I’d like to share with you here some thoughts about the significance of Sacrifices in ancient Judaism, from Biblical/Shamanic origins to classical Rabbinic interpretation – and how they might relate to Pesach and our own liberation this year. We live in a rather tortured twisted time, with unexpected, awful events and shocking national and international events — and yet there are sparks of light and redemption all around. Pesach offers us both an individual and collective opportunity for transformation.
We might say at the outset of this D’var that the archaic rituals of ancient Judaism are ever with us but we have hopefully taken our ancestral ritual and intentions and are moving them into the Aquarian Age. How so?
Ever since graduate study with my beloved Bible Professor, Rabbi Jacob Milgrom Z”l I’ve been fascinated by the specificity of the Levitical details as well as the supernal, higher meaning of Sacrifice. Sacrifice, in Hebrew is “Korban” the root of which is “drawing near” close to, but not exactly the same as “Sacred Action” – the translation of the Latin word we all know. Most of the Christian – inflected thought conceptualizes Sacrifice as “giving up” or perhaps a selfless gifting of some item, some energy, or even the Self. Much of this arises out of the Pauline and Augustinian interpretation of the Gospels, reading Leviticus. It is highly influenced by the notion of the sacrifice of the Son, i.e. Jesus, which “atones” for the original sin of mankind. Imitating the sacrifice of Jesus is built into this early Christian theological trajectory – and it becomes central to understanding of Sacrifice as “atonement” for sin. It is not indigenous to the Hebrew Bible and the Near East. It is not really the meaning of the “Sacrificial Lamb” of the Pesach offering, whose blood is spread on the doorposts and which signals the Angel of Death to “Passover”…The Rabbis do not interpret the Pesach sacrifice this way and our Seder emphasizes the memory of that salvific moment, when God took us out of slavery. Our tradition teaches against this substitutionary “atoning” sacrifice – and yes, there are Rabbinic teachings that emphasize the “giving up” of Hametz as a catalyst for the internal house-of – the- soul cleaning and Teshuvah process exactly six months before Yom Kippur.
The book of Leviticus, the handbook of our channeler shamanic ritualists, the Cohanim does not ask for the “sacrifice” of the Self but rather a gifting of a variety of substances that perform a number of different social/psychological ritual functions: reparation, cleansing, atonement, pure gifting and love – in fact a whole spectrum of sacred actions only one of which is atonement. And as Prof Milgrom claimed early in his career– one of the sacrifices previously translated as the “Sin Offering – the Hattat” should be rendered rather as “purgation offering”.
[The hattat (or chattat) is a biblical “purgation offering” or “purification offering” described in Leviticus chapter 4, designed to atone for unintentional transgressions or remove ritual impurity. It involves sacrificing an unblemished animal (bull or goat) or flour, with blood applied to the altar to purify the sanctuary and the one who offers it]
What is purged? The sanctuary which has been polluted by the sin of the nation and the leaders as well as the one who offers the sacrifice. One might also note that the Pesach cleaning of the house and the soul is a form of purgation that grows out of this original Hattat cleansing – and while the Pesach sacrifice is not technically a Hattat, one can see the connection for sure.
The spectrum of specific sacrificial gifting to God in the Priestly system shows, but a sophisticated system of getting rightly aligned with the Divine.
With the destruction of the Temple the Sages kept alive the study of the Sacrifices in the Mishnah and Talmud “as if” the Temple was still standing and even assume that it is standing in another occulted realm, waiting for the auspicious time for the restoration of the Sacred Ritual. Rabbis studied these texts with the fervor of the Priesthood and re-enacted through the Yom Kippur liturgy the Avodah of Atonement each year. The Priesthood remained alive not just in lineage, but in recapitulation of the rituals….and yet, the Rabbis argued that prayer was sufficient as a means to gift the Holy One, who accepts our Tefillah in place of the Korbanot. Properly aligned prayer and music brings us into the imaginary of the Beit HaMikdash in the “Mikdash M’at” the micro-Sanctuary of synagogues (physical and virtual) and into our Heart Space. I am always delighted when our zoom services reach my heart and connect me to the Divine in Cyberspace through pixels. Not a substitute for some, but surely for many who are in the right “space”.
The Jewish mystical tradition, especially the Zohar teaches that the Sacrifices have cosmic effect, transformational power that helps the People of Israel overcome the innate and every present “Sitra Achra” the “Other {evil} Side” …The Zohar’s commentary on Parshat Tzav emphasizing the power of the “wish” to overcome evil thoughts – first hinted at in the smoke and the burning fat of the Sacrifices that is we “burn up” the Shadow Side of ourselves – giving it back to the Divine, or integrating that Shadow/the “Other” within in order for it to be transformed and metabolized. This metabolism is also suggested by our “burning” of the outer Hametz (leavened Bread and products) and the “burning” of the inner Hametz – that of the inflated Ego which stands in our way. We see the results of puffed-up Egos all around us. Oy.
Other theories of Sacrifice claim that the killing of animals and offering to deities is based on the channeling the human inclination towards violence and that the bloodthirsty deity, primarily wants human sacrifice. Animal sacrifice arises from the shift to a kindlier deity who desires “Ray-ach Nichoach” the sweet savor aroma of the meat. The smell is enough, the animal gifting sufficient. Might we imagine still a gifting to God that does not require a killing of animals? Or pictured in such and anthropomorphic fashion? I think we can!
We can imagine an expanded religious consciousness that assumes a different sort of gifting to God.
We symbolize the Pesach offering of old by a shankbone – and perhaps eat lamb but we no longer perform the Pascal sacrifice …in progressive and Renewal Judaism we no longer focus on the killing of the lambs, but rather how we might practice Tikkun, and liberate those truly and immediate need of freedom from bombing, from starvation, from famine.
This Pesach we celebrate the formation of our people and their liberation and seek the liberation of all!
We can also liberate ourselves, with God’s help to move, as it were, from “small mindedness” to larger, “expanded mindedness.”: in Hasidic terminology: “from Mochin d’katnut to Mochin d’Gadlut”
I quote below an important text which speaks of the transformation of consciousness – from the classic Hasidic Rebbe Menachem Nahum of Chernobyl – we read the following :
The Shabbat preceding Passover is called Shabbat haGadol because of the miracle that took place on it. Our sages said that at the Red Sea there was an accusation (against Israel) that both these and those (Egyptians and Israelites) were idolators. But is it possible that Israel as that time [God forbid!] were worshipping idols? The Israelites were sunken into fifty measures of defilement amid the shells (kelipot) They were of Lesser Mind and were unable to come to God . YHVH brought them forth until they reached Higher Mind. This is the meaning of You Grew and Matured (Ezekiel 16:7) that you came to that Higher Mental State….which relates to “ In Nisan they were redeemed and in Nisan they will be redeemed again…in Nisan they were redeemed, coming forth from Lesser Mind and in Nisan they will be redeemed again . Each year when this time comes, we are able to leave that mental smallness for the Higher State, just as happened then.
Menachem Nahum of Chernobyl, Meor Eynayim on Tzav
(tr. Rabbi Arthur Green, Stanford U Press, 2021 pp 518-519)
Today we see terribly short sided and myopic “small mindedness”. Today the blood lust for War and violence continues afresh and once again in a battle for land and territory and global domination. Many innocent people are dying because of that abhorrent “collateral damage” – truly a term of travesty. This is a full-blown tragedy and we pray for its immediate end. We also pray for the end of repressive, autocratic regimes and cruel kings, for the flowering of freedom and democracy and for the sanity of global equilibrium.
Hashta B’agala Bizman Kareev “Quickly now – may the Wheel of Time turn soon to make it so”
As Pesach concludes, and we prepare for the “Messiah” Seder of the last night, let us imagine – what might we not pass over in our celebration? What should we be paying attention to?
May our prayers arise to transform our negativity and violence so that humans are not laid on the altar of the war god; In line with the Paradigm Shift of Awakening – we ask the Divine Source of Peace to purify our consciousness, to transform the Small Mind to the Great Mind so that humanity can end all violence, seeking peace and pursuing it as our ancestor Aaron haCohen privileged Peace Making . May this evolved consciousness and hope for loving presence take us out of the internal and external “Egypts”in which we find ourselves this Pesach.
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameah