Parashat Tzav פָּרָשַׁת צַו

I want to draw your attention to one passage in Parsha Tzav, the portion assigned to this coming Shabbat.

It’s verse 21. It’s not even the entire verse.  

Moses has just slaughtered a ram for the sacrifice, and has washed the entrails and is creating a burnt offering.  The next line in verse 21 reads: “THAT WAS A BURNT OFFERING FOR A PLEASING ODOR, A GIFT TO THE LORD—AS THE LORD HAD COMMANDED MOSES.”

OK.  I’m sure the smells at the Holy Temple were pretty powerful. All the sacrifices of all the animals.  The oils and the incense and the blood. An earlier pasuk in Tzav even mentions DUNG. So maybe it was a mix of smells. Or perhaps the smells varied, depending on what animal was being slaughtered. We all know that cooked brisket smells a lot different from roasted chicken.

But what kind of smell is "pleasing to the Lord"?  

There is much in the Torah that endows God with senses, right? God SEES what we do.  God HEARS our prayers.  But here we are told that God is also SMELLING our sacrifices.  

We don’t usually think of God as a God who smells odors, pleasing or not.  And when we endow God with those senses, does that mean that we are dangerously close to ANTHROPOMORPHIZING God?

Everyone knows what that mouthful means? To anthropomorphize means to attribute human qualities to God.  But the Torah does that all the time.  God allows Moshe to see his BACK, for example.

• God has a back??? 
• Why do we even have to give gifts to God?  
• Isn’t God perfect? Doesn’t God have everything that she needs?  
• Why do we need to build a HOME to God?
• Can God be squeezed into even the biggest temple in the entire universe?

Perhaps you can think about what qualities YOU attribute to God.  

• Is he George Burns?  
• Does he have a long beard?
• Does God have a gender?
• Is God a spirit, or a being?

If we are created in God’s image, why SHOULDN’T we anthropomorphize God?

We may never have the answers to any of these questions, but it’s the questions that truly matter.