Tzav: Korban Todah – Thanking God with a Chametz and Matzah Party
Even though we are currently unable to bring korbanos, the ideas are as relevant to our lives as ever, provided we ask the right questions and look for the right kinds of answers. Here's an example.
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Tzav: Korban Todah – Thanking God with a Chametz and Matzah Party
Tzav introduces the laws of the korban todah (thanksgiving offering). Rashi (Vayikra 7:12-13) explains that unlike a nedavah (voluntary offering), which can be brought for any reason, a todah is brought specifically “on a miracle that was done for a person, such as one who made a sea-voyage, or traveled through the wilderness, or had been imprisoned, or who had been sick and was healed.” The Written Torah outlines the components of the todah:
This is the law of the peace-sacrifice that one may offer to Hashem. If he shall offer it for thanksgiving, he shall offer his thanksgiving-sacrifice with matzah-loaves mixed with oil, matzah-wafers smeared with oil, and loaves of fine flour fried with oil. This, together with loaves of chametz bread, he shall offer his peace-sacrifice of thanksgiving. (ibid. 7:11-13)
The Oral Torah (Rambam, Hilchos Maaseh ha’Korbanos 9:17-22) states that, le’chatchilah (ideally), one is obligated to bring a total of forty loaves of bread: ten matzah-loaves (challos) baked in an oven, ten matzah-wafers (rakikin), ten oil-fried matzah loaves (revuchos), and ten loaves of chametz-bread. These menachos (meal-offerings) – in addition to the sheep, goat, or calf which is the principal sacrifice – must be consumed in less than 24 hours: by the end of the night following the day that the korban was brought (and, Rabbinically, by midnight).
There are three anomalies in the korban todah which require explanation. First, why so much bread? Second, why is chametz brought along with the matzos? All other menachos must be in the form of matzah and are prohibited to be brought as chametz, as we learned in last week’s parashah (Vayikra 2:11). The only two exceptions to this rule are the korban todah of an individual, and the communal shtei ha’lechem (Two Loaves) offered on Shavuos. Third, why must the entire todah (the meat plus the forty loaves) be consumed by no later than that night, whereas other peace-offerings can be consumed over the longer span of two days with the intervening night?
Sforno’s commentary (Vayikra 7:11) addresses all three anomalies:
[If peace-offerings are brought] on account of thanksgiving, they should be accompanied by bread, which includes a type of chametz. For indeed, the cause of the danger [which the bringer experienced on which he is now] giving thanks is the "leaven in the dough" (i.e. the yetzer ha'ra; see Berachos 17a). Nevertheless, the matzah-varieties outnumber [the chametz varieties]. With so much bread, the miracle will be publicized to the many who partake. Everything must be eaten within the time limit of kodshim kalim (offerings of lesser sanctity) of a night and a day - as opposed to regular peace-offerings which are not brought for thanksgiving, which have a time limit of two days and one night.
Because Chazal likened the yetzer ha’ra to “leavening in the dough,” the chametz loaves will remind the one who brings the korban todah of an easy-to-overlook aspect of gratitude: “that his yetzer ha'ra overpowered him to the point where he would have been endangered were it not for the miracle,” as one of Sforno’s students wrote (Shiurei R’ Ovadyah Sforno on Vayikra 7:11-17). This sentiment is paralleled in the text of birkas ha’gomel, which is publicly recited by a person who was saved from one of the aforementioned life-threatening predicaments: “Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, Who bestows goodness to the liable, Who has bestowed every goodness upon me.” The requirement of bringing and eating forty loaves in a short timeframe compels the bringer of the korban todah to invite a large number of people to partake, thereby providing a larger audience for his public declaration of gratitude to Hashem for his miraculous salvation.
Although we are currently unable to bring a korban todah, we can still make a seudas hodaah (a meal of thanksgiving) to express our gratitude to Hashem. Based on the ideas elucidated here, it behooves us to make it a big meal with lots of people, and to publicly acknowledge (or at least allude to) the role that our own yetzer ha’ra played in bringing about the calamity from which we were delivered.
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