Temple offerings are more than just bringing a bull, goat or sheep. In Num. 15:1-16, the Torah commands that korbanot be accompanied by wine libations, called nesachim, and flour offerings, called menachot. What was the purpose of these wine and flour offerings?

The answer to this question may be found in a Talmudic statement comparing the Temple service with our own daily service of prayer. Rabbi Yochanan taught:

"Reading the Shema without tefillin is like offering an Olah [a burnt-offering] without its flour offering, or a sacrifice without wine." (Berachot 14b)

What is the connection between an incomplete Temple offering and reciting the Shema while not wearing tefillin?

Engaging All of Our Faculties

The Temple service, Rav Kook explained, was meant to encompass all aspects of creation. Each offering contained elements from each of the four basic realms of the universe — human, animal, vegetable, and mineral. The service involved the individual who brought the offering (human), the sacrifice (animal), the wine and flour offerings (vegetable), and the altar (filled with earth, from the mineral realm). Without wine and flour, the offering would lack a component from the plant kingdom.

Including wine and flour is an important lesson in how we should serve God. We are blessed with higher faculties, such as the intellect and the power of speech, as well as lower, physical powers. Just as the Temple service incorporated all aspects of the universe, so too, our Divine service should engage all of our God-given powers and talents. If we were to serve Him only with our more elevated faculties, we would not gain spiritual growth in all aspects of our being.

What does this have to do with reciting the Shema while wearing tefillin? The Shema proclaims God's unity and the obligation to love Him, "with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might" (Deut. 6:5). By saying these verses while binding the tefillin to our arm and head, we demonstrate that we are engaging our entire being — our physical powers, as represented by the arm, as well as our mental faculties, the head — in serving God.

Now Rabbi Yochanan's comparison becomes clearer. Reciting the Shema without tefillin is like offering a korban without the wine and flour. Such a person only utilizes his more refined faculties — his mind and speech — in his service of God. This is like an offering that lacks an element from the lower level of life, from the vegetable realm.

Turn From Evil, Do Good

This explanation also clarifies a puzzling Halachah. The Talmud in Menachot 90b rules that not all korbanot are accompanied by wine and flour. Offerings brought to atone for sins — the chatat and the asham — do not have nesachim (Mishneh Torah, Ma'aseih HaKorbanot 2:2). Why not?

Our spiritual service may be divided into two components. There are our efforts to avoid evil, as we follow the 365 negative mitzvot; and there are our strivings to draw nearer to God through the 248 positive mitzvot. As the verse in Psalms (34:15) states succinctly: "Sur mei-ra" — turn from evil — "va-asei tov" — and do good.

The idea that we should serve God with all aspects of our being, even our lower, physical powers, applies specifically to the second category, to our positive efforts for spiritual growth. For this reason, the Talmud in Nedarim 32b comments that, through the mitzvah of brit milah, "God gave Abraham control over all of his 248 organs."  Why 248 organs? This is a reference to the 248 positive mitzvot. With brit milah, even his lowest, most physical nature was directed towards that which is good and holy.

With regard to avoiding evil, however, the situation is different. When we stumble, it is our moral and intellectual faculties that are at fault. Our lower forces do not determine our moral choices; they are not rewarded or punished for their behavior. The body can digest forbidden food just as easily as kosher food. The service of "sur mei-ra" only reflects the functioning of one's higher faculties.

Now we understand why sin offerings are not accompanied by wine and flour. These korbanot come to atone for our failure to avoid bad choices, and only our moral/intellectual side is at fault. But offerings such as the Olah and holiday korbanot are brought to attain a special closeness to God. They are a positive service of God - "asei tov" — and should be accompanied by flour and wine from the vegetable realm, demonstrating that this service should engage all levels of our existence.

(Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I, p. 72)

Copyright © 2006 by Chanan Morrison