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Vayikra (2025)

Shabbat Parshat Vayikra

Dvar Torah
This week begins the book of Leviticus, focused primarily on laws of worship in the Mishkan and Temple. Of note, the Torah prescribes special sacrifices for the King, High Priest, and Sanhedrin who accidently err or sin. The message is clear – nobody is above the law and the leaders of society must be role models when they inevitably will make mistakes. Specifically for a king the Torah (Lev. 4:22) uses the language of “Asher Nasi yechata” translating into “When a Nasi (king) will sin” – indicating that this is an expected occurrence which should be met with a prescribed solution – admission of the mistake and repentance. The Talmud (Horayot 10b) takes this one step further homiletically interpreting “Asher” (when) as “Ashrei” (fortunate), noting that all of society is fortunate when a leader publicly admits mistake. The Talmud goes on to teach that this is indicative of an upright society where all from the simpleton to the king hold themselves accountable and strive to be better people

Trivia
The English name for Sefer Vayikra is Leviticus - correlating with the Midrashic name for the book "Torat Kohanim" i.e. the book of the Laws of Kohanim (i.e. Levites). This is true for Numbers and Deuteronomy as well which are translations of the Midrashic names "Chumash Hapekudim" and "Mishne Torah" respectively

Shabbat in/out times
Yerushalayim 18:25/19:39
Sderot 18:41/19:41
Paris 20:08/21:17
London 19:21/20:33
NYC 19:06/20:07
St. Louis 19:09/20:09
Panama City 18:10/19:00
More times here

Shabbat Shalom!

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