Exodus 29:1

And this is the thing that thou shalt do to them to sanctify them, that they may serve before Me. Take one bullock, the young of a bullock, without spot; and two rams, unblemished (perfect);

'לקח פר אחד וגו, “take one young bullock, etc.” take one ram on its left side and one ram on its right side and place the bullock in the middle. Why was Moses commanded to take these three animals? They were to symbolise the three founding fathers of the Jewish nation. The bullock symbolised Avraham, who had been described as “running to the stables containing the cattle,” when he was about to prepare a meal for the three angels, one of whom predicted the birth of Yitzchok (Genesis18,7). The two rams represented Yitzchok and Yaakov. The unleavened breads in verse 23 accompanying these sacrifices symbolised Hagar and Sarah. Avraham had told Sarah to hurry and to prepare bread at the time. According to Rav Hunna son of Abba, one measure of wheat would be taken to be milled, and by the time the owner came home he found that he had one measure of fine flour and one measure of average quality of flour and one measure of coarse grain. He now brought only a little more than one measure of fine flour. The purpose of the libations accompanying the animal sacrifices was to ensure that the grape harvest would enjoy G–d’s blessing. The Talmud relates the following story. A certain Torah student left Jerusalem, and he was recognised as such by people whom he encountered (who apparently did not have a Torah scholar living in their town) They offered him three major gold coins in order for him to change his place of residence and to take up residence in their town. He declined the money and the offer accompanying it. He explained that he owned a vineyard that was more valuable than all the gold that they could offer him, as it yielded him more than six hundred barrels of wine annually which he could sell at a good price. He recounted that he had an orchard which was similarly generous in the yield of fruit it provided him with. He attributed his good fortune to his meticulously observing the commandment of bringing the first ripe fruit of each category to the Temple in Jerusalem each year, as an offering to G–d (via the priest) Another story is related about a certain Yonathan son of Elazar, who witnessed while sitting under his fig-tree when the dew descended on that tree as a result of which he harvested great amounts of honey so much so that that when the wind mixed it with earth a female goat materialised and gave an abundance of milk. This Yonathan told his students that he wanted to show them a phenomenon which reflected the world to come in miniature. The moment he had finished saying this to his students all the aforementioned examples of material wealth on this earth vanished, in accordance with the prophet Chagai 1,6 who had said: זרעתם הרבה והבא מעט, אכול ולא לשבעה, שתו ואין לשכרה, לבוש ולא לחום לו, “you have sown much and brought in little; you eat without being satisfied; you drink without getting your fill; you clothe yourselves without getting warm.” [Yonathan then realised that he had erred greatly when boasting about material blessings he had enjoyed, and using these as a reason why not moving to a town that did not have a resident Torah scholar. Ed.] We find a similar message in Jeremiah 8,13. These blessings were all denied the Jewish people when they saw in them rewards for fulfillment of certain commandments in the Torah. We are not to observe the Torah for such a reward, although fulfillment of the commandments is accompanied by a certain amount of material blessings encouraging us to continue to do so. Our author quotes more sayings of the prophets on this subject, (Chabakuk 3,17; Ezekiel 36,8;) Tanchuma 13 on our portion.