Spiritual Ecstasy
Introduction
Most men and women in the 21st century find the concept of sacrifices to be an antiquated and confounding element of the Torah. The idea of taking an animal and slaughtering it seems to be a relic of a bygone age. Yet the Torah tells us in no uncertain terms that when the temple is built that sacrifices will once again be brought. Every day a Jew prays:
“ and return the temple service to your home, and the fires of G-d and their prayers should be received with will….”.
It is clear that sacrifices are an essential part of “service”. In the ethics of our fathers, Shimon the righteous said that the world stands on “service”, and while that service could relate to prayer, its main essential component is expressed through sacrifices. If that is the case, it is a worthwhile endeavour to understand the essence of the sacrifice.
Sacrifices - a mistranslation
The word for sacrifice is Korban, and it is generically translated as a “sacrifice”. However, this is a mistake. The word comes from the word “Karov”- which means close. The sacrifice is essentially a method of becoming closer to G-d. How does slaughtering an animal and then burning it on an altar constitute this process?
The “Elevation” Offering
There is not enough time to examine all the offerings, but for the purposes of this chapter, we will focus on the first sacrifice - the “Olah”, or elevation offering.
The Torah has this to say:
(G-d) called to Moshe, and Hashem spoke to him from the tent of testimony saying: Speak to Bnei Yisrael, and tell them: A man who brings from you a “Korban” to Hashem, from the cattle, the sheep you should bring your sacrifice. If his sacrifice is an elevation offering from the cattle, he should bring a perfect male from the cattle, to the entrance of the tent of testimony he should bring it, according to his will in front of G-d. (Vayikra1, 1-3)
There is a very clear emphasis in these verses about the individual who brings a sacrifice. The sacrifice is “from you”, “he should bring it”, “his sacrifice”, and “he should bring”, and “according to his will”. The Abarbanel (and Talmud besides!) explains that the emphasis is intentional. The reason that the sacrifice is brought is not as a response to something but rather as a personal desire - either in the form of a donation or an oath. This begs the question: why would a person bring a sacrifice for no specific reason? Furthermore, the verse tells us that the sacrifice should be acceptable to him to atone in front of G-d. If the person is not bringing a sacrifice because he or she did something wrong, how has he or she sinned?
It is in within the act of the sacrifice’s service that the answer to these questions is found. The animal is cut into its various bits and then put onto the altar, where it is completely consumed. There are no parts of the sacrifice which are left over for the priests or for the owner[1]. The sacrifice is a personification of the one who brings it, and his or her desire to be completely one with G-d, so close as to be indistinguishable from His presence. The fire is an expression of G-d, because G-d is described in Deuteronomy as a “consuming fire”. Just as the animal becomes consumed by fire, the person bringing it is consumed within the fire, to the extent that nothing is left of the sacrifice at the end.[2] The ultimate consumption of the fire, body, blood and bones to ash is symbolic of absolute immersion within the divine, making it all one, unifying gas, solid and liquid within the purifying fire of G-d.
It is interesting to compare this a person’s purification within the Mikveh. When a person immerses themselves in the Mikveh, the entire body needs to be immersed within it. Any separation between the body and the water invalidates the process. This is a physical immersion within holiness. The sacrifice is not a physical immersion, but rather a spiritual one, a psychological journey of the soul towards its maker, an attempt to be one with the Unity that is G-d.
The Abarbanel notes that it is impossible for a person to be absolutely perfect. He also points out that the Talmud understands the sin to be brought for “hirhurei halev” - or improper thoughts. Mankind is not punished for those thoughts, but it does create an element of sin. It is for these thoughts that people would be forgiven, enabling them to have this experience of ultimate connection to holiness which can bear no impurities.
The person which brings the sacrifice is called “ADAM” - a man who brings a sacrifice to G-d. Based on the interpretation of the Abarbanel, this nomenclature is based on the first man’s status before eating from the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. When a person brings an “elevation offering” he or she achieves the level of Adam, the first man who was created a priori with absolute connection to G-d. They are completely subsumed by the fire of G-d.
[1] Which is not the case for the Korban Chatat, or the Korban Shelamim.
[2] As is described at the beginning of the Parasha of Tzav, where the fires are tended from “morning until evening”.