“Judaism is an ongoing moral revolution.” – Rabbi Jonathan
Sack ZT”L
This week’s Parashah, Tzav, addresses the subject of Korbanot
(sacrifices), an important service, first performed in the Mishkan
(Tabernacle) in the desert and later in Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple) in
Yerushalayim. The term korbanot is derived from the root K,R,B
which means to draw closer. The purpose of the Korban was to bring people
closer to G-d.
As I mentioned in an article that I wrote several weeks ago, sacrifices were a means to gain Teshuvah (repentance). As I also stressed there, animal sacrifices or the blood sprinkled on the altar were not then, before and after the existence of either the Tabernacle or the Temple, the only means to reach atonement or becoming one with G-d. (https://wingnsonawildflight.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-currency-of-teshuvah.html)
The ritual of animal sacrifices, just like some of our other tenets, is not a
Jewish one by origin. These practices were prevalent in the pagan societies of
the ancient near eastern world, the world in which our forefathers resided and
reared and were, as a result, steeped in them. In those societies, human
sacrifices were part of the practice.
Why, then, one may ask, did we adopt it and why does the
sacrificial system make up such a large part of our Torah?
In his book, Guide for the Perplexed, Ramba”m explains that the
Torah’s main purpose for including the ritual of sacrifices was to expunge the notion
of paganism. According to him, the Torah instituted this system to help wane
idolatrous practices. He further claims that human nature dictates that customs
practiced over time become ingrained in them and cannot be easily uprooted (3:30,3:32).
Naturally, as Ramba”m suggests, the transition from one extreme to another, the
disposing of old and well rooted customs that, over time, become part of human
nature, cannot occur over night. The course needs time to acclimate. However, when
we delve into the details of the practice as presented to Am Yisrael, in the
Torah, we will discover the fascinating transformation of that pagan habit into
what can be considered a brilliant move towards individual enrichment and the
continued survival of a nascent nation.
Whereas in their surrounding antiquated cultures, such as in
Egypt, where the hieroglyphics and the secrets of temple rituals, including the
sacrificial ones, were under the exclusive authority of the priestly class,
performed by them and known to them only, in the Torah, according to Professor
Yonatan Grossman, the sacrificial directives in this Parashah are meant for the
People as a whole. In his book, Torat Ha’Korbanot (The Torah of
Sacrifices), Grossman claims that each Yisraelite who wishes to offer the
sacrifice is the owner of the sacrifice and the Priest is merely their
messenger. This message is resonated in the early verses of Viykra (Leviticus).
It addresses every individual among Bnei Yisrael, “Speak to the
Yisraelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the
Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock”
(1:2). This verse, suggests Grossman, is to reveal to all members of Am Yisrael
the secrets of the Mishkan and its practices. Its aim, he believes, is to
induce the Divine Spirit among the People to attain and implement the sense of
partnership between Man and G-d.
Considering the sacrificial practices that were prevalent in
the region in those days, according to Grossman, this directive was
revolutionary. It is not another esoteric secret literature like the ones that
existed in the surrounding cultures. Rather, he asserts, it was a public one
which should be shared with each member of Am Yisrael.
It is this kind of an ongoing evolution, adaptation to new realities, and the
introduction of new concepts that have prevented Judaism from becoming extinct,
according to Rabbi Sacks. In his essay entitled “Why Civilizations Die,” Sacks
refers to Rebecca Costa’s Book, The Watchman’s Rattle, which provides
her account of how civilizations like the Mayan or the Khmre die. “Societies,”
writes Sacks, “reach what she calls a cognitive threshold. They simply can’t
chart a path from the present to the future.”
Costa believes that it can happen to any civilization. The
breakdown, she asserts, is identifiable through two signs. The first is gridlock
where instead of dealing with clearly recognized problems, “these problems are
passed to the next generation.” The second one is the retreat into
irrationality. Religious consolation replaces their inability to cope with
facts. “Archeologists,” Sacks recounts, “have uncovered gruesome evidence of
human sacrifice on a vast scale….” of the Mayans and Khmre civilizations whose members
sought such consolation and “focused on placating gods by manically making
offerings to them.”
Despite facing two centuries of Roman oppression, the
destruction of the Temple which brought about the cessation of the practice of
sacrifices, Jewish sages did not focus on how to atone without sacrifice.
Instead, they focused on finding substitutes for sacrifice. These included engaging in good deeds, studying Torah and prayer.
Judaism is indeed an “ongoing moral revolution,” as Sacks
suggests. Though we have not obsessively clung on to our past, we have not
forgotten nor abandoned it. We followed it while “thinking through the future,”
by revolutionizing ancient concepts for the purpose of adjusting, surviving, and
eventually also thriving in new and unfamiliar terrain.
Am Yisrael Chai
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