Spartacus, Blood, Gore, and Holiness

Tzav
Leviticus 6:1-8:36

Précis: The parasha begins with Adonai ordering Moses to command (“tzav”) Aaron and his sons concerning burnt offerings. Requirements for the daily offerings, directions for the meal offerings, instructions for guilt-offerings and thanksgiving offerings are described. The parasha then describes the initial offerings of the Tabernacle made by Aaron and his sons following their consecration to service by Moses.

Leviticus 6:3 “And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and he will put his linen breeches on his body; and he will take up the ashes from the fire which consumed the burnt-offering on the altar, and he will put them next to the altar.”

TV critics have objected to television’ s new version of Spartacus because of its outrageously bloody, slow-motion gladiatorial violence. Just imagine what reviewers would say about a series which displayed in full-HD close-up the sacrifices mentioned in this week’s reading! Animal sacrifices were messy, bloody, odiferous, and would fill most modern viewers with revulsion. Animals bellow, blood splatters, sacrifices are butchered, fire and smoke are all over the place; the fat-laden ash is all that remains.


This week’s parasha deals with the remains and how the place is cleaned up. In the Spartacus TV drama, the defeated gladiators’ dead bodies are unceremoniously dragged off and the blood is cleaned up by slaves. In our parasha, the remains of gore are cleaned by the priests. (How fitting that we read about cleaning up as we approach Passover!)


This verse shows that the cleaning up after sacrificial fire was elevated to a mitzvah: t’rumat hadeshen, “offering the ashes,” a daily task for the priest as he removed the ashes for proper, dignified disposal on grounds of the Temple. It was not sufficient to merely dump the ashes into a garbage pit because an element of holiness remained.


Just as holiness remains in the ashes, holiness may be found in the most menial of tasks when performed for a holy purpose. The custodian in our congregation is doing holy work, making the facility clean and proper for devotion. He or she should be honored and thanked for this mitzvah.


This text is also a reminder that Judaism is a faith and a lifestyle where we are less concerned with the performance of mighty feats like Spartacus than with the small, day-to-day kindnesses we show to each other. As we approach our Festival of Freedom, this can remind us that only spiritually free people can, even by the most menial of actions, live up to the demands of Leviticus and become holy by seeing to the needs of the widow, the orphan, and the stranger.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach.