Leviticus is often known as the book that stops readers dead in their tracks when they try to read all of the Sacred Scriptures from cover to cover. It is almost entirely made up of laws for the Israelites, many dealing with ceremonies involving priests (hence "Leviticus," deriving from Levi, the tribe of priests), with a few bits of narrative scattered throughout (such as the ordination of Aaron and his sons in Lev 8-9 and the unholy offering of incense by Nadab and Abihu in Lev 10:1-3). While I am not knowledgeable in the rituals and laws of sacrificial Judaism, I can at least attempt some allegorical reflections based on this book. The following are some reflections of my own drawn from Leviticus 2-3: these are merely my own opinion, so take them as you will. For more substantial reflections on how the laws and rituals of ancient Israel apply to modern Christian life and worship, I highly recommend Dr. Brant Pitre's recent work Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist.
Unleavened Bread of Offering
"No cereal offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven; for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as an offering by fire to the Lord" (Lev 2:11).
As the bread of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (vid. Ex 12-13) was commanded by the Lord to be kept free of leaven, so now all of Israel's cereal offerings must be free of leaven. I do not know the deeper reason behind the purity from leaven, but I know that this is part of Christian tradition now. The Last Supper was a Passover meal, and thus Jesus allowed no leaven there. Since the Eucharist is a re-presentation (literally) of the Last Supper (and the Lord's sacrifice at Calvary), the Latin Church celebrates the Eucharist solely with unleavened bread. As the 1983 Code of Canon Law states,
"In the Eucharistic celebration, in accordance with the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, the priest is to use unleavened bread wherever he celebrates Mass" (can. 926).
This brings up an interesting side note, though: in many Eastern Churches, the Holy Bread used during Divine Liturgy is leavened. The 1990 Code of Canons of Oriental Churches (CCEO) says nothing specific about this, only saying,
"In the Divine Liturgy the sacred gifts which are offered are bread made of wheat alone and recently made so that there is no danger of corruption and natural wine of the grape and not corrupt" (can. 706).
Thus while the Latin Church is required to use unleavened bread, the Eastern Churches seem to have the freedom to use either leavened or unleavened bread during the Divine Liturgy. Why would leavened bread be used, though, since it seems that Scripture (the basis of Tradition) only speaks of using unleavened bread? Though I do not know the exact background of this tradition, I have found one detail which could provide an explanation: the todah offering.
The todah offering, or offering of thanksgiving, is another of the sacrificial offerings of ancient Israel, though not as common and well-known as the other offerings (such as the sin offering, guilt offering, etc.). Part of the todah offering involved bringing cakes of leavened bread (vid. Lev 7:13). The Hebrew word todah refers to thanksgiving, and the word Eucharist is derived from the Greek word for thanksgiving. Thus, since the offering of thanksgiving involved leavened bread, shouldn't the Eucharist? I am not certain of this is the origin of leavened bread at the Divine Liturgy, but I think it is a possibility. It also reminds me of an ancient Rabbinic saying quoted in the Pesiqta:
"In the coming Messianic age all sacrifices will cease, but the thank offering [todah] will never cease."
Memorial Portions and Prosphora
When offering cereal offerings to the Lord, the Israelite priests did not offer the entirety of what they received. Instead, they offered a "memorial portion" of what they received from the people: for instance, if they received flour coated in oil and frankincense, the priest would only take a handful from it, and this would be the memorial portion offered to the Lord (cf. Lev 2:1-2). After that handful was removed, "what is left of the cereal offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings by fire to the Lord" (Lev 2:3).
A prosphoron
While this tradition is not seen in the West, I see it reflected in the use of the prosphora in the Divine Liturgies of the Eastern Churches. Whereas in the West all bread used in the liturgy is consecrated and becomes the Body of Christ, in the East there is a different procedure. A large loaf (a prosphoron) is brought to the liturgy, and a cube--called the Lamb--is taken from the center. This is the bread that is consecrated and confected into the Eucharist. The rest of the loaf is not consecrated, but merely blessed, and, besides other particles used for other symbolic purposes in the liturgy, this entire rest of the loaf becomes the antidoron, the "other gifts." The antidoron is cubed and is given to the people at the end of the liturgy. This blessed bread is often taken to those who could not attend the liturgy that day (or it can be given to other people as an evangelization tool, as one Orthodox priest suggested). Thus only part of the prosphoron is offered to the Lord and consecrated as the Eucharist: the rest, while still "a most holy part of the offerings," is not consecrated but is instead given to the people by the priest. In short, the Eastern tradition of only consecrating the Lamb from the prosphoron resembles the Israelite tradition of the memorial portion of the offering.
Salt
"You shall season all your cereal offerings with salt; you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt" (Lev 2:13).
The Church describes the entire congregation as in a sense offering themselves to God during the liturgy. Since Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth," it seems we mystically continue this command of God to the Israelites (Mt 5:13).
The Fat and the Blood
This is probably the largest stretch in these reflections, but it may prove helpful to some, so I will write it. Leviticus 3 is focused on how the fat of animal sacrifices must be offered to the Lord as part of the sacrifice and how no one else should consume animal fat but the Lord.
"All fat is the Lord's. It shall be a perpetual statue throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood" (Lev 3:16b-17).
I found this a very strange concept, and I pondered how it could be continued today. For one, this represents a form of asceticism: the fat is the richest and tastiest part of animal meat, and abstaining from that is a form of asceticism, thus providing an early example of this practice that is so prominent in the Christian life, especially among hermits, monks, and nuns. Another concept that came to my mind was how in the Eucharist, we receive the entirety of Christ, "Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity." Already there is an interesting fact to note: we consume Christ's Blood, though the Lord specifically commanded the Israelites not to eat blood. This is the conundrum that inspired Dr. Pitre's above-mentioned book, so I will leave it to him to discuss its resolution. Since we eat the entirety of Christ's Body, though, we are also eating His fat, in a sense (I do not know how fat works in a glorified, ascended Body, which is why this "in a sense" is so crucial). In one sense, then, the abstaining of the Israelites from fat and blood could be seen as a Eucharistic fast: no fat or blood could be eaten until the Fat and Blood of the Lord was consumed.
Those are all my various reflections on these two chapters of Leviticus. I hope they proved helpful to you. God Bless, and thank you for reading.
Sts. Spyridon and Nicodemus, Prosphora-Bakers of the Kiev Caves, pray for us!
Note Bene: The quote from the Pesiqta was taken from the Catholic Education Resource Center. The fact that the prosphora is sometimes leavened comes from the Wikipedia article. The quote from the Code of Canon Law comes from the edition on The Catholic Primer. The quote from the CCEO comes from the edition on JGray.org.
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