Torah portion, and for that matter, throughout much of the book of Vayikra, are about the sacrifices that each of us must perform within our very own sanctuary – with our very own animal instincts and desires, in order to reach a higher level of consciousness.

A lot of people profess to believe in G-d, but how deep is that belief? The true and only litmus test is that which we are willing to give up for Him. The way to serve G-d is to prove to Him, as well as to ourselves, that the relationship is not one way – G-d is not only where we turn when we need something – what have you done for me lately – we acknowledge G-d’s ongoing kindness and gift of life by offering him a sacrifice.

It is not a coincidence that the Hebrew word for sacrifice is Korban from the word Karov, which means to get close. To get closer to our spiritual G-dly-self, which is the quintessential objective of Judaism, we must distance ourselves and ignore some of the demands of our animal-self, which is what Judaism refers to as Self-sacrifice.

The type of sacrifice demanded of us is not like those of previous generations, which included suffering and death (G-d forbid). What is asked of us is to give up a little of our independence to our Heavenly Maker – which is by definition what a commitment is all about.

The latter is, perhaps, the greatest challenge of our generation – the age in which we are taught to view ourselves as the center of all existence. We must overcome this secular notion and learn to perceive ourselves as subordinate to our Heavenly Creator.

With this knowledge comes the axiomatic reality that it is our inextricable obligation to obey His will and commands. This is so not only when we are in the mood, or when it behooves us. Our service of G-d must be in the form of an ironclad commitment, otherwise what worth does it really have?