God Invites Moses to Dialogue

We are now about to start reading in the book of Leviticus. Many people find this book difficult because of its detailed focus on sacrifices. But let’s look behind this to what it is that God really wants of us.

The Womens Torah Commentary points out that God calls to Moses by name – that’s the meaning of the name of this book, וַיִּקְרָ֖א , “and He called” – God doesn’t just start laying commandments on Moses and Moses has to hop to. God invites Moses into dialogue as a partner in their conversation. I find the framework of this relationship very moving, and it imbues me with a strong sense of the sacred. And the Five Books of Miriam notes that this entire book of the Torah is about how to form a closer relationship with God. It still speaks to us today.

After all, does God really need our sacrifices? Is it really the smell of burning meat that is pleasing to God, or is it that human beings are obeying God’s commandments? Sacrifices of gratitude and expiation for sins, all these details, serve to teach us a way to draw nearer and stay nearer to God. This restores spiritual equilibrium in the community. It isn’t that God needs animals to be slain in God’s service, but that this is what the Children of Israel are accustomed to in the worship of gods in the world they live in.

The Torah makes crystal clear that the worst thing you can do wrong is to worship other gods. This is a theme that recurs throughout the Torah – and through the Prophets as well. There is really nothing more wrong that you can do than run after false gods. So if you’re familiar and comfortable with worshipping gods by making sacrifices, the way all of the peoples around you do, then the Hebrew God will provide that route for you.

The Temple is no longer standing. We have had to find a substitute for serving God through animal sacrifices for almost 2000 years. And even in the days of the prophets, social justice was becoming a serious concern. Ethics was growing more central than animal sacrifice. As Isaiah reported the words of God in verse 1:11, “Of what use are your many sacrifices to Me? … I am sated with the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle; and the blood of bulls and sheep and hegoats I do not want.” We have evolved as a civilization and now have other mechanisms for serving God. Our ideas of God have grown along with our civilization. Today, we see Tikkun Olam as the best way to serve God and keep our focus on what it is that God wants from us, whether we do this by helping those less fortunate than ourselves or by protecting this fragile planet.

Now, today, God is calling you into relationship. God wants to have a dialogue with you. How can you best serve God? Sacrifice was not sufficient for our ancestors, and prayer is not sufficient for us. What can you do in your community and on this beautiful earth to improve conditions, help complete and perfect this world, answer to God when God calls out to you?