“For acceptance, [it must be] an unblemished male of cattle, sheep, or goats. (Vayikra 22:19)”
Parshas Emor speaks a lot about what Hashem desires, and how it preempts what man desires. It begins with the Kohanim who lose a loved one. The Torah precludes them from contaminating themselves for the corpses of all but the closest relatives. Though they may desire to show their grief, Hashem says their service to Him takes precedence.
Here, we are told that when we wish to bring korbanos, there are guidelines to what we can bring. Though we are speaking of voluntary offerings, one cannot simply do whatever he feels like. There is a structure put in place by Hashem and if you want to bring Him a sacrifice, there’s a specific way to do it so that He will accept it.
Indeed, Rashi and others explain that the first word in this posuk, which would seem to mean, “According to your wishes,” actually means, “What will be desirable to Hashem and therefore beneficial for you.” In other words, if you want to get out of the korban what you hope to, you need to make sure Hashem gets what He wants.
If a person decides to offer a blemished animal, he may not do so, because it is not desirable to Hashem. Even if he has a reason which seems special to him, (e.g. “this animal is a fighter, who survived even though he lost a limb, and so, too, do I wish to fight for Hashem,”) it is unacceptable. Why then does the Torah use a word which, at face value, means, “according to your will”?
Moreover, the Toras Kohanim learns from here that a communal offering cannot be forced; it must be voluntarily desired. Again, it seems that our desire does play a role. Yet, the general consensus seems to be that it is Hashem’s desire we are concerned with.
We’d like to suggest that the Torah, here, is teaching us a key lesson in life. In Pirkei Avos, Rabban Gamliel, son of R' Yehuda HaNasi, says one should do Hashem’s will as if it was his own will, so Hashem would do that person’s will as if it was His will. He continues that one should set aside his own desires for Hashem’s desires, and then the desires of others will be set aside for his.
What this Mishna, as well as our posuk, are teaching us, is that when we seek to satisfy Hashem, we are ultimately satisfying ourselves. By unifying our wants to those of Hashem, it is for our benefit, and will be what we truly want – in this case, acceptance of our korban.
Rabbeinu Bachya offers an enlightening explanation of the word ‘ratzon,’ desire, found in the verse, “Poseach es Yadecha... You open your hand and satisfy the desire of each creature.” Ratzon, he says, is what we would want, if we knew what was best for us. That is what we always get, though we may not realize it at the time.
However, if we align our desires to those of Hashem, we will enjoy life and always “get our way,” because if Hashem sends it to us, it is what we would want, if only we saw the big picture. This is how to live our lives in the best way possible.
A Chosid invited a guest to his home for Seudas Shabbos. His whole family joyously prepared for the meal because they loved hosting guests. However, the person making arrangements for the guest didn't realize the Chosid had invited him, and sent him elsewhere for the Seudah. When the Chosid finished Davening on Friday night, the guest was nowhere to be found. He finally got to the bottom of the story and when he returned home without the guest, his family was greatly disappointed. The Chosid said, "Yes, we enjoy guests, but is a guest our personal property to do business with? The main thing is that he should have a place to eat and enjoy Seudas Shabbos. What is the difference if this is done in our house or by someone else?"
©2024 – J. Gewirtz
