Vayikra (parashah)

[4] Burnt offerings (עֹלָה‎, olah) could be bulls, rams, or male goats, or turtledoves or pigeons, which the Kohen priests burned completely on wood on the temple altar.

[11] In the fifth reading, sin offerings (חַטָּאת‎, 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.

[12] 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.

[13] 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.

[19] 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.

[32] 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.

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.

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.

Likewise, the Sages instituted 18 benedictions of the Amidah prayer, corresponding to the 18 mentions of the Divine Name in the reading of the Shema, and also in Psalm 29.

[42] A Midrash taught that if people repent, it is accounted as if they had gone up to Jerusalem, built the Temple and the altars, and offered all the sacrifices ordained in the Torah.

"[45] Rabbi Leazar ben Menahem taught that the opening words of Leviticus 1:1, "And the Lord called," indicated God's proximity to Moses.

[56] The Jerusalem Talmud read the apparently superfluous clause "and say to them" in Leviticus 1:2 to teach that the obligation to bring offerings applied to slaves as much as to free persons.

[57] Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai taught that, generally speaking, the Torah required a burnt offering only as expiation for sinful meditation of the heart.

Rabbi Simeon ben Azzai thus taught that Scripture uses the same expression each time to teach that it is the same whether people offered much or little, so long as they directed their hearts to Heaven.

[67] Similarly, Leviticus Rabbah reports that Rabbi Joshua of Siknin taught in the name of Rabbi Levi that God tried to accommodate the Israelites’ financial condition, as God told them that whoever had become liable to bring a sacrifice should bring from the herd, as Leviticus 1:3 says, "If his offering be a burnt offering of the herd."

The Gemara recounted that when Rabbi Sheshet would fast, he would pray: “Master of the Universe, it is revealed before You that when the Temple is standing, one sins and offers a sacrifice.

[86] The Mishnah taught that 36 transgressions warranted excision ("the soul shall be cut off," נִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ‎, nichretah ha-nefesh) if committed intentionally, and warranted bringing of a sin offering (חַטָּאת‎, chatat), as in Leviticus 4:2, if committed inadvertently: when a man has intercourse with (1) his mother, (2) his father's wife, (3) his daughter-in-law, (4) another man, or (5) an animal; (6) when a woman has intercourse with an animal; when a man has intercourse with (7) a woman and her daughter, (8) a married woman, (9) his sister, (10) his father's sister, (11) his mother's sister, (12) his wife's sister, (13) his brother's wife, (14) the wife of his father's brother, or (15) a menstruating woman;[87] when one (16) blasphemes, (17) serves idols, (18) dedicates children to Molech, (19) has a familiar spirit, (20) desecrates the Sabbath, (21) eats of sacrificial food while unclean, (22) enters the precincts of the Temple in an unclean state, eats (23) forbidden fat, (24) blood, (25) remnant, or (26) refuse, (27) slaughters or (28) offers up a consecrated animal outside the Temple precincts, (29) eats anything leavened on Passover, (30) eats or (31) works on Yom Kippur, compounds sacred (32) anointing oil or (33) incense, (34) uses sacred anointing oil improperly, or transgresses the laws of (35) the Passover offering or (36) circumcision.

Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai said that God showed Abraham all the atoning sacrifices except for the tenth of an ephah of fine meal in Leviticus 5:11.

Similarly, Maimonides taught, God instituted many laws as temporary measures, as it would have been impossible for the Israelites to suddenly discontinue everything to which they had become accustomed.

Rabbi Isaac explained that the reason for the differing language was that it was exceptional for the High Priest to sin, since he felt his responsibility to God, Israel, and each individual.

[115] Jacob Milgrom read the sacrificial system in the parashah to describe the forces of life and death pitted against each other in a cosmic struggle, set loose by people through their obedience to or defiance of God's commandments.

[124] Douglas concluded that the summit of the mountain was the abode of God, below was the cloudy region that only Moses could enter, and the lower slopes were where the priests and congregation waited, and analogously, the order of placing the parts of the animal on the altar marked out three zones on the carcass, the suet set around and below the diaphragm corresponding to the cloud girdling the middle of the mountain.

By publicly stipulating the forms of the Israelite's offerings, Leviticus 1–7 positioned priests and laity to monitor each other's performance, with the text as the arbiter of correct practice.

[128] Milgrom taught that the burnt offering in Leviticus 1 was intended for the person who wanted to present to God a sacrificial animal in its entirety either as an expression of loyalty or as a request for expiation.

[133] Milgrom reasoned that the advent of the Holiness Code ("H") brought another dimension to the sacrifice of the well-being connected with the prohibition of consuming blood.

H's ban on nonsacrificial slaughter meant that all meat eaten as food had initially to be sanctified on the altar as a well-being offering.

[134] Milgrom taught that the rationale for the sin or purification offering in Leviticus 4:1–5:13 was related to the impurity generated by violations of prohibitive commandments, which, if severe enough, polluted the sanctuary from afar.

[135] Milgrom taught that the guilt or reparation offering in Leviticus 5:14–26 might seem at first glance to be restricted to offenses against God's sanctum or name, but reflected wider theological implications.

[136] According to Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 11 positive and 5 negative commandments in the parashah:[137] The list of animals from which the Israelites could bring sacrifices in Leviticus 1:2 provides an application of the fourth of the Thirteen Rules for interpreting the Torah in the Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael that many Jews read as part of the readings before the Pesukei d'Zimrah prayer service.

Applying the fourth rule teaches that Israelites could bring sacrifices from no domestic animals other than cattle from the herd or sheep or goats from the flock.