Check out the SALT bit here!
And here something interesting happens with regards to the sin offering. What if you cannot afford a whole sheep or goat? what then?
HAVRUTA TIME
- Below are A two commentaries (Rambam vs Ramban) on the reason(s) for sacrifices, and B some Mishna that details law regarding the idea of 'without blemishes' and a little extract from Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert
- Choose which one you like to dive into. Remember: you can do all, but mostly time will be up too soon! :)
- Read through the commentaries.
Some questions for you:
- What are the main points that are brought across with regards to how we should understand animal sacrifice.
- What's up with the gendered relation to the animal sacrifice? It is merely restrictive, or does it open a door perhaps to speak about other genders?
- What do you think we can learn from the description of and the discussion about animal sacrifice?
- How could learning about animal sacrifice (and, could it?) infuse your Jewish practise?
- In a vegan world (or at least, climate crisis conscious) how would you position this parsha?
Also, go wild, think of your own questions and problems and answers, surprise us!
COMMENTARY A
Rambam vs Ramban on the reason for sacrifices:
Maimonides [1138-1204, Egypt], Guide to the Perplexed Part 3:32
Many precepts in our Law are the result of a similar course adopted by the same Supreme Being. It is, namely, impossible to go suddenly from one extreme to the other: it is therefore according to the nature of man impossible for him suddenly to discontinue everything to which he has been accustomed. Now God sent Moses to make [the Israelites] a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod. 19:6) by means of the knowledge of God. Comp. "Unto thee it was showed that thou mightest know that the Lord is God (Deut. 4:35); "Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord is God" (ibid. 5:39). The Israelites were commanded to devote themselves to His service; comp. "and to serve him with all your heart" (ibid. 11:13); "and you shall serve the Lord your God" (Exod. 23:25); "and ye shall serve him" (Deut. 13:5).
But the custom which was in those days general among all men, and the general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up, consisted in sacrificing animals in those temples which contained certain images, to bow down to those images, and to burn incense before them; religious and ascetic persons were in those days the persons that were devoted to the service in the temples erected to the stars, as has been explained by us....
For this reason God allowed these kinds of service to continue; He transferred to His service that which had formerly served as a worship of created beings, and of things imaginary and unreal, and commanded us to serve Him in the same manner; to build unto Him a temple.... He made it obligatory that certain gifts, called the gifts of the Levites and the priests, should be assigned to them for their maintenance while they are engaged in the service of the temple and its sacrifices. By this Divine plan it was effected that the traces of idolatry were blotted out, and the truly great principle of our faith, the Existence and Unity of God, was firmly established; this result was thus obtained without deterring or confusing the minds of the people by the abolition of the service to which they were accustomed and which alone was familiar to them.
Nachmanides [1194-1270, Spain] on Leviticus 1:9
But the Rambam said in the Guide for the Perplexed (3:46) that the reason for the sacrifices was for the sake of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, in whose lands Israel used to live and dwell, who would worship the bull and the sheep. Because the Egyptians worshipped a lamb, and the Chaldeans worshipped demons that appeared to them as goats. And the people of India to this day never slaughter a cow. For this reason (God) commanded to slaughter these three species in God's name to make known that the matter which (the pagans) thought of as the ultimate sin is what (the Israelites) will sacrifice to their Creator and their sins will be attoned for. For thus are bad beliefs healed, which are ailments of the soul, since every ailment and illness is healed through its opposite. These are his words and he continues at length.
This is rubbish! They have healed a great hurt and a great difficulty lightly! The table of the Eternal is made polluted. (Malachi 1:12) For they are not only to remove [false beliefs] from the hearts of the wicked and fools of the world. Doesn't Scripture say that they are "food of the gift offering, for a pleasing odor?" (Leviticus 3:16) And also due to the idiocy of the Egyptians their illness won't be healed this way. Rather it would increase suffering, because the intention of the aforementioned wicked ones was to worship the constellations of the sheep and the ox, which have power, according to their thinking. And therefore they don't eat them in deference to their power and strength. But if they are slaughtered for the Revered Name, this would be an honor for them...
Since the deeds of people are determined by thought, speech and action, God, may He be blessed, commanded that when he sins, he brings a sacrifice and place his hands upon him corresponding to the deed, and confess with his mouth corresponding to the speech, and burn the innards and the kidneys, as they are the instruments of thought and desire. And the limbs [of the sacrifice] correspond to the hands and feet of a person that does all of his work. And he sprinkles the blood on the altar corresponding to the blood of his soul, so that a person think in doing all of this that he sinned to God with his body and his soul, and it is fit for him that his blood be spilled and his body burnt; were it not for the kindness of the Creator, who took an exchange and ransom from him [in] the sacrifice - that its blood be instead of his blood and its soul be instead of his soul. And the central limbs correspond to his central limbs. And the portions with which to sustain the teachers of Torah [are so] that they will pray for him. And the daily sacrifice is because there is no saving the community from always sinning. And these words are tenable [and] grab the heart, like the words of classic homiletic teachings (Shabbat 87a). And in the way of truth (mysticism), the sacrifices contain a hidden secret...
COMMENTARY B
Excerpt from 'Bodily Perfection in the Sanctuary' by Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, from the book Torah Queeries.
"The Biblical concern with the body and the testicles of the animal (and the priest, for that matter) is further developed, and that focus allows the sages to introduce genital ambiguity, to introduce the categories of the andoginos and tumtum. Now it may be objected that the sages do so by declaring these to be blemishes with respect to the sacrificial stage, a fact that hardly endorses queer bodies. True, but here we are not bound by halackhic concerns, and we can read the rabbinic texts against their own grain. As much as the Mishnah seeks to project an ideal embodiment of animal and priest, the overabundance of blemishes in its catalogues suggests that the idealized and perhaps even utopian unblemished body on the sacrificial stage is, perhaps, an impossibility and can always only be approximated. In that respect, all of us who are offstage are queer."