Why Start at Vayikra?

I'm a boy mom.

So instead of school plays and graduations, I’ve attended chumash seudahs when my boys were in the pre-1A/1st grade stage. 

It's similar to a graduation, but instead of an ending, it celebrates a beginning. It's when the boys formally begin learning Chumash.

You'd expect them to start at the very beginning, with Bereishis. But they don't. They start at Vayikra. This week's parsha.

Vayikra is the book that dives into Taharah - this mystical state of connection inadequately translated as “purity.” But there really is no word in English to describe its essence. 

Because Taharah is not fixing something that's broken or purifying something impure.

It's a conscious reconnection and realignment.

Pulling back is inevitable.

It happens in our cycles.

It happens in our relationships.

It happens in our habits, behaviors, systems, and structures.

We all go “off track” in one way or another. And in the case of our cycles, it's the design of nature. There's nothing wrong or shameful about it.

But when it comes down to it, we have a choice.

To stay in the disconnect - or reconnect?

To stay in the depths or to come back up again.

It's really not about good or bad but choosing how we move through different flow states. How we rise. 

Separating ourselves from a situation offers valuable perspective and clarity.

Through each cycle we get to discover and embody a more aligned and truer version of ourselves. 

It's the process of teshuvah.

The process of redemption.

The process of life.

It's the consciousness that was required to enter the Beis HaMikdash, to perform sacred rituals, to bring karbanos (literally translated as bringing close.) 

This is the parsha little boys learn first. So this knowledge is ingrained.

The wisdom of life itself.

The wisdom of cycles.

Of pulling back and coming to an even greater wholeness.

Have a beautiful Shabbos.