With this week’s Torah portion, we begin reading the book of Leviticus.  Parashat VaYikra opens with God instructing Moses to describe the five types of sacrifices to the Israelites.  They were: a burnt offering (olah); the meal offering (minchah); the sacrifice of wellbeing (zevach shelamim); the sin offering (chatat); and the guilt offering (asham).

While the first three types of sacrifices were voluntary and not brought for atonement, the last two sacrifices, the chatat and the asham were both obligatory for guilty parties.  The offering to be brought was determined by the economic status of the person who committed the transgression.  The penalty for robbery was also to restore the stolen item, plus an additional one-fifth of its value.

The bringing of sacrifices did not, in and of itself, appease God for one’s wrongdoing; rather it served merely as a symbol and expression of one’s desire to repent and, in that, to change one’s behavior. The essential element in repentance is the attitude of the individual.  With the destruction of the Temple, the sacrifices were discontinued. The Sages then prescribed other practices to substitute for the sacrifices. The most important were prayer, Torah study, and tzedakah. Just as prayer, study, and tzedakah require whole-hearted commitment and discipline, so repentance requires a whole-hearted commitment to change one’s ways.