There is a very specific set of commandments that deal with our failures to be cognizant of ourselves in our surroundings. The specific verses are:
Or when a person touches any impure thing … and the fact has escaped notice, and then, being impure, that person realizes guilt; Or when one touches human impurity … and, though having known about it, the fact has escaped notice, but later that person realizes guilt; … Or when a person utters an oath to bad or good purpose … and, though having known about it, the fact has escaped notice, but later that person realizes guilt in any of these matters— (Lev. 5:2-4)
None of these come from rebelling against G-d, or seeking to do wrong in some way. Instead, they are the sins of not noticing – not being conscious of what is around us, what we have said… basically awareness of ourselves, what we say, and what is around us. These are the sins of not realizing that what we do matters – that we are important for the impact we have, and for what our words mean. These are the sins of cluelessness.
If so, then does that explain the specific remedy?
The offerer shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer first the bird for the sin offering, pinching its head at the nape without severing it. (Lev. 5:8)
Why this formulation? Could it be that we, the stiff-necked people, need to make our necks more flexible? That we need to look around, to remain aware of, and sensitive to, our surroundings?
Could it be this simple?
Might the understanding of the very first named sin in the Torah – when Cain killed Abel – help explain this? Cain gives into his anger after choosing to ignore G-d’s advice:
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin crouches at the door, and to thee shall be his desire. Yet thou mayst rule over him.
Cain acted with a stiff neck – he was not prepared to listen to G-d’s advice. And so perhaps the first bird, the one for the sin offering, has its neck broken so that it becomes entirely flexible, able to turn any which way, reminding us that when we do not pay attention, bad things happen?
But this clearly is not a full explanation of the offering – because we offer two birds, not one! The second bird is not a sin offering, but an olah, an elevation offering.
Why bring the second bird, the elevation offering? Could the second bird be a reminder that there is also a victim when we sin, even when we commit the sin of cluelessness. After all, our actions are not in a vacuum. Others are hurt by our actions, just as Cain hurt Abel. Abel’s life was not lived out. His was the loss of potential, of all the ways in which Abel could have helped to elevate the world.
And so perhaps we kill that second bird as an elevation offering, reminding the sinner that being unaware of what we do also has consequences for others and for the world as a whole? When we do not act with conscious awareness, is it that we are guilty both of being stiffnecked, and of costing the world the opportunity to be elevated? Is there a better explanation?