Parashat Vayikra, VaYikra, Va-yikra, Wayyiqra, or Wayyiqro (—Hebrew for "and He called," the first word in the parashah) is the 24th weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the first in the Book of Leviticus. The parashah lays out the laws of sacrifices (, korbanot). It constitutes Leviticus 1:1–5:26.
The parashah has the most letters and words of any of the weekly Torah portions in the Book of Leviticus (although not the most verses). It is made up of 6,222 Hebrew letters, 1,673 Hebrew words, 111 verses, and 215 lines in a Torah scroll (, Sefer Torah). (Parashat Emor has the most verses of any Torah portion in Leviticus.) Jews read it the 23rd or 24th Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in March or early April.
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Vayikra/Leviticus (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2008), pages 2–29.
First reading—Leviticus 1:1–13
In the first reading, God called to Moses from the Tabernacle and told him the laws of the sacrifices.. Burnt offerings (, olah) could be bulls, rams, or male goats, or turtledoves or pigeons, which the Kohen priests burned completely on wood on the temple altar..
Second reading—Leviticus 1:14–2:6 In the second reading, burnt offerings could also be turtle doves or pigeons, which the priest also burned completely on wood on the altar..
Meal offerings (, minchah) were of choice flour with oil, from which priest would remove a token portion to burn on the altar, and the remainder the priests could eat..
Third reading—Leviticus 2:7–16 In the third reading, meal offerings could also be cooked in a pan.. Meal offerings could not contain leaven or honey, and had to be seasoned with salt.. Meal offerings of first fruits had to be new ears parched with fire, grits of the fresh grain..
Fourth reading—Leviticus 3:1–17 In the fourth reading, sacrifices of well-being (, shelamim) could be male or female cattle, sheep, or goats, from which the priest would dash the blood on the sides of the altar and burn the fat around the entrails, the kidneys, and the protuberance on the liver on the altar..
Fifth reading—Leviticus 4:1–26 In the fifth reading, sin offerings (, chatat) for unwitting sin by the High Priest or the community required sacrificing a bull, sprinkling its blood in the Tent of Meeting, burning on the altar the fat around the entrails, the kidneys, and the protuberance on the liver, and burning the rest of the bull on an ash heap outside the camp.. Guilt offerings for unwitting sin by a chieftain required sacrificing a male goat, putting some of its blood on the horns of the altar, and burning its fat..
Sixth reading—Leviticus 4:27–5:10 In the sixth reading, guilt offerings for unwitting sin by a lay person required sacrificing a female goat, putting some of its blood on the horns of the altar, and burning its fat.. Sin offerings were required for cases when a person: was able to testify but did not give information, touched any unclean thing, touched human uncleanness, or uttered an oath and forgot.. In such cases, the person had to confess and sacrifice a female sheep or goat, or if the person could not afford a sheep, two turtledoves or two pigeons..
Seventh reading—Leviticus 5:11–26 In the seventh reading, if a person could not afford two turtledoves or pigeons, then the person was to bring flour for a sin offering to the priest, and the priest would take a handful of it and make it smoke on the altar and thereby make atonement..
Guilt offerings (, asham) were required when a person was unwittingly remiss about any sacred thing.. In such cases, the person had to sacrifice a ram and make restitution plus 20 percent to the priest.. Similarly, guilt offerings were required when a person dealt deceitfully in the matter of a deposit or a pledge, through robbery, by fraud, or by finding something lost and lying about it.. In such cases, the person had to sacrifice a ram and make restitution plus 20 percent to the victim..
Readings according to the triennial cycle Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to the following schedule:See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah," in Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement: 1986–1990 (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2001), pages 383–418. Year 1Year 2Year 32023, 2026, 2029 ...2024, 2027, 2030 ...2025, 2028, 2031 ...Reading1:1–2:163:1–4:264:27–5:2611:1–43:1–54:27–3121:5–93:6–114:32–3531:10–133:12–175:1–1041:14–174:1–75:11–1352:1–64:8–125:14–1662:7–134:13–215:17–1972:14–164:22–265:20–26Maftir2:14–164:24–265:24–26
In inner-Biblical interpretation
The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pages 1835–41.
Leviticus chapter 1–7 In Psalm 50, God clarifies the purpose of sacrifices. God states that correct sacrifice was not the taking of a bull out of the sacrificer's house, nor the taking of a goat out of the sacrificer's fold, to convey to God, for every animal was already God's possession.. The sacrificer was not to think of the sacrifice as food for God, for God neither hungers nor eats.. Rather, the worshiper was to offer God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon God in times of trouble, and thus God would deliver the worshiper, and the worshiper would honor God..
Psalm 107 enumerates four occasions on which a thank offering (, zivchei todah),. as described in Leviticus 7:12–15 (referring to a , zevach todah) would be appropriate: (1) passage through the desert,. (2) release from prison,. (3) recovery from serious disease,. and (4) surviving a storm at sea..
The Hebrew Bible reports several instances of sacrifices before God explicitly called for them in Leviticus 1–7. While Leviticus 1:3–17 and Leviticus 6:1–6 set out the procedure for the burnt offering (, olah), before then, Genesis 8:20 reports that Noah offered burnt offerings (, olot) of every clean beast and bird on an altar after the waters of the Flood subsided. The story of the Binding of Isaac includes three references to the burnt offering (, olah). In Genesis 22:2, God told Abraham to take Isaac and offer him as a burnt offering (, olah). Genesis 22:3 then reports that Abraham rose early in the morning and split the wood for the burnt offering (, olah). And after the angel of the Lord averted Isaac's sacrifice, Genesis 22:13 reports that Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw a ram caught in a thicket, and Abraham then offered the ram as a burnt offering (, olah) instead of his son. Exodus 10:25 reports that Moses pressed Pharaoh for Pharaoh to give the Israelites "sacrifices and burnt offerings" (, zevachim v'olot) to offer to God. And Exodus 18:12 reports that after Jethro heard all that God did to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, Jethro offered a burnt offering and sacrifices (, olah uzevachim) to God.
While Leviticus 2 and 6:7–16 set out the procedure for the meal offering (, minchah), before then, in Genesis 4:3, Cain brought an offering (, minchah) of the fruit of the ground. And then Genesis 4:4–5 reports that God had respect for Abel and his offering (, minchato), but for Cain and his offering (, minchato), God had no respect.
And while Numbers 15:4–9 indicates that one bringing an animal sacrifice needed also to bring a drink offering (, nesech), before then, in Genesis 35:14, Jacob poured out a drink offering (, nesech) at Bethel.
More generally, the Hebrew Bible addressed "sacrifices" (, zevachim) generically in connection with Jacob and Moses. After Jacob and Laban reconciled, Genesis 31:54 reports that Jacob offered a sacrifice (, zevach) on the mountain and shared a meal with his relatives. And after Jacob learned that Joseph was still alive in Egypt, Genesis 46:1 reports that Jacob journeyed to Beersheba and offered sacrifices (, zevachim) to the God of his father, Isaac. And Moses and Aaron argued repeatedly with Pharaoh over their request to go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice (, venizbechah) to God.See (, venizbechah); (, nizbechah); (, nizbechah); (, veyizbechu); (, nizbach (twice)); (, vezavachnu); (, uzvachtem); (, lizboach); (, zevachim); (, zevach); (, zoveiach).
The Hebrew Bible also includes several ambiguous reports in which Abraham or Isaac built or returned to an altar and "called upon the name of the Lord."See ; ; ; see also , in which Moses built an altar in thanksgiving. In these cases, the text implies but does not explicitly state that the Patriarch offered a sacrifice.See Anson Rainey, "Sacrifice," in Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1972), volume 14, pages 599, 606. And at God's request, Abraham conducted an unusual sacrifice at the Covenant between the Pieces () in Genesis 15:9–21.
Leviticus chapter 5 The Rabbis read Leviticus 5:21–26 and Numbers 5:6–8 as related passages.See, e.g., Mishnah Bava Kamma 9:5–12; Tosefta Bava Kamma 9:19, 10:1–5, 17–18; Babylonian Talmud Bava Kamma 103a–11a. Leviticus 5:21–26 deals with those who sin and commit a trespass against God by dealing falsely with their neighbors in the matter of a deposit, pledge, robbery, other oppression of their neighbors, or the finding of lost property, and swear to a lie. Leviticus 5:23–24 provides that the offender must immediately restore in full to the victim the property at issue and shall add an additional fifth part. Leviticus 5:25–26 requires the offender to bring to the priest an unblemished ram for a guilt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for the offender before God, and the offender shall be forgiven. Numbers 5:6–7 directs that when people commit any sin against God, then they shall confess and make restitution in full to the victim and add a fifth part. And Numbers 5:8 provides that if the victim has no heir to whom restitution may be made, the offender must make restitution to the priest and the ram of atonement.
In classical rabbinic interpretation The parashah is discussed in the Rabbinic literature from the era of the Mishnah through the Talmud:For more on classical rabbinic interpretation, see, e.g., Yaakov Elman, "Classical Rabbinic Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition, pages 1859–78.
Leviticus chapter 1 Leviticus Rabbah reports that Rav Assi said that young children began their Torah studies with Leviticus and not with Genesis because young children are pure. The sacrifices explained in Leviticus are pure, so the pure studied the pure.Leviticus Rabbah 7:3.