Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Tzav 1

good morning we are learning last week we started the book of and we explained that most of this book is about betamic Dash the mishkan the portable um Temple and that is why this book has a second name and that is called kohanim the midras calls this book the book The the Torah the instructions for kohanim kohanim and in parashatra the first partial of the book we learned about the various offerings for example hola and hola is we call it the burnt offering or we call it the elevation offering there are various names for it the reason it's called burned offering is because it is burned entirely the reason is called elevation offering is for a few reasons one is because it comes to a tone for sins done with one's mind not for physical sins and that is the elevated part of our um entity ourselves so it's called the elevation offering the offering for the sins of the Mind and another reason it's called elevation is because since it's burnt entirely we take the flesh which is a solid and we elevate it through smoke it turns into um the fire turns the the flesh into smoke that rises up the the next core band the next offering we spoke about the reason why I'm uh reviewing them is because this uh Parsha parashat Sav is going to go into more detail about each one of these offerings uh so first briefly is the sin offering and there are various sin offerings for the king for the kohen gadol for Sanhedrin the the high court and for individuals and then we have shilamim the peace offerings and that is brought for various reasons one of the reasons is Broad is when a person is saved from a danger he brings korbani which has a special name korban Toda and chalamim is also brought on on holidays when the Jewish people come to visit the temple is is brought um the the reason it's called shalamim is because it causes peace among all participants whereas by Ola We only burn it on the altar so it's as if to say only God gets it Qatar we burn some parts of the of the Corban on the Altar and some parts the kohanim eat so Hashem gets and kohanimget but shalamim not only some parts we burn on the altar also some parts are given to kohanim but the bulk of the animal majority of the flesh is eaten by the owners those that actually brought the korban so therefore everyone is satisfied Hashem receives the gift kohanim received the gift and the owners also get to partake of the of the um the offering and we spoke about the asham offering that is guilt offering that is brought for in some instances if a person uh commits a transgression and we spoke about minha the flower offering different kinds of flower offerings um now let us start this week's parch and we're gonna go more in depth about each one of these offerings we are on page 59 569 of the article homash chapter 6 laws of hola more detailed laws of Ola Hashem spoke to Moshe saying command and his son saying this is the law of the elevation offering now we're going to speak about it in detail it is the elevation offering that stays on the flame of the altar all night until the morning so here we learn that if the elevation is elevation offering is slaughtered during the day in afternoon for example we can put it on fire right away after it's uh caught up and and washed we can put it on the fire right away or we can put it at night if there is no time for kohenim or no space on the altar to do it right away we can stack the the limbs the cut up animal on the ramp the ramp was a very long it was um 32 are mode long that's that's about 50 feet there was a ramp 50 feet going up to the altar the altar was tall and therefore there was a lot of space so all the limbs that didn't have a chance to be brought to the fire on top of the altar they were stacked there different parts of the ramp were designated for different offerings so that the kohanim don't mix them up don't confuse them and they know which one what to do with which one and then throughout the night they can bring them up to the fire and continue burning them but till the morning it cannot stay past the morning the quanium have to make sure that all of them are burned by the morning and the fire of the altar should be kept a flame on it here we learned that there must be a continual fire burning besides the main pyre the main fire that was there for the actual burning they had a separate fire that was kept burning constantly and kohanim had to keep keep an eye on it and if it would become smaller they would have to add wood to it and that's the fire from which whenever necessary they would take the the calls to light fire anywhere else they needed verse 3 the the kohen shall Dawn his fitted linen tunic from here we learned it has to be fitted it has to be made custom for his size cannot be too big cannot be um hanging too much and it cannot be too tight the kohanim because they represent the Jewish people in front of God they had to look presentable they had to look perfect and therefore every Garment of a Cohen had to be custom made so we list some of these garments the the tunic the the linen pants and of course he had a hat and a belt he shall separate the ash of what the fire consumed of the elevation offering of the Altar and this was a special mitzvah for every morning to take a little bit of the ash that was uh left from LA from yesterday from top of the Altar and take it off a symbolic sign that it's a that we have so much Ash that we need to take some off we don't take everything off just symbolically a little bit and it says and place it next to the altar and talmud says that the miracle happened every day in the temple that the the floor of the betamic dash was marble and the Quran would take a spoonful a shovel full of that Ash and put it next to the altar next to the ramp and every day we'll do it there would be a big pile after a while but the Tamil says a miracle happened every day and the ash was absorbed miraculously into the ground even though it was marble floor but the ash would disappear and therefore every day the the kohen would add another shovel full of Ash and it would never grow it would by the evening it would disappear there was a separate Mitzvah of hot sadesh and this is called true madhadesh separating the ash daily the difference is when the there is so much Ash that the the altar is overflowing then they would actually have to come on with big buckets remove majority of the Ash and bring it to a different place special place outside of vitamic Dash that was done once in a while but this was done daily before any service in betamic dash they would have to do this symbolic Act and then he has to change his garments and it says and he shall remove the ash to the outside of the camp to a pure place that is the Mitzvah of hot Saturday that they do did once in a while when they would bring large quantities of extra Ash to um the outside of the mistake now in in um verse 5. the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it it shall not be extinguished now on page 571 here we learn a negative Commandment that no one is allowed to actively put out fire of the Miss bear they had to not only positively keep it up keep it burning but also they have to be careful not to do anything to put out the fire unless of course they had to put Flash the the limbs of the corbanon on the the fire and then temporarily where the mid is the fire would be extinguished that is okay because they're doing a Mitzvah through it um and the cohenchel Kindle would upon it every morning he shall prepare the elevation offering upon it and shall cause the fats of the peace offerings to go up in smoke upon the elevation offering is burnt on it in its entirety but the peace offering is only part of it which which the total calls the fats of the peace offering to be burnt and verse 6 again reminds us of this permanent fire a permanent fire shall remain a flame on the altar it shall not be extinguished now we go to so what do we learn about the Ola offering the elevation offering that it can be slaughtered during the day and it can the limbs can be burned during the day and the following night now we go to explain the minha the meal offering laws verse 7 this is the law of the meal offering verse 8 he shall the kohen shall separate from it with his three fingers full some of it's for the fine flower of the meal offering he digs in with his fingers Scoops up whatever his three fingers bring up cleans up on both sides and this whatever is in his uh Palm under the three fingers he puts on the Miss bear as well as some of its oil and the frankincense that is on the meal offering and he shall cause them to go Up in Smoke On The Altar for a satisfying Aroma it's Memorial portion onto Hashem what happens with the rest of the minha we bring about let's say a gallon worth of flour mixed with oil and some frankincense on top the frankincense and some oil with the flour a little bit is brought onto the altar what happens with the rest of the flower on oil verse 9 aharon and his sons shall eat what is left of it it shall be eaten unleavened in a holy place in the courtyard of the Temple of meaning so the kohanim were allowed to eat the rest of the minha and they had to eat it inside the temple and only the male kohanim could eat it and that's the general rule that any offering that has to be eaten inside the Temple only male kohanim could eat um and and the the regular Jews couldn't eat and women even if they're from kohanim families also couldn't eat however offerings that could be eaten in the entire Jerusalem Jerusalem which are basically the shalamim the peace offerings could be eaten by everybody it could be eaten by regular Jews and they and kohanim could feed them to their families as well their their wives and children um we learned about minhada not only whatever is is offered on the altar has to be matsa even that which is eaten by kohanim has to stay matsa even after they burned part of it on the Altar and now they eat it they cannot mix any leaven any yeast any hamids into it and of course the the matzah that they had in olden times was not the the thin matzah the cracker that we have now rather it was regular bread just it was baked immediately after uh kneading it not to allow it to uh become leavened the reason why we make um thin for pesach is as astringency to make sure that when we put it into the oven it gets baked right away um because if we would put a large loaf by the time the Heat gets through the entire thickness of the of the dough the center of the dough might become leavened so because of that concern we make it thin but according to basic law you're allowed to make matzah thick as long as it's not thicker than one hand breath um that's why samsified him still eat eat muchoda to look like pita it's thick and soft because that is still considered matsa okay now verse 12 we speak about a special kind of minha that kohen brings as his inauguration offering or anytime the kohen brings a minha it's treated differently verse 12 Hashem spoke to Moshe saying this is the offering of aharon and his sons which each shall offer to Hashem on the day he is inaugurated and as a continual meal offering half of it in the morning and half of it in afternoon so a regular kohen brings this minha once in Lifetime on the day that he first starts serving in betamic dash but Cohen gadol brings it as a continual meal offering coin gadol is a sign of his greatness and also as appreciation gratitude for him being on this high level of serving God he has to show his appreciation and his Readiness to serve God daily so kohen gadol brings this minha every morning half of it is uh offered on the Miss bear in the morning and half in the afternoon and this offering is burned entirely on misbear whereas the minha the flower offering of a regular Jew only part of it is put on the Miss bear and the rest the quanim eat if Cohen himself brings the minha the entire thing is burnt on the Miss bear now on page 573 verse 16 every meal offering of ekohan is to be entirely caused to go up in smoke it shall not be eaten kohanim are not allowed to eat minha that they themselves bring they have to burn it completely now in verse 17 we speak about laws of hatat offering the sin offering Verse 18 this is the law of the sin offering in the place where the elevation offering is slaughtered which is on the north of the Courtyard North of the altar shall the sin offering be slaughtered before Hashem it is most holy and the kohen who performs its sin offering shall eat it it shall be eaten in the Holy place in the courtyard of the tent of meaning just like minha the Qatar also has to be eaten only by male kohanim and in the courtyard of the Temple now in verse 20 we learn about some laws of cautioning utensils surprisingly it's brought over here why because since we know that the offering can be eaten that day and the following night but when the morning comes it becomes not Kosher becomes notar left over therefore any utensil that it was in will absorb its taste and the utensil that will become not kosher that means that if I cook the meat in a pot I can eat that meat now and at night but by the time morning comes if there's any meat left the meat will become not kosher and the taste of the meat that was absorbed in the pot while I was cooking it will also become not cautious so the pot itself will become not Kosher how do you fix this problem so verse 20 says whoever touches its flesh becomes holy and if its blood is sprinkle upon a garment whatever it has been sprinkled upon you shall wash in the Holy place you have to remove all the blood from the garments by laundering it and then putting it in the maker verse 21. an earthenware vessel in which it was cooked shall be broken we have a rule that we learn from here that Pottery earthenware vessels absorb taste but because it's so porous there are tiny holes going in the taste that it absorbs can never come out gets trapped inside and therefore it will stay forbidden it will stay not Kosher forever and the only thing I can do with with a non-kosher pottery is to break it because I cannot melt it down Pottery doesn't melt and therefore I break it and I make a new one that means they have to use a lot of pottery utensils um daily if it was baked if it was cooked in the pottery utensil however if it was cooked in a copper vessel or any other metal vessel that should that should be purged which means we boil water in it and the boiling water takes out all the taste from the metal and then rinse in water um so we have rinse we have three levels if it's earthenware we have to break if it's metal we boil water in it and if it's it was used in cold let's say after it was cooked and cooled down I put it on my earthenware plate and I ate it the Qatar then all I need to do is rinse the plate because it was used with cold meat the plate didn't absorb I just have to remove the surface fat and that's it so these are also the laws of our regular cautioning of utensils whether for daily use or for Passover use a utensil that was used with cold water or with cold food all we need to do is just wash it with salt and utensil that was used with hot comets with water it was cooked or fried with hot oil it's enough to boil water in it and it's going to be good from from here we also learned the rule that the way it was used that's how we um make it kosher if it was used with cold food we don't need to boil it just wash it with soap and the water doesn't have to be boiling hot and if it was used with hot food you you boil it and remove the uh absorption and if it was um actually uh broiled on it it was in direct contact with food without liquid medium now no water no oil then you would have to put it in Fire and the fire has to burn whatever is inside the only exception is earthenware which we say regular regular China plates porcelain plates and um mugs any of this stuff that becomes not Kosher we don't culture it we learn from here that the absorption can never come out of it okay now in verse 23 we learn about a special kind of a sin offering that is um whose blood is brought inside the holy to be sprinkled onto the curtain separating the holy from holy of holies and apply to the golden altar most of offerings including the sin offerings were slotted outside and the blood was applied outside and sprinkled outside on the copper altar or on the the large um Stone altar but some sin offerings their blood was brought inside so any sin offering from which some blood has been brought to the tent of meeting to affect atonement within the holy shall not be eaten it shall be burned in fire whereas outer sin offerings regular sin offerings part of it is burnt on a misbeck and the rest is eaten by kohanim any sin offering whose blood is brought inside the misbear cannot beaten by kohanim the entire animal has to be burned now chapter 7 we learn more details about asham the guilt offering this is the law of the guilt offering it is the most holy in the place where they shall Slaughter the elevation offering on the North shall they slaughter the guilt offering as well and he shall throw its blood upon the altar all around all of its fat shall he offer of it the tail if it's a sheep and it is usually the ram so it has the fat tail you burn on a Miss bear as well as the fat that covers the innards and the two kidneys and the fat that covers them which is on the flanks he shall remove the diaphragm as well as the liver as well as the kidneys so all these are considered the um parts of the animal that have to be burned on the misbeer and kohanim cannot eat them and here we also learned that there are these fats not the kidneys not the liver but these fats that cover the innards are forbidden even by regular animals which means even if it's not an offering a Jew who Slaughters a cow or a sheep or a goat he cannot eat certain parts of the animal in addition to the sciatic nerve that gidana there are parts of the animal that we cannot eat these are called forbidden fat and therefore you need an expert not only someone who shared not only the short head but after that you need a special person who is called the remover the one that removes the sciatic nerve and the one that removes all the Forbidden fats and only then the animal can be eaten here in the United States it's not um worth it because of high labor cost to remove that and therefore we only consume the front part of the animal but the back part of the animal which the innards that contain this forbidden fat and the sciatic nerve the two thighs we don't eat but in other countries they do they do it because labor is cheaper and meat is more expensive so it's worth it for them to do it that's why in a Kosher Supermarket you're not going to find the cuts that come from the animals behind now we are on page 575. verse 6 every male among the quanim may eat the whatever is left from the guilt offerings Hashem it shall be eaten in a holy place it is most holy and the holy place is the courtyard of the Temple verse 7. we speak about the gifts to kohanim they are all together 24 gifts that the Jewish people give to kohanim and seven of them are listed here verse 7 like the sin offering part of the sin offering goes to quanim is the guilt offering guilt part of guilt offering is also ghost also goes to quanim there is one law for them it shall belong to kohen who performs its atonement