Haftorah: Shut the Temple Doors!

Haftorah: Shut the Temple Doors!

הרב אברהם ריבלין, המשגיח הרוחני לשעבר

The topic of this week's Haftorah, the first chapter of Sefer Malachi, is the service of the korbanot (sacrifices). Malachi sharply attacks the sacrificial worship of the people of his time, who degraded G-d through this worship. He calls to shut the doors of the Temple: "If only there were someone among you who would shut the [Temple] doors, so that you could not kindle upon My Altar in vain! I have no desire for you, said Hashem, Master of Legions, and I will not accept an offering from your hand." (Malachi 1:10)

Malachi, one of the last prophets, follows the view of the prophets that preceded him.

Shmuel, "the teacher of the prophets," says to Shaul: "Does Hashem delight in elevation offerings and feast offerings as in obedience to the voice of Hashem? Behold! -- To obey is better than a choice offering, to be attentive than the fat of rams." (Shmuel I 15:22)

Yeshayahu also criticizes the people: "Why do I need your numerous sacrifices? -- says Hashem ... When you come to appear before Me, who sought this from your hand, to trample My courtyards? ... Even if you were to intensify your prayer, I will not listen; your hands are replete with blood." (Yeshaya 1:10-15)

Micha asks: "With what shall I approach Hashem, humble Myself before G-d on high? Shall I approach Him with burnt offerings, or with calves in their first year? Will Hashem be appeased by thousands of rams or with tens of thousands of streams of oil? ... He has told you, O man, what is good! What does Hashem require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your G-d." (Micha 6:6-8)

Clearly none of the prophets are rejecting outright the worship of the Temple and the sacrifices -- which constitute a large portion of the mitzvot (even the mitzvot of the Sanhedrin are linked to the Temple), and for which the nation prays three times a day despite thousands of years of exile, "Return the service to the Dvir of Your House, and the offerings of Yisrael you should accept with desire." The prophets object to offering sacrifices in an external and disgraceful manner, which conforms to the idolatrous view that the sacrifice is a "bribe" for the idol. Since this view was very common among the neighboring nations, it began penetrating into Israel, and there were some who thought that the sacrifice was intended for the benefit of the G-d, to appease His anger. Through the gift they were giving Him they thought to mitigate the severity of the judgment.

The prophets cried out against this approach, and felt that if this is how the people sacrificed, then it would be better to stop the worship of the sacrifices. According to the Torah's perspective, sacrifices come from G-d's chesed and not from His anger. There are situations in which a person is deserving of death (because of his sins) or has a desire to die out of his great love and aspiration to give his whole being to G-d. However, our Torah is a Torah of life, which is entirely pushed off because of pikuach nefesh (other than the three sins of idolatry, adultery and murder), and Hashem does not desire to kill even those deserving of death. Therefore, out of kindness, G-d gives the person the opportunity to undergo the experience of death, and still to remain alive, as the Ramban writes that a person has to imagine that all of the actions done to the sacrifice were done to him. One who thinks that when he sacrifices he gives G-d a present, and doesn't realize that he is receiving a present -- his is the sacrifice about which the prophets say not to "kindle upon My Altar in vain!"

This is Chazal's intention when they said: "Come and see what is written in the portion of the sacrifices. It does not say in them neither the name E-l nor Elokim, but rather Hashem, not to give room for an antagonist to dispute." (Menachot 100a, Sifrei Pinchas) In all of the portions dealing with sacrifices it only says the name Hashem, which connotes the attribute of mercy, and not the name Elokim, which represents the attribute of justice. As mentioned, the sacrifices do not come to appease the attribute of justice as a kind of bribe to the idol, but rather it comes from the attribute of mercy. The Malbim notes that in the Parsha of the Akeidah there is a hint to this in the fact that until the ram is found, so long as it deals with an invalid sacrifice (Yitzchak), the name Elokim is mentioned. However, after the finding of the ram, which is a legitimate sacrifice, the name of mercy -- Hashem -- is mentioned.

One who examines the psukim will note, however, that there is a difference between the mistake of the sacrificial worshippers that the prophets Shmuel, Yeshaya and Micha spoke out against, and the mistake that Micha speaks out against in our Haftorah. The other prophets spoke about a sacrifice which was inherently fit but was offered with the mistaken intention of bribery, as explained above. The people thought that through observing the ritual of giving a sacrifice they fulfilled their obligation of serving G-d, and therefore they allowed themselves to covet, steal and do whatever they desired. This kind of sacrifice, which facilitates acts of sin, is not inherently disqualified, but rather is unfit because of what it causes. Usually we do not tell a sinner, "Don't do a mitzvah!" Just the opposite! Even when a person has sinned (and, perhaps, especially because he sinned), it is worthwhile for him to now increase mitzvot. But when a person steals and thinks that the sacrifice will allow him to continue this way, the prophets come and unmask him and shout that it is better that he not sacrifice: "Why do I need your numerous sacrifices? -- says Hashem ... Your hands are replete with blood."

In Micha's prophecy the mistake is different. The sacrifice itself is disgraceful. We are not dealing with people who are corrupt in terms of mitzvot between man and his neighbor, but rather with people who do not understand that the sacrifice represents them, that they deserve death and out of mercy they offer a sacrifice in their place. Instead, they think that G-d needs the gift, as it were. Therefore they offered animals that were near-blemished and sick.

Both of these groups disgrace the Sanctuary of Hashem and His table (the altar). If we would correct these two mistakes and understand that the sacrifices (and the corresponding prayers) come to impact upon us, to raise us and to fix our traits and behavior in mitzvot between man and his friend, then our sacrifice will be accepted and it will also be an honor to Hashem whose, "Name is great among the nations, and in every place offerings and meal-offerings are presented to My Name, for My Name is great among the nations, says Hashem, Master of Legions." In place of the curse that the prophet threatens to those who offer invalid sacrifices, there will come upon us -- those who offer a pure offering -- "a blessing without end." (Malachi 3:10)

 

 

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