Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Photo: Chris Liverani  [Unsplash.com]

Very few people study the book of the
Torah we begin this week, the Book of Leviticus, or Vayikra. I pity the poor
bar or bat mitzvah student who has to summarize and find ways to relate to
these portions , which deal mostly with the laws of animal sacrifice in all
their bloody and gory detail. Yet over the years I have been consistently
surprised by their ingenuity and creativity in finding meaning in parashas that
are not particularly inviting or accessible! I know of one congregation that
addressed this issue by creating the “Two Books of Moses”.  This
congregation begins in Genesis and reads through the Book of Exodus in one
year, skipping Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy entirely, then returning to
Genesis again!     Their students never have to confront
the difficulties posed by the Book of Leviticus.

Yes, I want to assure you that there is
value in studying the Book of Leviticus. Of the many lessons one can glean from
studying this Book is that everyone, in every strata of society, is capable of
making a mistake. There is a specific sacrifice for a priest who makes a
mistake; A different sacrifice for a chieftain who makes a mistake; Yet
another for a common citizen who makes a mistake. There is even a sacrifice
prescribed for an entire community that makes a mistake. The Book of Leviticus
teaches us that honest mistakes are a part of life. Bringing a sacrifice is the
way ancient Israelites were forgiven for their mistakes and could move on in
their lives. 

 Recently I read about an
experiment  that demonstrated how we human beings are averse to making
mistakes.  A psychologist divided a class of fifth graders into two
groups, and gave them a test.  One group was told they did really well on
the test, and were praised for being “very smart”.  The other
group was told they did poorly on a test, but were told they “tried really
hard.”  Next, they were given a choice of two tasks. One task was
very simple to accomplish, and the other much more difficult.  

 Ninety percent of the children who were
told they “tried really hard” chose the more difficult task, but only
half of the children praised for being “very smart” chose the more difficult
task.  The authors hypothesized that children who were told they were
“very smart” were less willing to take the risk of failing in the
more difficult task.  They played it safe because they did not want to
make mistakes, which perhaps could have impacted their self-esteem, or, how
they thought they looked in the eyes of the researchers. Perhaps they did not
want to disappoint themselves, or the people who were important to them. In
trying to avoid mistakes, they stayed away from the riskier, more challenging
but perhaps more rewarding venture. 

 The Russian composer Igor Stravinsky
once said, “I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly
through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to
founts of wisdom and knowledge.”  We need not fear making mistakes –
as long, that is, as we can recognize them, rectify them, and don’t
keep making the same mistake over and over. Too many people refuse to recognize
that they have made a mistake, and, out of stubborn pride, compound their
missteps or slip ups and make it worse.

 As the Torah teaches us in innumerable
verses on the subject of atonement that mistakes are an ever-present part of
our lives.  Without taking the risk to make a mistake, we would all likely
stay stuck in the exact same place in our
lives, avoiding venturing beyond our comfort level, scarcely
ever moving beyond what we had already mastered, hardly learning new
things, feeling frozen in what we know that works.  Every mistake
has a blessing hidden inside of it. The question is – can we recognize the
mistake, and seize the blessing?