Achrei Mot

This weeks parsha holds an interesting thought for for me. In the fourth aliyah of the Torah reading, there are a couple of verses:

Any man of the House of Israel, who slaughters an ox, a lamb, or a goat inside the camp, or who slaughters outside the camp,

but does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to offer up as a sacrifice to the Lord before the Mishkan of the Lord, this [act] shall be counted for that man as blood he has shed, and that man shall be cut off from among his people;

לֹ֣א הֱבִיאוֹ֒ לְהַקְרִ֤יב קָרְבָּן֙ לַֽיהֹוָ֔ה לִפְנֵ֖י מִשְׁכַּ֣ן יְהוָֹ֑ה דָּ֣ם יֵֽחָשֵׁ֞ב לָאִ֤ישׁ הַהוּא֙ דָּ֣ם שָׁפָ֔ךְ

וְנִכְרַ֛ת הָאִ֥ישׁ הַה֖וּא מִקֶּ֥רֶב עַמּֽוֹ

It’s starts off quite logically, talking about bringing a sacrifice to God but the next verse suddenly becomes a strict warning.

It is basically saying if you bring a sacrifice to God anywhere but to the Mishkan, you will be cut off from your people. It goes on to explain that this is so that the people will bring a peace offering to God at the Mishkan.

And here is my thought. We no longer have a Mishkan, what we have are our shuls, taking the place of the Beit Hamikdash which took the place of the original Mishkan.

Our synagogues are todays Mishkan. We gather together to pray and hold services to God. We have Rabbi’s guiding us spiritually, instead of the priests tending to the sacrifices. We hold prayer services in place of sacrifices. And according to this weeks parsha of Achrei Mot, if we can only give sacrifices to God at the Mishkan, so too, we can only pray at a synagogue.

And here I have a problem.

Can we really only pray at shul? During services?

I decided to do what any modern scholar would do, I googled.

“Can a jew pray outside of a shul”?

And with 372000 results I did not find a simple answer although the talmudic discussion abounds. Surely someone has clarified this, addressed it before? After all, it is written in the Torah, you have to sacrifice at the MIshkan. It’s a valid question, are we somehow breaking the letter of the law by praying outside of an official shul?

What I did find however was a number of articles and references to the proper environment for prayer.

According to midrash, we see this when Pharaoh asks Moses to stop the plague. Moses responds by saying when he leaves the city he will raise up his arms. Our Rabbis teach us that he did not want to pray in a place full of idols. Of course let’s not forget that at this point we did not yet have the Mishkan so maybe it’s not entirely relevant.

Yet, nonetheless, this gives us a clue as to what we should consider. Should prayer be in a sanctified place, without modern day idols or distractions? If so, then surely the wilderness would be the perfect place to pray.

I spend much of my time reassuring people that although there are laws and traditions, there is no one single way to practise Judaism. There is not a right way to pray and your relationship with God is yours.

This means that if you are able to talk to God, it is a gift and a blessing and you can feel that connection and spirituality whether or not you are in a synagogue. We are blessed to be able to carry our connection with God with us, and within us.

Indeed the wearing of a Kippah is to remind us of our connection with God and there is no prohibition on wearing a kippah when you are not in synagogue. To the contrary, many observant people and especially orthodox men choose to wear a Yarmulke stating their connection to God in front of the world.

So what does the verse mean, “be cut off from your people”? I don’t believe it means we cannot pray wherever and however we choose. I believe it is a reminder that regardless of our faith and our individual relationship with God, we are a Jewish people. We stand together and the message is not that we cannot worship elsewhere, but that we should choose to come together in prayer.

Without community, we cannot say Kaddish, we cannot read Torah. Without a community we are still wandering.

In the desert.

Shabbat Shalom