Turn it and turn it...

Parashat Tzav

This is the Torah of the burnt offering. Leviticus 6:2

Even in the Torah, exists the word Torah. There it refers to a specific law or teaching rather than referencing the scrolls containing the Five Books of Moses.

The ancient rabbis teach in the Talmud: All who occupy themselves in Torah have no need for offerings (Menachot 110). Since Torah encompasses all of the mitzvot, including sacrifices, then its study, including the study of burnt offerings, is tantamount to the actual sacrifice of burnt offerings. All this to say, study replaces sacrificial offering as a means for connecting to the Divine. We, Jews, communicate with God through discourse with one another about the meaning of Torah given the time and place in which we live--here and now.