txt/Midrash/Aggadah/Midrash Rabbah/Vayikra Rabbah/English/Vayikra Rabbah 233.txt

Vayikra Rabbah
ויקרא רבה
Vayikra Rabbah 23:3
https://reformjudaism.org/learning/torah-study/acharei-mot-kdoshim-achrei-mot-k%E2%80%99doshim/nakedness-and-vulnerability

Vayikra Rabbah



Chapter 1



Chapter 2



Chapter 3



Chapter 4



Chapter 5



Chapter 6



Chapter 7



Chapter 8



Chapter 9



Chapter 10



Chapter 11



Chapter 12



Chapter 13



Chapter 14



Chapter 15



Chapter 16



Chapter 17



Chapter 18



Chapter 19



Chapter 20



Chapter 21



Chapter 22



Chapter 23



Rabbi Azaria in the name of Rabbi Y'hudah son of Rabbi Shimon says: The matter may be compared to the case of a king who had an orchard planted with one row of fig trees, one of vines, one of pomegranates, and one of apples. He entrusted it to a tenant and went away. After a time, the king came and looked in at the orchard to ascertain what it had yielded. He found it full of thorns and briars, so he brought woodcutters to raze it. He looked closely at the thorns and noticed among them a single rose-colored flower. He smelled it, and his spirits calmed down. The king said: "The whole orchard shall be saved because of this flower." In a similar manner, the whole world was created only for the sake of the Torah. . . . God saw a single rose-colored flower, to wit, Israel. God took it and smelled it when God gave them [the Israelites] the Ten Commandments, and God's spirits were calmed when they said, We will do, and we will hear (Exodus 24:7). Said the Holy One, "The orchard shall be saved on account of this flower. For the sake of the Torah and of Israel the world shall be saved." (Vayikra Rabbah 23:3)