Why does the Torah forbid drinking blood? First of all, I should clarify that it is only arterial blood that is forbidden. What is called blood of the flesh that remains within the meat itself is not the problem. And blood from the sacrifices was sprinkled around the altar ceremonially. It was drinking the blood like wine that was forbidden.…
Author: Jeremy Rosen
Cleaning Clothes and the Altar
The Torah is nothing if not a manual for order and doing things properly. Nowhere is this more obvious in the ritual of the Tabernacle and sacrifices. At each stage of the sacrificial ceremony the officiating priest must change his clothes. The process of sacrificing is of course a messy business. So is separating the different parts of the animal…
Tripartite Division
Mary Douglas was an outstanding anthropologist who compared a very wide range of ancient cultures and religious ceremonies. She detected common themes and patterns. In her book “Leviticus as Literature” she gives an analysis of the third book of the Bible, quite unlike any other analysis I have ever come across. In particular, she looks at patterns of purity in…
Kinds of Sacrifices
The sacrifices are symbolic of eating at God’s table, of benefiting from His bounty. The gifts of creation, animal and vegetable. They are also means of our correcting any imbalance in our relationship with Heaven. Each kind of sacrifice has its own significance. The first mentioned is the Olah, the burnt offering that is completely consumed. An expression of total…
Sacrifices as Giving
We return to sacrifices this week with the Book of Leviticus, Vayikra. To our modern minds the idea of animal sacrifices is a very difficult one to feel much sympathy with. Even though it is true that we “sacrifice” animals all the time, hidden away in abattoirs far from the eyes of consumers. We are (or should be) more sensitive…
Atmosphere
Sacrifices as a subject do not really excite most of us nowadays. The very idea seems rather off putting. But the fact is that we sacrifice vast numbers of animals around the world every single moment. We kill them for food; often under the most cruel, barbaric and unsanitary of conditions. But as is our practice nowadays, we try to…