BS"D
TIMELY THANKSGIVING: PARSHAT TZAV
Shira Smiles shiur 2024/5784
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
In Parshat Tzav, Hashem gives
the instructions for various offerings in the Mishkan (and later in the Beit
Hamikdosh). Beginning with the olah/elevation offering, the Torah
continues with several other offerings and then arrives at instructions for the
shelamim/peace offering. While these instructions begin with the general
peace offering, the Torah immediately continues with the sub-category of the todah/thanksgiving
offering. Although all peace offerings are meant to be eaten by partially by
the donors as well as being partially burned on the altar, there are
significant differences between the instructions for the other peace offerings
and those for the thanksgiving offering.
First, it is important to know
that the thanksgiving offering is brought by one who has been saved from four
different dangers: crossing a dangerous desert, crossing the sea, [these
include other dangerous journeys, perhaps an auto accident. CKS], imprisonment,
and serious illness. Now let us find the differences between the thanksgiving
offering and the other peace offerings.
While the other peace
offerings may be eaten over two full days with the intervening night, the
thanksgiving offering must be consumed in only one day and its accompanying
night, not being left for the second day. To make this difference even more
glaring, the thanksgiving offering, a complete animal, is to be eaten with
forty loaves of bread, including ten loaves of leavened bread. Yet it must be
consumed in a relatively short time.
In Outlook: Insight,
Rabbi Zev Leff explains the psychology of thanksgiving. We feel gratitude when
we feel we have received something beyond what we deserve. To illustrate this
point, Rabbi Leff cites the Gemara that says no one had offered thanksgiving to
Hashem before Leah Imenu, after the birth of her fourth son, Yehudah. While we
know that Adam, Noach and our other Patriarchs brought thanksgiving offerings
to Hashem, there was a major difference between their offerings and Leah's
gratitude. Rabbi Leff explains that all the previous gratitude was for things
Hashem did that were beyond normal expectation. Leah's gratitude for this
fourth son was for something she felt she had no right to expect or deserve.
After all, although Hashem planned on twelve tribes for His chosen nation, he
could have divided the sons equally between Yaakov's four wives, giving each
three sons. Leah thanked Hashem now because she had received an additional son,
beyond what she merited in the natural order of the universe. By naming this
son Yehudah, she gives gratitude and confesses that this son is a gift she does
not deserve on her own merit.
Taking this idea one step
further, we realize that all aspects of life demand that we show gratitude, for
our very life is granted us in kindness, not in our personal merit. We
certainly need to give thanks for major miracles and sing songs of praise to Hakodosh
Boruch Hu for major miracles, such as crossing the Sea, but we must also
recognize that Hashem performs miracles for us day and night, under the guise
of nature, every day, and for these, too, we must be grateful.
In the Nishmat
prayer of Shabbat, we say we cannot thank Hashem enough, even if "...Our
eyes were as brilliant as the sun and the moon..." As Rabbi Meislish
notes, when we see Hashem's goodness in full clarity, as in broad daylight, we
must thank Hashem. But we must also thank Hashem when His goodness in veiled in
the darkness of only a moonlit sky, when, as the Berditchiver Rebbe says,
interpreting the words of Shir Hashirim, when we can see Him through the
window as He is watching over us, and when we cannot observe His presence as He
is peering through the cracks in the latticework. We must recognize His
presence even when it is dark, even when we cannot see Him. We must thank Him
for the challenges as well as for the joys. As Rabbi Eliyahu Finkel notes,
citing Ramban, the whole purpose of creation is to give thanks and to believe
in Hashem. We grow and elevate ourselves, bringing us closer to achieving our
potential, when we recognize Hashem and thank Him. If a person integrates this
reality, he will not fall into the trap of sinning.
How important is gratitude and
singing Hashem's praises? In Chochmat Hamatzpun, Rabbi Moshe Egbi writes
that Hashem could have sent Moshiach millenia ago, during the time of King
Chizkiyahu. In Kings II, we are told that the Assyrians, having exiled
the Ten Tribes of Israel, were poised to capture Jerusalem. However, overnight,
Hashem sent a plague that destroyed the entire threatening army. Chizkiyahu
must have recognized Hashem's miraculous intervention, yet he failed to
acknowledge this salvation by composing a song of thanksgiving to Hashem. For
this lapse in gratitude, Hashem did not send the Moshiach at that time or
coronate Chizkiyahu as the Moshiach.
But it is not enough to merely
sing Hashem's praises; one must emulate Hashem by giving of ourselves, by
performing chesed as He has done for us. This is the reasoning behind the
limited time allotted to eating the korban todah, explains Rabbi Dunner
zt”l in Mikdash Halevi. Given the enormous amount of food one brings for
this offering, it is impossible for one person alone to consume it all in one
day. One is forced, for completely practical considerations, to extend
invitations to others to join him in this meal. He is, in essence, announcing
an "open house." By inviting others, especially the poor and lonely,
he is practicing chesed and emulating Hashem, the purpose of his existence.
When we realize that Hashem
does chesed with us every moment of our lives, with every breath we take,
writes Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l, we will live our lives emulating Hashem. Even
more important than donning talis and tefillin is being involved
with people, helping them financially, psychologically, with our time, or with
any means we have. As Rav Yitzchak of Volozhin zt”l relates, his father,
the author of Nefesh Hachaim, would often rebuke him for not sharing in
the pain of others, for man's purpose is to be of assistance to others.
Interestingly, the
thanksgiving offering is the only one [excluding the two loaves brought on
Shavuot] that includes chametz. Of the forty loaves brought in the offering,
half are leavened and half are matzah combinations. Rav. S. R. Hirsch infers
from this that the leavened loaves represent the feeling of relief,
independence and freedom he feels at his escape from danger. But this feeling
must be balanced by his feeling of dependence on Hashem, and his recommitment
to His service. This service begins with the chesed he extends through sharing
this festive thanksgiving meal with others.
Netziv zt”l provides an
additional perspective on the limited time permitted to consume this offering.
He notes that by inviting others to his feast, people will ask him what the
occasion was. The host then has the opportunity to tell his story, and to publicize
the miracle Hashem performed for him, to magnify Hashem's Name in public.
Why should we thank Hashem for
saving us when He put us in this challenging situation to begin with? Rabbi
Leff tells us that this is the wrong analogy. A better analogy is that of a
surgeon who must break a bone to set it properly, so it will grow into a
healthy limb. Similarly, sometimes Hashem needs to metaphorically break one of
our bones, to put us into challenging, uncomfortable, or even dangerous
situations as a corrective measure so that our souls will grow properly into
their healthy potential. Therefore, writes Rabbi Beyfus in Yalkut Lekach Tov
quoting the Ketav Sofer zt”l, we should thank Hashem not only for the
salvation, but also for the challenges that have brought us here. Even though
we may never know how a particular challenge was for our good, we must still
give thanks, and sometimes Hashem will reveal the reason to us.
These two ideas, of thanking
Hashem for our challenges and publicizing the good Hashem did for us, are the
cornerstones of the Pesach Seder, of the Maggid/ the retelling of the
Pesach narrative. We begin with a general statement of our devastating
enslavement and our redemption. But when we begin recounting the details, we
begin with the verse the farmer recited when he offered his first fruits to the
kohein. The farmer knew the challenges faces in planting his trees or his
crops, and is grateful for these first fruits. According to the Targum, והגדת
לבנך is translated not as
"you will tell your son," but as "you will express gratitude
with your son." Retelling the Pesach story to others, with family and
friends, fosters greater gratitude and expands the knowledge of Hashem's chesed
to us. In turn, we increase our own gratitude and foster gratitude in our
children as well. The Seder becomes our korban todah, our thanksgiving
offering. To symbolize thanking Hashem for the enslavement as well as the
redemption, some have a custom of kissing the marror/bitter herbs,
writes Rabbi Avraham Schorr in Halekach Vehalebuv.
Rabbi Leff notes that today
reciting Birkat Hagomel, the Thanksgiving Blessing, takes the place of
the sacrifice. The blessing that must be said publicly, with a minyan
present, so that they too will acknowledge the good and bless you with further
good.
Rabbi Nevenzahl notes an
urgency in the consumption of the thanksgiving offering that he attributes to
human nature. We tend to be excited with something new, but when the novelty
wears off, our enthusiasm wanes. We are commanded to consume the thanksgiving
offering while our enthusiasm is highest, just as we recite a Shehechiyanu
blessing only the first time we perform that mitzvah, even if we are performing
the mitzvah again multiple times within a given time period.
Rabbi Nevenzahl then continues
to differentiate between the permanent and the temporary, between the
intellectual and the emotional. He explains that learning Torah is an
intellectual pursuit and is permanent. In contrast, tefillah/prayer is
emotional and therefore requires intent and focus. Similarly, the thanksgiving
offering is an emotional outpouring, needing to be addressed today, at the
height of one's emotion. Therefore, if your tefillah lacks an emotional
component, it is merely empty words. The emotion encapsulates the gratitude we
have.
Rabbi Biederman quoting
the Imrei Emes zt”l brings a beautiful reason for limiting the
celebratory thanksgiving feast to one day. He reminds us that each day brings
us new miracles. Perhaps tomorrow will be an occasion for yet another
thanksgiving offering.
It is with this in mind that
we can understand Rabbi Druck's explanation of the two kinds of shelamim/peace
offerings. While the todah/thanksgiving offering is for an immediate,
recognizable salvation, the general shelamim refers to our daily
gratitude, for the constant chesed Hashem extends to us. To recognize Hashem's
chesed when there is no immediate danger and to offer gratitude for this
constant goodness with the regular shelamim offering is therefore on an
even higher level than the korban todah. We should not wait until we
face challenges and overcome them to thank Hashem; we should be thanking Hashem
on a daily basis.
Today, without a Beit
Hamikdosh, when we cannot bring offerings, we substitute Birkat Hagomel
for the korban todah and often invite others to join us in a
thanksgiving meal to show appreciation for Hashem's redeeming us from danger.
But we also acknowledge Hashem's daily chasadim in our daily prayers, in
Modim as part of Shemoneh Esrei, and in Mizmor Lesodah
from Tehillim. The more we are cognizant of all the good we receive, the
more grateful we should be, for only through gratitude can we then reach out to
others, improve society, and embody the vision Hashem has for us as being
created in His image.