"

Making Sense of Sacrifice: A Modern Introduction to

Sefer Vayikra
jrosenfeld@lss.org

1. Maimonides,
Moreh Nevukhim
3:32
","
"'".
',",','
,,
",
,
,

And it is impossible to fully transfer immediately from one extreme to the other suddenly, and
therefore it is impossible according to the nature of Man to leave behind all that he is used to
suddenly. Thus, when God sent Moshe to transform a nation into a Kingdom of priests and a
holy nation with knowledge of God, as it is written and to this nation was given charge to
serve God as it is written with all your heart... the well-known custom of Man throughout the
world, that which people were used to completely was such to sacrifice living things in those
great temples in which they would erect their idols and icons, and they would bow down and
burn incense before them; The great worshippers and ascetics were then the people who were
given over to the work in these temples, made for the [service of] the sun, moon, and stars as
we have explained,

,
,,

,,
,','
,,,,,
.,'

[therefore] His wisdom and designs in all of creation did not decree that we should be
commanded to leave aside all these forms of worship completely, and to negate them,
because then this would have been like something impossible for the heart to accept, as we
have explained the nature of Man that he constantly veers toward habit, and it would have
been comparable then to a situation where a prophet would now arise and call to a service of
God in which God said not to pray, not to fast, and not to request salvation from God in
1

difficult times, but rather that our service of God should be a purely intellectual exercise; and
it is for this reason that God left for us, copied for us those types of worship and
commanded us to perform them for him, to build a Temple, that there should be altars for
Him, that there should be a sacrificial cult from which people bring sacrifice, and that we
should bow down and burn incense before him.

,...
,
,,

I am aware that your soul might recoil from this matter, in the force of its initial
contemplation, and that it will weigh down upon you, and that you will ask me in your heart:
how can all these Mitzvot and these lofty matters be explained and categorized historically,
and that they are totally without intrinsic value, and rather because of some other matter - as
if they are some secondary device that God made in order to bring us to a primary goal - and
what prevented God from simply commanding us in the first place and giving us the
wherewithal to accept it, that there would be no reason for these commandments which
seem secondary at best...

2. Nahmanides,
Commentary on Torah
Leviticus 1:9
.'
,,,
,,
.
.,
.,
1:

Behold, in this verse is the reasoning for the sacrifices in that they are a pleasing fragrance to
God. And the [Rambam] said in The Guide that the reason for the sacrifices is because the
Egyptians and the Akkadians, amongst whom the Israelite nation were dwelling at the time,
would worship cattle and sheep, Egyptians worshipping the lamb, and the Akkadians the
demons embodied in goats; the people of India to this very day will not slaughter their cows
under any circumstances. Therefore, we are commanded to slaughter these three types of
animals in Gods great name, in order to know that these things which are complete sin are
specifically what we should give up to God, in order to be expiated for our sins...

""'."" 1
.:""".'

',,
:,

These are utterly empty words, they will open up a great rift, and will confound the
feeble-minded, turning the table of God [=altar] into a gross place, which is only to detract
from the views of evil people and the foolish of the world, and yet the verses say that they are
a pleasing fragrance...

'
.'
()
,
()
',.
()

)
."
,,,
(
,
()
.
:"

For example, when Noah exited the ark with his three sons, there were no Egyptians or
Akkadians around, and yet he sacrificed to God and it was good in Gods eyes and through
this, God said I will no longer continue to curse the ground, in the interest of Mankind. And
Abel also brought from the first-born of his flocks and from their fats, and God turned to Abel
and to his offering, and there was obviously not even a concept of idolatry in the world at the
time. Similarly, Bilam spoke of the seven altars he arranged and the ram and cows he had put
on them, and of course his mindset was not to negate the other bad nations, and he was not
commanded in this, but rather did it in order to be closer to God so that God might speak to
him. And the language of sacrifices is a pleasing and pleasant fragrance to God, and God
forbid that there shouldnt be any other reason for them other than to militate against the
idolatry in the minds of fools.

,,
,,,
,
,,
,
,,,
.,.
:

Rather, it is more fitting to hear the true reason for them, which is because the actions of Man
are completed through [the three levels] of thought, speech, and action; God commanded
that when one sins a sacrifice should be brought, one should place hands upon it to mark the
3

action, and verbally confess - corresponding to speech; The innards, symbolizing the faculties
of cognition and desire should be burnt in fire the blood should be thrown upon the altar to
symbolize the penitents own life-blood, in order that a person should think during all of this
process that he has sinned before God with his body and soul, and it is actually fitting for him
to have his blood spilled and body burnt [for the transgression], were it not for the
lovingkindness of God who took a substitute, in which the sacrifice atoned for him replacing
his blood with its blood and these words are accepted and draw in the heart/soul as words
of Aggadah.

2,

3. R. Abraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook,

Olat Reiyah
[Commentary on Siddur]
vol. 1, p. 292

Living things, which are brought upon the altar, themselves are infused with the rectification of
being brought up to be a sacrifice to God; Because they lack cognitive faculties, they cannot reach
this level of uplift and loftiness unless it is through the act of sacrificing them to God, their blood and
fats, which are the mainstays of the life force/soul.
This is not so by Man, who in his very heart of hearts understands and intuits the act of sacrificing
and comes closer [through the act] to God in his mind.
However, in the future, the influx of knowledge and understanding will spread forth and descend
into [the hearts] even animals, there will be no evil nor destruction done in all my sacred mount, for
the entire land will fill with the knowledge of God, and the sacrificial order then will be one of
vegetable sacrifices, which will be pleasing to God as in all previous times.

4. R. Hayim Hirschensohn (1857-1935),

Malki ba-Kodesh
[Machon
Schechter ed., Jerusalem: 2006]; vol. 1, pp. 10-11, 62-64
2

Constructivistimpressionofculturalsymbolicmarkers.Cf.MiriamFeldmanKayein15OrthodoxForum
paper(unpublished).

How is it possible that in this generation, when many philosophical precepts have already
become entrenched in the masses, and we do not need today intellectual battles and proofs in
order to negate corporealism, etc. like Maimonides had to prove; and these precepts have
become so clear and obvious to even a simple man...

And after all these feelings, and clear recognition in the masses, all Men will understand that
God will not be satisfied with the fatty innards and the myriad streams of oils, and even if the
Jewish people have practiced this all their days as a nation - with olah and zevah offerings,
fire descending from upon high to swallow them up - [for this] is a truly deep and hidden
secret of God, embedded in his hidden stores, and we cannot understand all this...

we are therefore forced to say that God did the will of his people more than they did His
5

divine will in this matter, and as the Rabbis have expounded on the verse a man that shall
bring... that this might be teaching us a contingency, i.e., that the bringing is a matter of
choice;
but in any event we do know that many of the sacrifices were considered to be obligatory,
and therefore how can it be that we will now return to Zion to build a Temple and establish an
altar - it will be a mockery and well be the laughingstock of all the nations! In the place of
being a light unto the nations, we will be thought of as walking in darkness without
enlightenment...

Therefore, according to the prophecy of Ezekiel, and according to the simple meaning it wrote
of the end of days, the concept of sacrifices will also be according to the understanding of the
people in those days, that which we now cannot fully grasp; all effort expended in trying to
understand it is for naught the law of the Messiah, that Elijah will teach us when he
comes.
But nevertheless it is simple that in those days of wisdom, there will be no concept of pleasing
Gods presence with rivers of oil...

Note: R. Hirschensohn holds that there is no more place for bringing sacrifices, even when the
Temple will be rebuilt, for that we might be a laughingstock of all the nations. R.
Hirschensohn is convinced that the entirety of the sacrificial cult will take on an entirely
spiritual meaning fitting for our generation wisdom and recognition [must be] that we will
6

not revert to them and we will not return backward to make a non-culture cultural

And because of this I submit that in the Mussaf prayers, where we have the constant refrain
and the Mussaf of this day shall be done and offered before You as a commandment,
according to Your will: none of the other commandments have this caveat - according to
your will, as it is clear that God commanded them all according to his divine will.
However, the commandment of sacrifices are not understandable to us nowadays, and it is
clear to us that the prophets railed against the simpletons understanding of them, but that
they have a much deeper esoteric meaning which the prophets recognized, and will be
understood by all when God reveals his glory upon all Mankind - His true intentions...
5. Jody Meyers,
Seeking Zion: Modernity & Messianic Action in the
Writings of Tsevi Hirsch Kalischer
, pp. 62-63, 123, 126
[Oxford: 2003]

6. Slavoj Zizek,
Enjoy Your Symptom!: Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and
Out
[Routledge: 1992]; pp. 64-67

10