12.03.2011                      06.Adar ll, 5771

Umwelt:

Pending guilt-offering and global climate

God of the Earth: Does shutting the water while I brush my teeth matter? The Torah says “yes.”

This week’s Torah portion of Vayikra describes the various voluntary and obligatory sacrifices that G-d commands the Jewish people to bring. 
Among them, there’s a very specific type of sacrifice, called asham talui – an “undetermined guilt” offering. As opposed to the other sin and guilt offerings, which are brought when a person's action has transgressed a commandment (even if that was only realized after the fact), the asham talui is brought when it cannot be conclusively determined whether the act was, in fact, a transgression at all….