Three stages in life

The Book of Leviticus is called "Torat Kohanim"—the Bible of the Priests—because it contains, for the most part, laws related to priestly duties in the Sanctuary. Specifically, the Parashah Leviticus speaks of korbanot - offerings." The Midrash tells us that when one begins to teach Torah to a child, one should start with the Vayikra section, and not from Bereshit (the first parashah of the Torah), since children are pure and korbanot "Offerings - are pure, let the pure come and take care of pure things.".

However, we do not find in the Torah an apparent direct connection between offerings and the concept of "purity". Regarding the korbanot Adjectives such as "must be perfect," "of the highest quality," etc., appear, but the idea of "purity" is nowhere mentioned. What is the Midrash's basis for calling them... korbanot ""pure"?

When we analyze more closely the different places in the Torah where it talks about korbanot, we see that, with respect to the korbanot Offered before the Giving of the Torah, the expression "purity" does appear. As the Talmud says: "All [animals] are suitable for offering - animals, beasts, and birds, male and female, perfect and defective, pure, but not impure"This phrase applies specifically to the korbanot offered by Noah, who offered clean animals upon leaving the Ark after the Flood. However, in Noah's day, the distinction between clean and unclean animals did not yet exist. Even so, he knew that the korbanot They had to be offered from pure animals.

However, this further strengthens the question: Why does the Midrash call the korbanot specified in the Vayikra section - offerings after the Giving of the Torah, with an adjective that applies to the korbanot What were they like before the Giving of the Torah?

We are forced to say that there is a connection between "children" and the korbanot as these were before the Giving of the Torah.

In general, time is divided into three stages: 1) from the Giving of the Torah onwards, when the Mitzvot of God were given to the Jewish people; 2) the days of our Patriarchs who "fulfilled the entire Torah even before it was given"; 3) the days of Noah, where the fulfillment of the Torah did not yet exist, but there was some relation to the concepts of the Torah, for example, to the idea of purity and impurity.

Our sages say that man is a "microcosm," meaning that everything we observe in the universe can be found, on a smaller scale, in human beings. Thus, these three periods in the history of the world in general also exist in each individual: 1) after the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, when the Jew is responsible for observing the mitzvot; 2) before the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, but after reaching "educational age," when one studies Torah and observes mitzvot in preparation for the time when one is obligated to do so; 3) when one is a "child," before reaching "educational age," since one is a child. Jew It has a relationship with the Torah and its definitions.

It is precisely in the first stage of a child's life that a relationship with the purity of the korbanot. The idea behind the korbanot It is to atone for the defects in the observance of the Torah and the Mitzvot, hence it arises that these express the deepest, most fundamental and purest union with God, because even if a Jew sinned, he can correct it.

In other words, the union between the Jewish people and God reaches such a point that, even if according to the rules of the Torah a person is "defective" for having sinned, the Torah itself provides a method of rectification that surpasses its own definitions!

This is the level of the "children." They express pure union with God, a level that all concepts of impurity and defects cannot affect. That is why "let the pure come and attend to pure things"—let the "children" come and reveal the profound idea of the korbanot - the expression of the essential love between God and the Jewish people.

Adapted from Shulchan Shabbat.