Pĕsikta dĕ-Rab Kahăna: R. Kahana's Compilation of Discourses for Sabbaths and Festal Days (JPS Classic Reissues)

PISKA 6

164 PISKA 6 Summary Offerings serve men’s needs, not God’s Since God is merciful and man is cruel, if God were hungry, He would not ask cruel man to provide food for Him. In asking for animal sacrifices, He does not make inordinate demands, for it is not to satisfy hunger that He asks for sacrifices. If His angels require no food or drink, God certainly does not require them. If Moses required no food or drink on Sinai, certainly God does not require them. Besides, if no one of God’s creations requires to be fed by what it creates, does God the Creator require to be fed by His creation? No. Yet we are told that only a small wine offering is enough to fill, satiate, and even intoxicate Him. How are we to understand such a statement, since man is unable to feed the Behemoth, much less the Behemoth’s Creator ? The Behemoth feeds on the produce of a thousand mountains, and its need for drink is so huge that the waters of the Jordan are only enough to moisten its mouth. To satisfy its thirst it requires the limitless waters of Yubal, a river that comes forth out of Eden. Similarly , man cannot supply the requirements of the Ziz or of the Leviathan . As for the people of Israel, they could barely provide Solomon’s measure of food, or even the food required by Nehemiah, a governor whose needs were modest. Therefore, when God speaks to them of food . . . presented unto Me for offerings (Num. 28:2), it is really the fragrance of their obedience and good deeds which He truly requires and in which He delights (Sec. 1). PISKA 6 165 Consider: righteous persons like Eliezer, Ruth, and Hezekiah required very little to satisfy their wants. Only the wicked like Esau, Rezin, and Remaliah’s son stuffed food into their mouths, the wicked like Mesha, king of Moab, whose desire for more and more sheep knew no restraint. All the wicked who are insatiable receive their just deserts in the end (Sec. 2). Now that the daily offering to God is no more, the study of the ordinances pertaining to the offering is considered the equivalent of the offering itself. Children, who are pure, are to study Leviticus which has to do with the purity of things such as the daily offering. The fact that God asked Israel to bring a burnt offering continually shows that He was pleased with the manner of Israel’s presenting it to Him (Sec. 3). The daily offerings cause God to put Israel’s iniquities out of sight or, according to some, to cleanse them of iniquities of long standing. Several comments follow concerning the place on the altar in Jerusalem where the two lambs are to be offered and the beneficial effects of such offerings—for example, no man who lodged in Jersualem for a full day could stay possessed of his sin. The precise character of the daily offering was one of the three commandments which startled Moses who felt that man could not possibly fulfill them, until God reassured him by saying that He did not come to Israel with demands commensurate with His majesty, but with Israel’s capacity (Sec. 4). 166 Piska 6 My food which is presented unto Me for offerings (Num. 28:2).1 1. If I were hungry, I would not speak to thee of it; for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof (Ps. 50:12). Of the words I would not speak to thee of it, R. Simon said: Thirteen qualities of mercy are attributed in Scripture to the Holy One, as indicated in the verse The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, and passing over transgression and sin, clearing [those who repent”]2 (Exod. 34:6–7). Do you think it likely, then, that One so merciful would entrust the providing of His sustenance to man who is cruel? Hence, If I were hungry, I would not speak to thee of it (Ps. 50:12). According to R. Judah bar R. Simon, the Holy One said to Israel: [My children], I have made available ten clean beasts as food for you—three of these subject to your control...