Shabbat Parashat Vayikra - 5782

Shabbat Parashat Vayikra - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller

Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when a person from among

you will bring an offering to God. [Vayikra 1:2]

The Torah uses different words in three verses of our parsha, where it seems all

refer to the same thing. In our verse, "a person from among you", the word

'person' is adam. In 2:1, "a soul will bring a meal offering", the word is nefesh.

In 4:2, "if a soul sin in carelessness", the word is again nefesh. All three refer to

someone bringing a sacrifice. Why the different word here?

Onkelos in fact translates both words as 'enosh', indicating that the meaning is the

same in Aramaic, but the Torah would have used the same word if it meant the same

thing in each instance.

Most commentators focus on 'mikem', "from you". It only appears in our verse with

the word adam, not in the others with nefesh. So what does mikem mean?

Rashi says it connotes a voluntary offering, and that nefesh is only used with offerings

that are commanded. He notes an exception, the meal offering (verse 2:1) where

nefesh is used and explains that only a poor person brings a voluntary meal offering,

which God accepts as if the person had sacrificed himself. Not, perhaps, a very clear

solution to our question. Rashi also says that adam is used here to say that as Adam,

since everything was his, did not bring any stolen offering, we are not to bring a stolen

item as an offering either, and Ibn Ezra supports this view. But this seems to imply that

one can bring a stolen offering for the nefesh verses.

Sforno says that mikem excludes apostates. Torah Temimah says it includes converts,

and he also expands the prohibition on stolen articles to the other verses.

Malbim and others discuss the word order of our verse. The Hebrew is "adam ki yakriv

mikem korban l'hashem", a person who will offer from you a sacrifice to God. As written

above, the meaning is, from what 'you' is this person coming, but as Malbim sees it, the

meaning is, from what 'you' is this sacrifice coming. The difference has to do with what

offerings are about. The first description indicates that the offered item is to recompense

for what man sinned. The Malbim approach is that the sacrifice is a substitute for a man

himself who by rights should have been the sacrifice. Nechama Leibowitz words this as

"Is it 'any man of you', or 'sacrifice of you'?". How does this answer our questions? Kol

Dodi notes that adam here relates to adamah, ground, a humbling of the person.

A "sacrifice of you" requires man to accept with humility his own failings, and in order for

a voluntary offering to be accepted, this is key. The offerings of the other verses are

required whether the nefesh bringing them humbles himself or not.