Vayikra-2016

· The Parsha enumerates the various kinds of Korbonos that are offered in the Mishkan and eventually in the Bais Hamikdosh.

· Let’s focus on 4 of the main animals that are brought.

o Lamb – under 1 year old

o Young goat – under 1 year old

o Ram – 14 months to 2 years old

o Bull – 1 year to 3 years old

· If we think about these animals, how do they differ?

· One observation we can make is that these are four gradations of stubbornness.

· Lamb - The lamb is the least stubborn.  The nature of a lamb is to be docile, to go where you lead it.  It’s also young, under a year old.

· Young goat – a bit more stubborn, but it is also young, under a year old.  We call our own children kids because they often tend to be a bit resistant to our suggestions.

· Ram – older – 14 months to 2 years – quite stubborn.  It’s a male sheep. Picture it with its horns, it is strong, weighs about 160 pounds.  Perhaps a bunch of men could get it to move.

· Bull – muscular, male, and aggressive – with horns that gore – Baba Kamma talks about bulls that gore 3 times. It weight 1000 to 2000 pounds

· One idea behind Korbonos is that these animals represent dispositions within us.

· We all have within us these Kochos and dispositions – in varying degrees - of a lamb, young goat, ram, and bull – different amounts of stubbornness, of holding our ground and not budging, of inflexibility.

· One idea behind Korbonos is that we want to dedicate these Kochos to Hashem.

· The root of the word Korbon is Korove – to get close - we want to get close to Hashem,

· We want to make sure these kinds of stubbornness are not a chatzitza between us and Hashem.

· So we offer these Korbonos to Hashem, saying:

o We don’t want these Kochos to stand in the way of being close to Hashem.

o We dedicate these Kochos to serve Hashem.

· Let’s look at some examples when these Korbonos are brought.

· Lamb

o Daily Tamid - offered in the morning and afternoon - We love giving the Daily Tamid – it shows our dedication to Hashem on a daily basis.  There’s little resistance here.

o Mussaf of Shabbos (2 lambs) – we love Shabbos , there’s also little resistance here.

· Young goat

o Communal offering on Yom Kippur – We recognize that we did something wrong, but our admitting we are wrong is difficult

o Communal or personal Korban for Avodah Zara – though we have remorse, there is a certain amount of resistance to admitting what we did was wrong,

· Ram

o Kohane Godol on Yom Kippur – This is a Chatos, a sin offering - The Kohane Godol is the chief religious figure in Klal Yisroel, and that is bound to carry with it a certain level of Gaiva.  Overcoming that Gaiva can meet with a ram-like resistance.

· Bull -

o The Kohane Godol on Yom Kippur also brings a bull as an Oleh – an elevation offering. So the Kohane Godol has to bring both a ram and a bull on Yom Kippur.

o When the Kohane Godol is first anointed as Kohane Godol, he also has to bring a bull as a Chatos – This shows how great the pitfall of pride and stubbornness is for a Kohane Godol, and how much he has to work to Makreev – dedicate – that Koach to Hashem.

o Par Helem Davar - The majority of Klal Yisroel made a big mistake as a result of an erroneous decision by the Sanhendrin, and the Sanhendrin has to bring this bull as an atonement.  These are the legal leaders, and they must publicly admit that they are wrong and ask for Kaporah.  All these leaders admitting a big error, and that can engender Bull-like resistance.

· So one aspect of Korbonos may represent our need to overcome various levels of stubbornness in our lives.

· This insight is relevant in all our relationships.

· Not only Bain Adam Le Mokom – between us and Hashem.

· But also Bain Adam Le Chavero – between husband and wife, parents and children, boss and worker, and between friends.

· In every relationship, there is not always a perfect alignment of wills.

· There can be different ways of seeing things, different viewpoints, different emphasis, different opinions.

· There can be varying levels of ‘stubborness’ – lamb, young goat, ram, or bull.

· We should dedicate our Kochos to the common goals of the relationship, to improving the relationship itself, to working together, to be a team, to make the result win-win.

· Great care must be made to make sure that these Kochos don’t hurt the relationship, or create barriers, or stand in the way of developing greater trust. 

· This task of using our Kochos to strengthen relationships is referred to in Pirkei Avos 5:11

· There are four types of temperaments.

o One who is easily angered and easily appeased--his virtue cancels his flaw.

o One whom it is difficult to anger and difficult to appease--his flaw cancels his virtue.

o One whom it is difficult to anger and is easily appeased, is a chassid.

o One who is easily angered and is difficult to appease, is a rasha, wicked.

· We must be mindful of the animals within us to try to aim for the third temperament: being difficult to anger and easily appeased.

· In most cases, to stubbornly refuse to give into the temptation of gratuitous anger.

· And to be a lamb when it comes to giving up the anger and being appeased.

· This is also relevant to Bain Adam Le Atzmo – how we deal with ourselves.

· We all have a running internal dialog with ourselves concerning the gap between what we think we should do and what we impulsively want to do.

· Let’s say we are on a diet, and are tempted by the chocolate cake.

· It’s a battle of wills between the dieter and the eater inside us – the part with long term goals and the part that wants what it wants now.

· Which side of us is going to be more stubborn – which part of us will be the lamb, the kid, the ram, or the bull?

· There is a zoo of Kochos within us.

· The topic of Korbonos teaches us that we must be ready to dedicate and Makreev all the Kochos inside us  - the lamb, young goat, ram, and bull- to strengthen our relationship to Hashem and with all our relationships – with other people and even with ourselves.