What do we sacrifice?

The laws of sacrifices that dominate the early chapters of the Book of Vajikra

are among the hardest in the terror to relate to in the present.

It's been almost 2,000 years since the temple was destroyed and the sacrificial system came to an end.

But Jewish thinkers, especially the more mystical among them,

strove to understand the inner significance of the sacrifices,

the statement they made about the relationship between humanity and God.

They were thus able to rescue their spirit,

even if their physical enactment was no longer possible.

Among the simplest and yet most profound was the comment made by Rav Shah Zalman of Ladi,

the first Reba of Lubavich.

He noticed a grammatical oddity about the second line of today's parcia.

Speak to the children of Israel and say to them,

Adam ki, I crave me kem, korban Hashem.

When one of you offers a sacrifice to the Lord,

the sacrifice must be taken from the cattle sheep or goats.

Or so that the verse would read if it were constructed according to the normal

rules of grammar. However, in Hebrew, the word order of the sentence is strange and unexpected.

We would expect to read Adam Mikhem Kiakriv, when one of you offers a sacrifice.

Instead, what it says is Adam Kiakriv Mikam, when one offers a sacrifice. Instead, what it says is Adam Ki, Akriv Miquem, when one offers a

sacrifice of you. The essence of a sacrifice, said for Shnoa Zaman, is that we offer ourselves.

We bring to God our faculties, our energies, our thoughts and emotions.

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