shemini
sholem aleichem,
Judaism loves threes: a court needs to have at least three judges, there are three patriarchs, shabbos ends with three stars in the sky, we wave our hands three times over the shabbos candles…
And also, there are two sets of threes that divide:
Actions: positive mitzvos (actions we must take), negative mitzvos (actions we must not take), and permitted actions (actions we can take but don’t need to).
Things: sacred, ordinary, and profane things.
Let’s learn from these divisions. In our Torah portion, Aharon offers a meal-offering. But only a portion of it is directly sanctified to haShem:
וַיַּקְרֵב֮ אֶת־הַמִּנְחָה֒ וַיְמַלֵּ֤א כַפּוֹ֙ מִמֶּ֔נָּה וַיַּקְטֵ֖ר עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֑חַ
He brought the meal-offering, and filled his hand from it, and turned it to smoke on the altar
What about the rest of the meal offering? Let’s look to a verse earlier in Vayikra:
וְהַנּוֹתֶ֙רֶת֙ מִן־הַמִּנְחָ֔ה לְאַהֲרֹ֖ן וּלְבָנָ֑יו קֹ֥דֶשׁ קׇֽדָשִׁ֖ים מֵאִשֵּׁ֥י יְהֹוָֽה
The remainder of the meal-offering is for Aharon and his sons [to eat]: it is a holy of holies from the fire-offerings of haShem
So, the portion that Aharon turns to smoke elevates the rest of the meal-offering to sanctity along with it.
The Baal haTanya connects this property of sacrifices to the mitzvah of tzedakah, where only a portion of one’s total income is directly set apart and sanctified in the mitzvah.
וְאַף שֶׁאֵינוֹ נוֹתֵן אֶלָּא חוֹמֶשׁ, הֲרֵי הַחוֹמֶשׁ מַעֲלֶה עִמּוֹ כָּל הָאַרְבַּע יָדוֹת לַה׳, לִהְיוֹת מָכוֹן לְשִׁבְתּוֹ יִתְבָּרֵךְ, כַּנּוֹדָע מַאֲמַר רַבּוֹתֵינוּ־זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה שֶׁמִּצְוַת צְדָקָה שְׁקוּלָה כְּנֶגֶד כָּל הַקָּרְבָּנוֹת, וּבְקָרְבָּנוֹת הָיָה כָּל הַחַי עוֹלֶה לַה׳ עַל יְדֵי בְּהֵמָה אַחַת, וְכָל הַצּוֹמֵחַ עַל יְדֵי עִשָּׂרוֹן סֹלֶת אֶחָד בָּלוּל בַּשֶּׁמֶן כוּ׳. וּמִלְּבַד זֶה, הֲרֵי בִּשְׁעַת הַתּוֹרָה וְהַתְּפִלָּה, עוֹלֶה לַה׳ כָּל מַה שֶּׁאָכַל וְשָׁתָה וְנֶהֱנָה מֵאַרְבַּע הַיָּדוֹת לִבְרִיאוּת גּוּפוֹ
And even though one doesn’t give more than a fifth [to tzedakah], behold the fifth elevates with it the four [remaining] parts to haShem, to be an abode for the dwelling of the Blessed One.
This is like the known saying of our teachers of blessed memory: the mitzvah of tzedakah is balanced against all the sacrifices. With the sacrifices, it was [the case that] all living beings elevate to hashem by means of one animal, and all plant-life by means of one-tenth of flour mixed with oil, and so on.
And aside from this: behold, in the hour of Torah and Tefillah, all that one has eaten and drunk and enjoyed from the [remaining] four parts for the health of the body elevates to haShem
By setting aside [at most] one-fifth to charity, the remaining money is also elevated. And even the things we do with that money — food, drink, pleasure — are elevated through the portion that was set aside for tzedakah. And even the time we spent on them is elevated through our time in Torah and tefillah.
One might think, chas v’sholem, that this means we can do anything we like as long as we give a portion of our money to tzedakah, and spend some of our time in Torah and tefillah (corporations know this as the “charitable foundation” loophole.)
But remember that there are three categories in Judaism. We aren’t dealing with holy and not-holy, commanded and permitted. We have holy, ordinary, and profane. We have commanded, permitted, and forbidden.
Ordinary things and permitted actions, can be elevated through a holy portion or a commanded action. This, the Baal haTanya explains in Chapter 7, is the real meaning of the word muttar, or permitted. Muttar literally means “unbound” or “released”: the ordinary and permitted aren’t tied down to anything, so our holy actions can lift them up to haShem.
But the forbidden or profane? These things are assur, forbidden, which literally means “chained”. They are chained by/to other forces. They are not free to be elevated to haShem through the dedication of a holy portion or the performance of a holy action.
We can’t offset bad with good. The goal in life isn’t to average out our deeds, to be, on balance, “more righteous than wicked”. The harm we do is chained to other forces, the good we do cannot elevate it. Repair is always possible, of course, but must be done at the site of harm, not through doing good elsewhere.
good shabbos,
ada