Speak to
the Children of Israel and explain to them if any man (adam) of you
would bring an offering near unto God, from animals, from the herd and from the
flock shall you bring your offerings. Leviticus 1:2
“Adam”:
neither the primal man, nor the ultimate man.
Zohar
My
saintly teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Rogov, explained the comment of the Zohar thus:
the primal man is Adam. While in the Garden of Eden, Adam had a direct and
personal relationship with God, thus making offerings to God was natural for
Adam.
The
“ultimate man” is he who will be privileged to see the end of days, the
completion of Israel’s exile. The ultimate man will have answers to the
questions which were raised by the People of Israel throughout their
generations of suffering, and will understand that everything was part of the
divine plan for mankind. Therefore, ultimate man’s offerings too will be
natural.
Thus,
offerings of neither the primal man nor the ultimate man are of great note. The
true offering to God is made in the present, by those who have experienced
neither the beginning nor the completion of the divine plan, those who
experience “the hiding of the divine countenance” [hester panim]. The
ideal which the Torah presents is to be able to maintain faith in God, to make
offerings to Him despite being surrounded by questions and uncertainty.
Therefore, it is not the offerings of primal or ultimate man, but of contemporary
man which are most pleasing to God.
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