Three holiday sacrifices are offered by every adult male: An olah for his presentation before G-D in the temple, a holiday shelamim, and an offering for joy (simcha). The olah?s meat was completely consumed on the altar. The shelamim?s meat was apportioned between the altar, the priest, and the owner.

The Oral Torah derives from the scriptures that the simcha offering is also a shelamim. Deuteronomy 12 discusses the prohibition of making an offering outside of the temple area. Verse seven states, ?And you shall eat there (in the temple area) before Hashem your G-D and you shall be happy with all that you do, you and your household, that which Hashem your G-D blessed you.? The Oral Torah takes it that this is describing a holiday?s simcha offering. This verse is phrased similarly to Deuteronomy 27:7 which states, ?And you shall slaughter shelamim sacrifices and eat there. And you shall be happy before Hashem your G-D.? The Oral Torah uses the similarity to derive the law that the simcha offering is a shelamim.

It is curious that the holiday?s simcha offering is discussed by the verses that prohibit external sacrifice.

The connection to 27:7 is even more curious, as its context is about the solemn covenant that the Jewish people made shortly upon their entry to the Promised Land.

These scriptures describe how the Jewish are to divide themselves into two groups, one ascending the lush and fertile Mt. Grizim and the other ascending the barren and desolate Mt. Eval.

The Levites stood at the foot of these mountains and pronounced blessings and curses. Their blessings were for those who will uphold the Torah and the curses were for those who will not. They faced Mt. Grizim for the blessings and Mt. Eval for the curses.

The event of 27:7, that we shall ?be happy before Hashem? occurred by the mountain of the curses. What is about this mountain that evokes happiness? It is further puzzling that this verse contains a teaching for the simcha sacrifices of the three pilgrimage holidays.

The following came to mind.

I suggest three reasons for our being joyous during the holidays, although I?m sure that there are more.

1. Our special relationship with G-D. 2. What we have. 3. What we are.

I suggest a correlation between the three holiday sacrifices and these three reasons.

As stated above, the presentation sacrifice was an olah and was completely consumed by the altar. This corresponds to our relationship of devotion to G-D, which is nothing less than total.

I suggest assigning a theme of abundance and blessings with the holiday shelamim and a focus of our role and identity with the simcha sacrifice.

Some people shirk responsibilities. Most people come to realize that responsibility is a great source of satisfaction, inner peace, and happiness. Typically, those who come home to dinner after a day of hard and honest work enjoy their meal and family time much more than a person who comes home from gambling at the race track.

As solemn was our experience at the foot of Mt. Eval was, it served as the basis for the awesome roles and responsibilities that we accepted upon ourselves, thereby becoming a basis of the great happiness that we experience from the achievements that followed.

In this light we can better understand the happiness at Mt. Eval and the connection to the holiday?s simcha sacrifices.

We can then better understand the reference to the simcha sacrifices in the section that deals with external sacrifices, for our role and identity is not dependent upon geographic boundaries.

========================= Courtesy of JewishAmerica http://www.JewishAmerica.com

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