Edra Pinchas includes the instructions for the Korbanot, the offerings to be brought in the Sanctuary or Temple, beginning with the daily offering called the Korban Tamid, the continual offering. It then presents the Korbanot for Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and for the various festivals.
Regarding the offerings for Rosh Chodesh, the Tzemach Tzedek points out that each Jewish month has a specific combination of the letters of the Tetragrammaton. Hence although the offerings brought on each Rosh Chodesh are the same, the kavvanah, the spiritual meaning, is unique to each month.
As mentioned above, the Torah begins the list of Korbanot with the Korban Tamid, the daily continual offering, ‘as brought at Mount Sinai’, a lamb in the morning and again another lamb in the afternoon. These daily offerings, morning and afternoon, correspond to our daily prayer services: Shacharit and Minchah.
The discourse explains that the daily offerings which are ‘Tamid’ continual, without change, are like the general principle which is higher than the ‘particular’, as for example the Rosh Chodesh offering. However, the Rosh Chodesh offering which is brought on the first day of the month, is ‘general’ in relation to the twenty nine ‘particular’ days which follow.
The idea of ‘general’ and ‘particular’, כלל ופרט, pervades Jewish thought. Thus there are the 613 Commandments, each of which has its own section(s) of the Written and Oral Law, in which that Commandment is defined and discussed. This is on the level of the ‘particular’. But the Ten Commandments are the general statement of Jewish Law, on a higher level. Rabbi Saadia Gaon explained that each of the 613 Commandments is hinted at in the detailed wording of the Ten Commandments.
But the first two of the Ten Commandments can be seen as the two General principles which define all the particulars of Jewish law: the first Commandment, ‘I am the Lord your G-d..’ is the basis of all the positive commandments (‘thou shalt’), and the second, ‘Do not have any other g-ds before Me’ is the basis of all the negative commandments (‘thou shalt not’).
But there is an even higher level of ‘general’ principle with the regard to the Torah. This is the idea that at Sinai, G-d said all the Ten Commandments in one statement, and that statement is the very first word, Anochi, meaning ‘I’. This is the ultimate ‘general principle’ which is higher than any Divine Name. This level is so exalted it is beyond the division into ‘general’ and ‘particular’.
The idea that there is such an exalted ‘general principle’ connects with the offering of the Korbanot. The daily Korban Tamid, the continual offering, is the general principle which is typified ‘as brought at Mount Sinai’. This is because it links with the ultimate General Principle of Anochi, the first word of the Ten Commandments, which includes all Jewish law.
Further, the General Principle of the daily offering is like the spiritual flow from the Jewish people upwards to G-d, and then G-d responds with all the detailed blessings as expressed in the flow from G-d each month and into each day of the month.
This relates to each individual in the sense that one dedicates oneself ‘in general’ to G-d through Kabbalat ‘Ol, acceptance of the Yoke, and self-sacrifice. But then this exalted ‘general principle’ has to permeate all aspects of one’s being, the ‘details’, so that all one’s talents and skills are dedicated to the Divine.
This process is also expressed in the stages of daily Prayer. There are the Verses of Praise, called Pesukei deZimra; then the Shema, in which the first paragraph expresses Love of the Divine, then the Amidah which expresses prayers for all our needs. Then comes Tachanun, itself a form of dedicating oneself to G-d with self-sacrifice.
Prayer is like the ladder in Jacob’s dream. There is the flow upwards to the Divine, then the response, G-d’s blessings to us, supplying all our needs (as expressed in the specific blessings in the Amidah).
The goal is to manifest these blessings in the physical world, to create a dwelling for Hashem in our lower realm. This will be revealed openly when the promise will be fulfilled that ‘all flesh will see together that the mouth of Hashem spoke’, with the coming of Moshiach very soon.
