Vayikra - 7th Portion

Join as we learnish for Shabis the seventh Torah reading of parasikra chapter 5 verse 11. Yesterday we began with a variable sin offering a person who can't afford or a different sin offerings which depended on the person's amount of uh wealth of what he would bring for that sin offering. Yesterday we spoke about the birds that were brought. Today we continue that if a person can't afford afford the birds, he can still bring the meal offering. We then continue with the different types of guilt offerings, a guilt offering for misappropriation, a suspensive guilt offering, and the guilt offering for dishonesty. Chapter 5 11. What happens if a person can't even afford the two turtle doves? The two pigeons, two young pigeons will then bring a sacrifice for what he committed. He is then going to bring oneth of an apha which would be today's measurements 2.6 quarts of fine flour as a sin offering. He should not put on it oil. You should not place on it any frankincense because this is a sin offering and therefore it's not appropriate that you should be an elaborate type of sacrifices. You give it the basic as it is. The Torah continues verse 12. brings it to the cohen. Then the cohen takes from it a scoops from it fistful as in memorial brings it on the altar on the fire of hemi. This is a sin offering. What does it mean? Why does it say it again? That if it was scooped and put on the fire for intent, it's kosher. But if it was not for the intent of a sin offering, it's unfit. Verse 13 will then make an atonement for a sin that he had committed that he committed from one of these and then he is forgiven and the is for the who gets the meal offering from it. says over here the Torah changes the language and doesn't say the same terminology like the previous sacrifices when it came to the rich or the poor when it came to the goat or to the turtle doves and pigeons from his sinos but over here when a person's really poor that he's only bringing a meal offering it says on the rabbis have learned learned from here that if a person sinned while he was wealthy and he set aside money to buy a c a sheep or a young goat or and then and then what happens in the end he becomes poor and he brings from it two doves two turtle doves and then this poor person who is sinned and set aside money to bring and he sets aside side money to contribute and he brings two doves the then he then he gets even poorer and he brings a tenth of an apha which is the poorest kind of sacrifice of of a of a meal offering therefore it says from meaning that as you notice he's going less and less he started off that he brought a sheep then he goes to bringing a pigeon and then he goes on the lowest of the low to be able to bring a meal offering This is also telling us what happens if a person started off and he put aside money to bring only a meal offering because he was very poor and then he got wealthier then he should go and bring a sacrifice of a wealthy person. Therefore it says on the sin telling us that sometimes he has to bring an additional sacrifice should he become wealthier and able to afford it. from one of these from one of these three types of atonements that we mentioned whether wealthy, poor, or really poor. Why does the Torah have to tell me this to from all the one of these three? I would think I would think that if you do a very strict and terrible sin, you should have to bring a more expensive animal. And if you do a very not such a terrible sin, if you want to call it that, then you should be able to only bring a a a like a meal offering. Therefore, the tells us that any of these three sins, meaning that they're all equally to show you that the there's no such thing as a stringent sin or easy sin or a weak sin. They're all obligatory to be able to bring according to a person's ability. That means if you're able to afford a sheep or a goat, that's what you got to bring. So too, even if a person's very poor and he's only able to afford a meal offering and he did a severe sin, it also works. And this is what the Torah is telling us that they're all equal. One shouldn't think, "Oh, this wasn't such a great sin, so therefore I can get away by bringing a meal offering." If you're able to afford a sheep, doesn't make a difference to severity of the sin. You have to bring the sheep or the goat. This tells us that about the meal offering of auds were able to be eaten by the simple interpretation. The rabbis explain that if the person who sinned was actually a coin then it would be like any other meal offering that a coin brings that nobody gets to eat it and all of it gets burnt on the altar. Verse 14. And God speaks to Moshe saying, "If a person acts unfaithfully and sinned unintentionally with the um by by doing something by making personal of any god's holy items behavior then anyone will have to bring his guilt offering. God will be a ram with unblenmished from the he has to bring unblenmished ram from the flock has to be at the value of it has to be at least two silver shekel in the sacred shekele of the guilt offering let's see for the explanation here verse the word that we find over here generally means the word changing. You were given to do something and instead of doing what was intended, you changed from what it was meant to do. He now brings out the verses that it says that they changed from their god and they went to other gods. It says by the she changed meaning she went away from the husband that she was supposed to be with what did he do wrong? He enjoyed from something which was supposed to be holy. It was meant to be holy and instead of using it for holiness he used it for personal use. Where was he warned that one is not allowed to do this as it says says your sin says later on by the words by they should not carry any sin. Just like over there, they're warned that they're not allowed to use it for their own mundane items. So too, it's telling us that a person is not allowed to use it for mundane items. Over there, it's only referring to a person who eats it. You would think that it only refers to a person who eats from holy things when he's not allowed to. Therefore, the verse adds the words when you change the direction for what it was intended to do that it concludes. Now anytime a person uses something of holy for its unintended use it is considered um an abrogation of the holiness and therefore you would have to ring a sacrifice for item. This is from the holy things that are given for God which are said and designated that they should be for godly things. excludes things which are not as severe holiness a ram it's already means a ram which means a grown animal like we find the great the great ones the strong ones of the of the land he took over here we're talking about strong one it has to be at least two years old that the that the actual ram should be worth two verse In addition, he must pay the monetary value of the sacred item in which he sinned. He should pay and then he has to add on a fifth that means 25% of its value. He gives it to the capital of a cohen will then make an atonement with him through the ram of the guilt offering and he will be forgiven. Verse 16 he has to pay the principal plus 25% he has to pay to he has to pay to the sanctuary has to give to the verse 17. Now we go to a suspensive guilt offering. Now what about these are different types of guilt offerings that can occur if a person makes a sin. If a person transgresses by one of the passive commandments of God, but he didn't know, he does not know if he did it for sure or not. He is not sure if he did that sin and therefore he is nonetheless considered guilty and he bears its transgression. Rashi 17. We're talking about in a case where a person comes to a doubt of whether this punishment that he would come to if he did it intentionally, he would then be punished by dying prematurely. He doesn't know if he transgressed it or not. Gives an example. A person has in front of him two kinds of fats. One's a prohibited fats, one's a permitted fats. If you eat the pro prohibited fats, the alliability for that is the punishment for that is uh premature death. And he thinks he thought that the fats are both equally the same. He didn't know that one was prohibited and one was permitted. He one of them afterwards somebody comes along. Do you know that one of those pieces were prohibited was does not know if he ate the one of or he ate the one of the prohibited one or the permitted one. And as a he brings an a guilt offering a suspended a suspense of guilt offering love this protects him calls because this sacrifice protects him as long as he doesn't know for sure if he sinned if he what happens if he finds out later what it really was and that he actually made the transgression then he has to bring an actual sin offering. So this is only until he finds out whatever what really happened or if he never knows impossible for him to find out. Says if we see over here that the verse punishes a person who doesn't know if he did something wrong. How much more so that it punishes the person who intentionally and intentionally goes and eats and does something which is wrong. says, "If you really want to know the great reward the righteous have just go look the punishment of Adam, the first man, he was only commanded one commandment, a negative commandment. Do not eat from the tree of Allah and he transgressed and he ate from the tree of knowledge. How many deaths have because of him death has come into the world for generations to come. And we know that God's measure of good is so much more so than the measure of punishment. So you can imagine that the measure of good that's going to come from following what God says so much more. If God's measurement for punishment is so small and still in all there were so many punishments for generations to come of death. How much more so? How much more so a person who follows what God says and refrains from eating things that he's not allowed to eat, refrains from eating and does what he's supposed to do, how much more so that the blessings that he is going to get is going to be for generations and generations and generations to come until the end of time. says, "The Torah says according to two or three witnesses is when somebody dies." If it works by two, why does the Torah say whether two or three to be able to be stringent? That means that if two witnesses come along and tell a per se something that a person did something killed one person and then a third person follows comes along and says I also am joining the testimony and then two of them become adim means that somebody else comes along another set of witnesses says how can you come along and say that you saw that person killed that individual you were with me then this person cannot say I didn't do anything that if you're going to be part of the witnesses then you're going to be joining them as well And the rule of the third person is whatever the first two people are as well. Now he says the Torah this is deals this way to people are just an accessory to a crime and they're considered as if the people that actually committed the crime. How much more so does God give that God repays the war to those that are accessory to doing good to those that do good as well. says as follows. It says in the Torah that when you will cut and harvest your field and you will forget one of the pieces, one bundle in the field, God continues to say that he will bless you. Over here, God's giving you a blessing by something by the virtue that you didn't even know about it because you forgot the bundle and because of that God has blessed you. How much more so that if you had a coin, it fell out of your pocket and it fell from you and a poor person went and found it, then now the poor person is going to get money because of it, how much more so your blessing is going to be. Verse 18. In order to be able to get an atonement for such a sin that you're not sure about, you have to bring a ram unblenmished from the flock and the value to bring it as a guilt offering to the cohen. The cohen will then be an atonement for him on this mistake on the unintentional sin that he may have committed that he doesn't know about and he will be forgiven. the same value that we mentioned before which is the two this is only if he didn't know but if he does know then this guilt offering doesn't help him he has to bring an actual sin offering what does this compare to that if what happens if they do anal was done that if they find a person dead and they don't know who actually killed a person The people from the closest city had to come bring a calf chop off his head by a by next to a swamp of water and this would be considered their atonement. What happens if they did this and then afterwards they find the killer? Then the guy can't say, "Oh well you guys got an atonement already because he killed a calf." No, we still do the punishment to the killer as well. Same to over here. If a person brings a suspense of guilt offering because he doesn't know if he did something wrong, but then he finds out he did something wrong, he's still responsible to bring a sin offering to atone for that sin that he did. Verse 19, aim ashem is a guilt offering because he has indeed incurred a guilt before God. Why the three terminologies of ashukat? First one has all comets. That's a noun. The last one that's a verb. And then the middle one you may say. What's the point of this verse? It explains already entire. This comes to include in the medr says that this comes to include other guilt offerings which is which is mentioned later on that it has to be made brought out of a ram as well and it has to be worth value of two as well as the guilt offering for a nazerite and for that it has to be at the same value. Therefore, the verse uses the terminology who meaning it's an exclusion. Not only that uh that only the is the one similar to here but not the one of the Nazarite and the verse 20 and God speaks to Moshe saying if a person acts unfaithfully using the same terminology and he's by falsely how does he act unfaithfully to God by he acts unfaithfully to by denying to another in the person to a claim to a fellow about something that was given to him as a collateral as a deposit or by an object that was taken by robbery or that he was held wages from his fellow 21. Why does it say that he was doing the he's acting unfaithfully to God if these are things between man and his fellow and this is because then any person that gives loans money or borrows money or handles with anything any business should only be done with a document and with witnesses. Therefore, if a person comes along and he tries to deny it, he's denying about the witnesses and the document as well. meaning he's trying to say that everything there was false and it's forged. But when a person gives a deposit by a friend, he doesn't want that anybody else to know about it. Why? Because he's afraid people might steal it, whatever it may be. Therefore, when he's denying it, like in this verse, who is he denying? The only one he's denying is about God. And therefore, it says he's denying God. He's acting unfaithfully to God. Because when you borrow something from somebody, when you're purchasing something, you write a contract. So you're denying, you're dying, you say the witnesses are lying. You say the documents are false. But when over here, when the third party is God, and you're denying something, and the only one that knows the truth is God, you're being acting unfaithful to God. That he gave money to his friend that he should act in business with it as a loan as a loan or he stole something. or he's supposed to pay him and he didn't pay him. In any of these cases, he's denying that he owes him the money or case 20 verse 22 found the lost denies that he ever found it. be swearing falsely in any of these cases that a person will do where he may be sinning in any of these events that he denies in any of these claims against him and therefore the person sins and he swears falsely in denying that he owes money to any of these individuals. Verse 23. So when will be that he sinned and is guilty? First of all, first of all, he has to return with the stolen item that he stole or the money that he or the funds that he owes the person that was given to him or the lost item that he found. verse 23 when he recognizes that he did something wrong. He wants to repent and to admit and to acknowledge that he did something wrong. Step number one is you got to return the item. After you return the item, then or anything else that he may have sworn falsely about first of all he must pay the principle. He should add 25% to it. Then he has to give it to the owner, the rightful owner on the day that he acknowledges his guilt. Verse 24, the principle is considered the head because that's the top. Number one, you got to take care of the top. the principle you got to pay up the principle plus 25% punishment penalization of the Torah included many that he has to pay 25% for one principle that if he denies in the principle that he says I don't owe you the 25% he swears and then he admits then he has to go pay again that means let's say a person says $100 he denies on the $100 so he has to pay up the $100 plus $125 what happens he says I paid do the 25 then he has to and you find out that that he's guilty. So he has to pay 25 plus another 25% on the 25 which is 250 which you would have to pay again. So too will continue to work if the person keeps on denying and keeps on going that he pays another 25% until he keeps on getting smaller and smaller the principle that he swore him about even less than a shava less than the value of a pruda then he doesn't have to pay anymore at 25% because as you go higher as the amounts diminish then you come less and less so the first time it's 100 it's going to be $25 and $25 is going to be 250 and 250 it's going to be 25 cents on 25 cents it's going to be 2.5 cents and And each more time it's going to get less and less to whom the money belongs to. Verse 25. And then he'll bring his guilt offering to God a ram unblenmished from his flock and the value of two as a guilt offering the coin will be for an atonement in front of God. for any of these things that he may have committed which incurred a guilt through it. This concludes the Tor reading of parasra.