Personal Requests

Many of us, buoyed by the generational drama of Breishit and the redemptive excitement of Shemot, find ourselves sinking by Vayikra. Taking the verses at face value, we don't quite know what to do with the technical details of sin offerings. Yet, we learned that Torah is timeless, not a word superfluous. So we say to Hashem: what's up with the animal sacrifice?
Moshe rabeinu was the first to bring the communal offering. This is the most important-no matter what the people do as individuals, as long as there is unity, there is a saving grace. And what is the central thing that ties the Jewish people together? Torah, which is what Moshe represents. Moshe is the one that is so self-nullifying, so pure of ego, that he can represent the Jewish people as a whole, to the extent that he himself inaugurates the daily offerings that were to be given for many centuries to come.
But there is another aspect to Israel's relationship to Hashem-that of the individual. Israel is not a collection of automatons whose purpose is the survival of Israel in and of itself. In fact, one can say that Israel's ultimate purpose is for society to recognize the individual, each a breathing manifestation of a face of the Divine, without whom the world would be sorely lacking.
The dreams, struggles, and self-actualization of each human being-that's what the personal offerings (the subject of this week's parasha) are all about. Though Israel is foremost a people, the essence of Judaism is lived out on an individual/family level.
Although Moshe, in last week's parasha, had broken-in the completed structure with his initial service that begun the daily, communal offerings, the mishkan was not really finished. Until it and the Kohanim (priests) were anointed for the optional, individual offerings, the mishkan was not fully operational. To what can the matter be compared? A city receives its water from the rains, filling a lake and allowing it to survive on a basic level. However, the inhabitants don't go to the lake every time they want a glass of water. In order to live in dignity, a water supply system is built from which every house has access.
So it is with the optional, individual offerings. Moshe's Tamid (continual, or communal offerings) would guarantee the survival of the nation, but the Jewish people are not angels or cogs in a machine. Our lives are supposed to be intense and unpredictable. We have to make mistakes in order to learn, and we have to break down a little bit in order to grow.
This is why Aaron specifically was chosen, through the Kohanim, to represent the individual offerings. As a nation of priests, we are the people for whom, by definition, each person must have an evolving relationship with Hashem. It is not enough to rely on the Tamid, lest we wish to remain at the level of cog or automaton. Do you?
So, how does this matter now, in a time where there is no Temple, no Tamid, no sin offerings? Ah, but in fact we have all of these things; they have only changed in form. According to Mishna Berachot, prayer has replaced the offerings. The twice-daily Tamid has become the morning and afternoon Amida (standing prayer, another name for Shemona Esrei), with the evening prayer replacing the service wherein what remained of the day's offerings was burned in the night.
But this is not enough. Mishna Berachot goes on to say, "a fixed prayer is not a supplicatory prayer," meaning: If you just read the words without adding your own thoughts, experiences, and yearnings, it is not real prayer. The Amida is the prayer par excellence; but for a true eved (servant of) Hashem, it is the skeleton upon which the substance prayer grows. We play a part in the Tamid through our Amida; but it is in those places where you add your own requests (before the last expression, "Boruch Ato…" in each blessing) that you bring an individual offering, that your relationship with Hashem may advance beyond the default position.
It is in these personal requests that we realize ourselves in prayer, that we see Hashem really cares and relates to us as precious in our idiosyncrasies, life progress and personal struggles. When we feel how He appreciates us, our jealousies and resentments shrink, because we see the greatness of our unique and promising path as compared to our ego ambitions, those artificial dreams formed in the false goals of hoisting ourselves above our brother. It is for this reason that specifically Aaron haKohen was anointed to offer the personal sacrifices. Aaron was able to truly rejoice at his younger brother's success without jealousy. He knew that Moshe's situation was for Moshe, and Aaron's was for Aaron; and he saw to its depths that nothing could be more fitting and truly beautiful.
May we be blessed to bring our own thoughts and expressions-"unblemished" by impure motives-to enrich our daily sacrifice of time and energy.