In this week's parsha, the Torah discusses the korban shlamim. The psukim describe that when one offers a korban shlamim, he is allowed to eat the korban for two days and the night in between. Let us say that one offers the korban on Wednesday morning, he would be able to eat the korban shlamim on Wednesday, Wednesday night, and Thursday until sunset. What is the significance of this very unique time period? Two days with the night in the middle.

Rav Hirsch explains as follows. One major theme of the mishkan and Beis HaMikdash is that we are supposed to be inspired by the avodah in the Beis HaMikdash and take that inspiration with us as we re-enter the outside world. When one enters the Beis HaMikdash, he sees the kedushah and the taharah of the kohanim, and he experiences the miracles that happen daily in the Beis HaMikdash. The challenge is to take that inspiration and allow it to impact the person when he goes home. After being in the Beis HaMikdash, one should say bentching with more kavanah, one should not speak loshon hora at his shabbos table, and one should treat his spouse more pleasantly and with more respect. This was the goal of our entry into the Beis HaMikdash. The posuk writes, “V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'socham,” through establishing a Beis HaMikdash, Hashem wants to dwell within us, in our homes. We are supposed to be inspired by the Beis HaMIkdash to serve Hashem well in our ordinary lives. This is the approach which Rav Hirsch emphasizes in many places in his writings.

In the Beis HaMikdash, we count the days as day followed by night. In Rav Hirsch's language, “In the mikdash, the night belongs to the preceding day.” This is opposed to the rest of life, outside the Beis HaMikdash, where the day belongs to the preceding night. Shabbos starts at night, Yom Kippur starts at night; but, in the Beis HaMikdash the “day” starts in the morning.

It is also striking that the korban shlamim is eaten in the entire city of Yerushalayim. This is as opposed to the korban mincha, asham, and chatas which are eaten only in the azara.

Rav Hirsch explains as follows. Of all the korbanos, the one which most strongly captures the theme of the Beis HaMikdash, of taking the inspiration back into the outside world, is the korban shlamim. How so? The korban shlamim is eaten outside the Beis HaMikdash. A person can offer a korban shlamim and then take the meat of the korban and have it for dinner at home in the Old City.[i]

This is incredible. A person is literally bringing the kedusha of the Beis HaMikdash with him as he re-enters the outside world. The korban shlamim is the ultimate example of taking the kedushas hamikdash and applying it and using it in the outside world. Therefore, Rav Hirsch writes, we now understand the time line of two days with the night in the middle. The halacha wants us to start with a Beis HaMikdash day, “day followed by night,” and then merge the Beis HaMikdash day together with a regular day, “night followed by day.” So the time period of day-night-day, reflects a Beis HaMikdash day which is merged and fused with a regular day; and the outcome is day-night-day.

Rav Hirsch writes,

Nearness to Hashem is not to be found only in the mikdash, but also in ordinary home family life and it is to consecrate the family circle to a Temple of Hashem. Now, just as the domain of the Beis HaMikdash is extended in space to draw the homely, family circle into its sphere, so is this extension in time, too, the apt expression for this drawing the ordinary family life into the consecration of the Temple of Hashem. For two days and one night is nothing but a drawing of the civil day into the ‘sanctuary’ day, one day being a combination of the two days. It begins in the mikdash and ends outside in civil life[ii].

This is a beautiful p'shat of Rav Hirsch. The timing of the korban shlamim exactly reflects the theme of the korban shlamim, to take the inspiration of the Beis HaMikdash into our life in the outside world.

This is really the challenge that all of us have. A person goes to yeshiva or seminary for the year and is inspired from the atmosphere, the teachers, and the classes. The goal is to take the inspiration with you as you enter the outside world. One's “ordinary” life at home should be on a higher spiritual level than it was before. A person goes to shul on shabbos and hears a beautiful drasha from the shul rabbi, the challenge is that that day at lunch, at the seudas shabbos, after shul, a person's life is a little bit different because he is inspired by the rabbi's drasha. When a person is feeling inspired, he should think about, what can I do to take this inspiration with me as I re-enter ordinary life in the “outside world”?

This is the challenge of the mishkan and this is really the challenge of life in general[iii].

[i] Or, he could knock at Rav Nevenzhal shli”ta's door and ask if he could eat the korban shlamim at his table.

[ii] Rav Hirsch, Vayikra, p.211-212

[iii] I found that Rav Hirsch refers to this idea again later in Vaykra 7,35. Rav Hirsch points out that on the day of the milu'im, the kohanim themselves had to give the chazeh v'shok to Moshe. Rav Hirsch writes, “Every shlamim offering is an act of a priestly consecration of a Jewish family circle. It makes their home into a temple and the members of it into priests.”

The Torah wants to teach us that from the very beginning, whoever offers a korban has to acknowledge this. And the chazeh and shok is to be given to the priest in the same way as the actual consecration of the actual priests that were given to the altar and to Moses.

What a beautiful sentence Rav Hirsch writes, “The goal of a Jewish family is to make their home into a temple, and the members of it into priests.”