בס”ד שב”ק פרשת ויקרא תשע"ה

 

Making Sense of Sacrifice: A Modern Introduction to Sefer Vayikra jrosenfeld@lss.org 

 

1. Maimonides, Moreh Nevukhim 3:32

 והוא שא"א לצאת מן ההפך אל ההפך פתאום, ולזה א"א לפי טבע האדם שיניח כל מה שהרגיל בו פתאום. וכאשר שלח השם מרע"ה לתתנו ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש בידיעתו ית' כמ"ש ובאר אתה הראת לדעת וגו', וידעת היום והשבות וגו', ולה נתן לעבודתו כמ"ש ולעבדו בכל לבבכם, ואמר ועבדתם את ה' אלהיכם, ואמר ואותו תעבודו, והיה המנהג המפורסם בעולם כלו שהיו אז רגילין בו והעבודה הכוללת אשר גדלו עליה, להקריב מיני ב"ח בהיכלות ההם אשר היו מעמידים בהם הצלמים ולהשתחות להם ולקטר לפניהם, והעובדים הפרושים היו אז האנשים הנתונים לעבודת ההיכלות ההם העשויים לשמש

 ולירח ולכוכבים כמו שבארנו, 

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,  

 

  לא גזרה חכמתו ותחבולתו המבוארת בכל בריאותיו שיצונו להניח מיני העבודות ההם כולם ולבטלם, כי אז היה מהשלא יעלה בלב לקבלו, כפי טבע האדם שהוא נוטה תמיד למורגל, והיה דומה אז כאלו יבא נביא בזמננו זה שיקרא לעבודת השם ויאמר השם צוה אתכם שלא תתפללו אליו ולא תצומו ולא תבקשו תשועתו בעת צרה, אבל תהיה עבודתכם מחשבה מבלתי מעשה, ומפני זה השאיר השם מיני העבודות ההם והעתיקם מהיותם לנבראים ולעניינים דמיוניים שאין אמתות להם לשמו ית', וצונו לעשותן לו ית', וצוונו לבנות היכל לו, ועשו לי מקדש, ושיהיה המזבח לשמו, מזבח האדמה תעשה לי, ושיהיה הקרבן לו,

 אדם כייקריב מכם קרבן לה', ושישתחוו לו ושיקטירו לפניו. 

[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

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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.  

 ...ואני יודע שנפשך תברח מזה הענין בהכרח בתחלת מחשבה ויכבד עליך, ותשאלני בלבך ותאמר לי איך יבאו מצות ופעולות עצומות מבוארות מאד והושם להם זמנים, והם כלם בלתי מכוונים לעצמם אבל הם מפני דבר אחר, כאלו הם תחבולה שעשה השם לנו להגיע אל כונתו הראשונה, ואי זה מונע היה אצלו לצוות לנו כוונתו הראשונה ויתן בנו יכלת לקבלה ולא היה צריך לאלו אשר חשבת שהם על צד הכוונה

 השניה. 

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

 והנה בכתוב הזה טעם הקרבנות שהם אשה ריח ניחוח לה'. ואמר הרב במורה הנבוכים כי טעם הקרבנות, בעבור שהמצרים והכשדים, אשר היו ישראל גרים ותושבים בארצם מעולם, היו עובדים לבקר ולצאן, כי המצרים עובדים לטלה והכשדים עובדים לשדים אשר יראו להם בדמות שעירים, ואנשי הודו עד היום לא ישחטו בקר לעולם. בעבור כן צוה לשחוט אלה השלשה מינין לשם הנכבד כדי שיודע כי הדבר שהיו חושבים כי הם בתכלית העבירה הוא אשר יקריבו לבורא, ובו יתכפרו העונות. כי כן יתרפאו האמונות הרעות שהם מדוי הנפש, כי כל מדוה וכל חולי לא יתרפא כי אם בהפכו. אלה דבריו ובהם

1 האריך: 

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 God’s 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...

  

  חשוב לשים לב איך שהרמב"ן מביא את דברי הרמב"ם לעומתו. לאו דוק' ברור שהרמב"ן מציג עמדת הרמב"ם האמיתית1  ומדיוקת לכאו'. ובאמת דברי הרמב"ן מכוונות למש"כ הרמב"ם במורה ג:מו ולא כאן לבד.

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 והנה הם דברי הבאי, ירפאו שבר גדול וקושיא רבה על נקלה, יעשו שולחן ה' מגואל שאיננו רק להוציא מלבן של רשעים וטפשי עולם, והכתוב אמר כי הם לחם אשה לריח ניחוח:

 

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’...

   והנה נח בצאתו מן התיבה עם שלשת בניו אין בעולם כשדי או מצרי הקריב קרבן וייטב בעיני ה' ואמר בו (בראשית ח כא) וירח ה' את ריח הניחוח. וממנו אמר אל לבו לא אוסיף עוד לקלל את האדמה בעבור האדם (שם). והבל הביא גם הוא מבכורות צאנו ומחלביהן, וישע ה' אל הבל ואל מנחתו (שם ד ד), ולא היה עדיין בעולם שמץ ע"ז כלל. ובלעם אמר את שבעת המזבחות ערכתי ואעל פר ואיל במזבח (במדבר כג ד), ואין דעתו עתה לשלול ממנו אמונות רעות, ולא נצטוה בכך, אבל עשה כן לקרבה אל האלהים כדי שיחול עליו הדבור. ולשון הקרבנות את קרבני לחמי לאשי ריח ניחוחי (שם כח ב), וחלילה שלא יהא בהם

 שום תועלת ורצון רק שוללות ע"ז מדעת השוטים:

  

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 God’s 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, Bil’am 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 shouldn’t be any other reason for them other than to militate against the

idolatry in the minds of fools.

  ויותר ראוי לשמוע הטעם שאומרים בהם, כי בעבור שמעשי בני אדם נגמרים במחשבה ובדבור ובמעשה, צוה השם כי כאשר יחטא יביא קרבן, יסמוך ידיו עליו כנגד המעשה, ויתודה בפיו כנגד הדבור, וישרוף באש הקרב והכליות שהם כלי המחשבה והתאוה, והכרעים כנגד ידיו ורגליו של אדם העושים כל

 מלאכתו, ויזרוק הדם על המזבח כנגד דמו בנפשו, כדי שיחשוב אדם בעשותו כל אלה כי חטא לאלהיו בגופו ובנפשו, וראוי לו שישפך דמו וישרף גופו לולא חסד הבורא שלקח ממנו תמורה וכפר הקרבן הזה שיהא דמו תחת דמו, נפש תחת נפש, וראשי אברי הקרבן כנגד ראשי אבריו, והמנות להחיות בהן מורי התורה שיתפללו עליו. וקרבן התמיד, בעבור שלא ינצלו הרבים מחטוא תמיד.ואלה דברים מתקבלים

 מושכים את הלב כדברי אגדה:  

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

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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 penitent’s 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 ועל דרך האמת יש בקרבנות סוד נעלם, 

3. R. Abraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook, Olat Re’iyah [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 Constructivist impression of cultural symbolic markers. Cf. Miriam Feldman­Kaye in ‘15 Orthodox Forum paper (unpublished).  

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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

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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

God’s 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

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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 simpleton’s 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]

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

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