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Dvar Torah

Parshat Vayikra

In this week’s parashah, Parshas Vayikra, when describing the korbanos, it says: "Visheesa oso bichinafav lo yavdeel" -"He shall split it- with its feathers- he need not sever." If the burning of feathers causes such a foul smell, why aren't the feathers removed from the fowl beforehand?

                 If a poor person brings the fowl without the feathers, the fowl would look tiny and insignificant, making the poor man ashamed that he is bringing only a small Korban. Therefore, Hashem says: "One should rather endure the smell than to make the poor man feel bad.”

We can learn a great lesson from this.  Naturally we like to be around well-dressed, wealthy people and we tend to avoid poor, unkempt people. However, Hashem wants us to emulate his ways and make the needy feel good, despite the way he appears, smells, or acts.  Not only are we obligated not to make him feel uncomfortable, we are also commanded to honor him because Hashem's shechina is within him; it is as if we are honoring Hashem when we honor him.  Imagine a king has two sons and one son does not allow the other to join him at his simcha because he is too poor and does not dress so nicely- that is how Hashem feels when we exclude people who are not as well off as we are. This applies to us in school as well- we must include everybody even if it wouldn't be "cool" to be seen with "that" girl, or even if it's unpleasant to be around her.  Have a good Shabbos!

Volume 1 Issue 10 3/14/08