From:          "Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To:            yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject:       INTPARSHA -41: Parashat Pinchas

                    YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
         ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
**************************************************************

               INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA

                      PARASHAT PINCHAS


              The Daily and Festival Offerings
                     by Barry Kornblau

The conclusion of parashat Pinchas (Numbers, chapters 28-
29) is known as "parashat temidim u-musafim."  It is the
portion of the Torah ("parasha") which details the sacrifices
and related offerings made in the Temple on each day
("temidim"), as well as the additional offerings ("musafim")
of every Shabbat, New Moon (Rosh Chodesh, or the first day of
each month), and holiday (Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashana, Yom
Kippur, Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret).  These "additional"
offerings are cumulative.  For example, if Rosh Hashana were
to occur on a Shabbat, then the daily offering, the weekly
Shabbat offering, the monthly Rosh Chodesh offering (Rosh
Hashana is Rosh Chodesh of the month of Tishrei) and the
annual Rosh Hashana offering would all be made on that day.

At least some portion of these chapters is featured in
the prayers of every single day of the year.  Furthermore,
since our sages saw many parallels between the worship of God
via sacrifice and the worship of God via prayer (which they
termed "worship of the heart"), they established the pattern
of Jewish prayer services according to the pattern of the
sacrifices of our parasha: the morning prayer ("shacharit")
corresponds to the morning installment of the daily sacrifice,
while the afternoon prayer ("mincha") corresponds to the
afternoon installment.  Additionally, the "musaf" prayers
which are said after "shacharit" on Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and
holidays correspond to the additional, "musaf" sacrifices of
those days, and even incorporate sections of our parasha
directly into the prayers themselves.  Finally, "parashat
temidim u-musafim" also forms an essential portion of the
Torah reading for every Rosh Chodesh and holiday.  Since this
Tuesday, July 22, marked the beginning of the period of the
Jewish calendar known as the "Three Weeks" during which we
mourn the destruction of the Temple in general and the
cessation of the sacrifices of our parasha in particular, it
is an especially appropriate time of the year to focus upon
these chapters which describe the Temple service and which
also form a central part of our religious practice today.

Our passage begins as follows (Numbers 28:1-2):

"God spoke to Moshe and said, 'Command the children of
Israel as follows: 'Let all of you be careful to offer My
sacrifices to Me...'"

Recalling that offerings in the Temple were always made
by priests ("kohanim"), these verses immediately present two
questions.  First, why is Moshe to instruct "the children of
Israel" regarding these sacrifices?  He should be instructing
the kohanim who will actually offer them!  The second question
concerns the placement of this parasha, and is comprised of
two related parts: 2a) Why are these sacrifices included here,
towards the end of Numbers?  They do not seem connected to the
main plot of Numbers, which generally details the voyage of
the Jews in the desert for forty years. 2b) Why are they not
included in Leviticus along with the rest of the laws
pertaining to kohanim and sacrifices?  In particular, they
would have fit nicely into chapter 23 of Leviticus, in
parashat Emor.  There, in addition to many other holiday-
related commandments such as matza on Pesach or shofar on
Rosh Hashana, the Torah first mentions the general obligation to
offer most of the sacrifices of our parasha.  Yet for some
reason, parashat Emor omits the specifics of our parasha
(which categories of animals to bring, how many of each
category, which type of sacrifice, etc.) that are needed in
order to offer these sacrifices properly.  For example,
instead of the imprecise wording of Leviticus 23:8:

"You shall present a [generic] sacrifice to God [for each
of] the seven days [of  Pesach]..."

the Torah could have inserted Numbers 28:17-25:

"You shall present a burnt-offering of two young bulls,
one ram, and seven one-year old sheep... and a sin-
offering of one goat... on each of the seven days [of
Pesach]..."

and simply omitted chapters 28-29 from Numbers altogether!

Let us answer our questions in reverse order, and begin
with the second set of questions.  Sforno (Rabbi Ovadia
Sforno, Italy, 1470-1550) (see Leviticus 23:8) provides a
simple explanation for part b): Parashat Emor is primarily
concerned with teaching us other ideas about the holidays, and
only introduces the additional offerings to instruct us in
some way about those ideas.  Regarding Pesach and Sukkot, for
example, the Torah mentions the musaf offerings to highlight
that even the non-festival intermediate days of Pesach (days
2-6) and of Sukkot (days 2-7) retain some of the sanctity of
the full-fledged festival days with which these two holidays
begin and end.  However, since Shavuot is a one-day holiday
without any intermediate days, parashat Emor does not refer to
its musaf offering at all; it is mentioned only in parashat
Pinchas.

Recalling that parashat Emor (along with the rest of the
book of Leviticus) was given within a year of the revelation
at Sinai, Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, Spain, 1194-1274)
suggests a different answer to part b): the additional
offerings are not detailed in parashat Emor because God did
not want these sacrifices to be offered in the desert. 
Rather, they were to be offered only upon arrival in the land
of Israel, many years later.  As proof for his thesis, Ramban
notes that the summary verse of parashat Emor decrees that the
additional offerings are to be accompanied by wine and meal
offerings:

"[All of these holidays are times] when you must present
to God a burnt offering, a meal offering, a sacrifice and
wine libations..." (Leviticus 23:37)

Yet, these "side-dishes" of a meal-offering and wine may be
offered only in the land of Israel:

"When all of you come into the land [but not before
then!]... and make a sacrifice to God...on your
festivals... then the person bringing that offering shall
also offer a meal offering of flour... mixed with oil...
as well as a wine libation..." (Numbers 15:1-5)

Nonetheless, concludes Ramban, the Jews did make the daily
offerings as well as celebrate the non-sacrificial aspects of
the holidays detailed in parashat Emor in the desert.

[This view of Ramban's opposes the view of Ibn Ezra
(Rabbi Avraham ben Ezra, Spain, 1092-1167) who argues that not
even the daily offerings were made in the desert.  (See his
commentary on Exodus 29:42).  After all, notes Ibn Ezra, the
Jews were wandering in a desolate wilderness where they most
certainly could not have found the vast quantities of sheep,
wine, oil, and grain that, accumulated over thirty-eight
years, the daily offerings would have required.]

Ramban also answers part a) of our second question (i.e.,
why parashat Pinchas in the book of Numbers is the appropriate
location for these sacrifices to be commanded).  Since the
additional sacrifices of the festivals are offered only in the
land of Israel, they are located appropriately in Chapters 28-
29 of our parasha after the allotment of that land in Chapters
26-27 among the generation of individuals who, in a short
time, would be obligated to bring those sacrifices in that
land.

We now return to our first question: Since the offerings
of our parasha are offered by the kohanim, why is our parasha
addressed to "the children of Israel" as a whole, and not to
the kohanim alone?  The answer is simple: these daily and
additional festival offerings are the individual
responsibility of every Jew, but are fulfilled by offering one
set of sacrifices on behalf of  everyone -- Kohen, Levite, and
Israelite alike.  As the Mishna (Shekalim 4:1) explains, these
sacrifices are purchased with funds collected from the
required contribution of one-half of a Biblical shekel each
year, as described at the beginning of parashat Ki-Tissa
(Exodus 30:15):

"The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay
less than half a shekel, when giving the contribution to
God so as to atone for all your souls."

The Torah emphasizes that this contribution is to be the same
for everyone, rich and poor, so that everyone has an equal
share in the fulfillment of the commandments pertaining to the
nation's communal worship, and so that everyone has an equal
share in the atonement that this worship confers upon the
nation's members.

Although convenient, a single set of daily sacrifices to
atone for everyone nonetheless presents a difficulty.  On the
one hand, a person normally must be present at the offering of
a sacrifice in order for it to atone for him.  (See, for
example, the procedure for an individual's sin-offering as
described in Leviticus 4:27-31.)  Yet, as Rambam (Rabbi Moshe
ben Maimon, Egypt, 1138-1204) notes (Mishneh Torah, Laws of
Temple Vessels 6:1), the entire population of the Jewish
people simply could not all fit into the Temple courtyard at
the time that these communal sacrifices were offered each day! 
Moreover, as the Jerusalem Talmud (Ta'anit 4:2) notes, this
would not be the only problem:

"R. Yona said: The daily sacrifices are the obligation of
every Jew.  Yet, can it be that everyone must ascend to
Jerusalem every day [in order to be personally present in
the Temple so as to achieve atonement through the
offering of the daily sacrifice there]?  Is it not
written (Exodus 34:23): 'All of your males are required
to appear before [God at the Temple] three times per year
[only],' [and not every day]!  Moreover, can it be that
everyone should sit idly for [the entirety of each and]
every day [as the law prohibits one from working on the
day that one's sacrifice is offered]?  Is it not written
(Deuteronomy 11:14): 'You shall gather in your grain...!' 
Who would gather in the grain for them [if everyone were
prohibited from working on every day of the year]?"

To resolve these difficulties, the early prophets
established a system of "ma'amadot," or sections.  The
prophets divided up the nation into twenty four sections, each
of which successively sent its finest members to the Temple
for one week.  Standing in the Temple courtyard, these
individuals would be present as emissaries of the entire
nation while the daily and festival sacrifices of our parasha
were offered.  The members of that week's particular "ma'amad"
also recited special prayers so that God would look upon the
nation's offerings with favor.

As R. Yona of the Jerusalem Talmud makes particularly
clear, the early prophets' decision to establish the
"ma'amadot" reflected the need to strike a balance between
conflicting tasks for the Jewish nation.  While the Torah
certainly does prescribe daily religious worship for each
individual, it also requires the Jewish nation to develop a
self-sustaining economy in its homeland: "Who would gather in
the grain for them?"  Furthermore, the Torah requires only
three pilgrimages to the Temple each year - on Pesach,
Shavuot, and Sukkot.  The intense spirituality of holidays
must be offset by ordinary days lest the holidays themselves
lose their special power to inspire us to a greater vision of
God.

Let us expand upon R. Yona's observation regarding the
balance between holidays and ordinary days to make one final
observation about the structure and content of "parashat
temidim u-musafim."  First (verses 28:3-8), the Torah
describes the daily offering of two sheep, one in the morning
and one in the evening.  This is followed (verses 9-10) by the
sacrifice of two additional sheep each Shabbat, offered after
the morning installment of the daily sacrifice.  Finally, the
additional offerings of each Rosh Chodesh (verses 11-15) and
all of the holidays (verses 28:16 - 29:38) are detailed. 
These are far more elaborate offerings than those of each day
and Shabbat, featuring considerably more animals (anywhere
from ten to thirty), more categories of animals (four), and
the addition of another type of offering (a sin-offering) to
the burnt-offerings of weekdays and Shabbat.

By its presentation of these sacrifices, the Torah may be
making a simple symbolic statement about religious life in
general.  First and foremost, ensure that every morning and
evening, you put in your "two sheep's worth" of sacrifice for
God and for others: pray, study some Torah, work to improve
your character, and do some kind deeds, to name just a few
possibilities.  On Shabbat, do the same but add another "two
sheep's worth," and do more of it.  On holidays, go all out
and try for something really different to make the most of a
special occasion.  Know, however, that your steady offering of
"two sheep's worth" each day, considered over an entire year,
ultimately far outweighs the less frequent holiday offerings
in your religious life.  Holidays are opportunities to make
"additional" offerings, and are most meaningful when a solid
base of daily offerings is already in place.

YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433

Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
All Rights Reserved

***************************************************