I saw in the name of ר' שמשון רפאל הירש that the root of the word קרבן, the focal theme of our entire פרשה, comes from the word קרב, to come close. This is because bringing קרבנות is our means of approaching or coming close to ה', through elevating ourselves. (Nowadays, this is done through תפילה, which have replaced קרבנות now that we don’t have the בית המקדש.)

רש"י, in his פירוש on the word אדם in פסוק ב' comments that the תורה uses this word, as opposed to the more common word איש, to emphasize the fact that through קרבנות we really can and must elevate ourselves. This word compares us to אדם, the first man to whom the whole world belonged originally, who brought the first ever קרבן to ה'. Just as אדם הראשון brought his קרבן from that which he owned and not from stolen property, so too must we bring our קרבנות only from our own property, and not from something stolen ח"ו.

Now that we sadly don’t have the בית המקדש anymore and תפילה has replaced our קרבנות, the same applies. Although we can't actually “steal” the words of חז"ל who made up the prayers, if we just say them without any feeling, without making them our own words, perfected and edited by חז"ל, then we are approaching ה' with stolen property, defeating the purpose and ruining our prayer.

We must therefore take this lesson to heart, to learn to approach הקב"ה with the right כוונות and הרגשות, and not ח"ו to ruin our opportunities that we have to elevate ourselves through the words that we say and the way that we pray.

Have a wonderful שבת קודש!

מרדכי שמחה טיפנברון