Camie Davis
My husband and I ate lunch with a dear friend the other
day. Our friend is an
avid hunter so we conversed some about hunting. He has two sons and a
daughter. He told them that he
didn’t expect them to want to hunt just because he did, but if they ever wanted
to learn, he would be happen to teach them. Long story short, his daughter did indeed desire to learn to
hunt, so they found themselves in a deer blind, deer in her rifle scope, and
her finger on the trigger. The
moment she pulled the trigger, even before the bullet hit the dear, she started
sobbing. Not from regret, but from
the seriousness of the moment. She
had pulled the trigger with the intent of taking a life. Granted it was an animal’s life, but a
life nonetheless. Our friend ended
the story by saying, “It was a very important life lesson. Although the act of hunting is serious
and can even be disturbing, it is not wrong.”
Bells started going off in my head when he said those
words. “He just described the act
of offering a sacrifice at the Holy Temple!” I thought to myself. Killing an animal, even at the Temple,
is serious and is most likely disturbing to the participants, but it is not
wrong. Never was wrong. And it will not be wrong when resumed
in the near future. In fact, what
is wrong is that the entire world has gone haywire without the animal
sacrifices of the Divine service and the world is desperate for their
resumption.
I don’t pretend to scratch the surface of knowledge
regarding the Temple sacrifices.
But what little knowledge I do have has led me to believe that the world
is in desperate need of them. Most
people believe otherwise.
Archaic.
Barbaric. Cruel. Unnecessary. Done away with.
Replaced. These are just a
few reasons people believe that the Temple sacrifices are not needed,
especially in the 21st century. But let me counter those reasons with a few questions: Did you read or hear the news
today? How many people were
murdered in a 24-hour period? How
many people were abused? How many
terrorists’ attacked civilians?
How many acts of political injustices occurred? How many lonely, numb people relied on
drugs to make it through another day of misery? And yet someone would argue that the Temple sacrifices are
unnecessary? Anyone who argues against
the need of Temple sacrifices has a gross misunderstanding of the sacrifices
and has forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that the main intent of the
sacrifices, the “korban,” were to draw near to G-d. And to remind man, “You are not an animal. So stop acting like one.”
But before I further try to justify or show the need for the
sacrifices, let me remind us all of the biggest reason the Temple sacrifices
are needed: because G-d said so.
And borrowing from the Book of Job, “G-d is unique, and who can contradict
Him?” Job 23:13. Job called G-d,
“The One of Perfect Knowledge.”
Yet because we don’t fully understand why He desires sacrifices, or why He enlisted such a system, we dare to call the system wrong or outdated?
Perhaps we need to pause, and be reminded of some of the
questions G-d asked Job:
Where were you when I
laid the earth’s foundation? Tell,
if you know understanding! Who set
its dimensions or stretched a surveyor’s line over it? Did you ever in your life command the
morning, or teach the dawn its place?
Were the gates of death revealed to you? Did you tie up the bond of Pleiades, or unbind the cords of
Orion? Do you know the laws of
heaven, did you place its rule upon the land? Did you dispatch lightening bolts? Do you know who imbued the heart with understanding? Did you give the horse its strength?
. . . and so on and so on. Job 38
& 39 are a little reminder that there is only One Source of wisdom, and it’s
not me or you. In other words, if we’ve
never pulled a bolt of lightening out of our pocket, we really shouldn’t tell
G-d or anyone else that animal sacrifices are wrong. To do so would be quite audacious.
The One of Perfect Knowledge designed and implemented animal
sacrifices as part of the Divine Temple Service. The sacrifices were pleasing to Him on one condition - that
man’s heart was fully part of the service. Because that is what the One of Perfect Knowledge has always
and still wants – our hearts. And
knowing us better than we know ourselves, the One of Perfect Knowledge knew
that one way man’s heart could draw nearer to Him was via an animal sacrifice. And remember, unless you can pull out a
bolt of lightening, you really shouldn’t argue against that. You may not understand it. Fine. Few do. But
lack of understanding the Divine service shouldn’t lead to being against animal
sacrifices.
Man learns visually.
What is more visual than watching an animal be killed? Not much. It must have been a very serious moment. It must have been disturbing. But as I said above, it was not
wrong. What it was though, to
borrow a phrase from my rabbi, was a psycho-drama. A vivid reminder of man’s role in the universal scheme of
things, and how everything gets off
kilter, to say the least, if he doesn’t fulfill his role.
I have never heard anyone describe with such clarity the
psycho-drama of the Divine Service and its role of realigning man with his
purpose, as Rabbi Chaim Richman.
The following is his description of the Divine Service from a broadcast
of Temple Talk. Open your hearts
in the deepest way as you read his words:
“The Divine Service is
a psycho-drama. The offerings
involved every level of man identifying with various aspects of his own
personality and life force and rectifying them. The service had a profound effect on the mentality of the
people involved. You can try to
smooth talk over it. You can try
to be genteel and delicate about it.
But the fact of the matter is, that these are animals being offered on
the altar of the Holy Temple.
There is blood, there
is slaughtering because Hashem said to do it this way, and therefore, for man
to go through a deeper understanding of his own life force and where he has
gone astray. And to ultimately
make sure his Divine image is elevated.
And this experience draws a person closer to Hashem. The korban literally means to “draw
close.”
But the fact is today,
we are no so close to Hashem. But
the korban does it. And what it’s
really all about, without apologizing, is a psycho-drama; it is extremely traumatic,
it is extremely jarring and unnerving.
And that’s okay, because it is real.
We are spoiled rotten
in our generation. We don’t know
what it means to realign ourselves, to figuratively receive a “kick in the
head” as it were. To see with a
certain kind of bold clarity that our lives are quickly running out like sands
through an hourglass. And with the
Divine Service we are given an opportunity when Hashem says, ‘I’m going to
shake you up and make you realize that life is precious. Stop being an animal! And start living the life of a man.’ That’s what happens in the Divine
Service.
Do you have a problem
with the One G-d of Heaven and earth running the show? If you’ve got a problem with that,
maybe you should step back and take a long, hard look at the universe and where
you fit into it. Because it’s
about you fitting into the universe, not Hashem fitting into your little
universe that you carry around like an app.”
Wow. Strong,
bold words. The Divine Service is
part of the One of Perfect Knowledge’s design for our world. And look where we are without it. Did you read the details of what the
Muslim terrorists did to the women and children in the Nairobia mall? Man is not living like an animal. Man has gone to an even lower
level.
The world is desperate for the Divine Service of the Temple
because the world is desperate for a real reminder of how to live like a man in
G-d’s Divine image and how to draw near to the One True G-d.
I once read that one of the many miracles of the Divine
Service is that all the animals being led to slaughter would go with perfect
compliance. There was no balking,
no hesitation; the animal did not try to get away. Because the animal knew, it knew what we as humans have
forgotten. It knew that it had no
higher calling, that there was no greater role for an animal than to be part of
the Divine Service. To be part of
reminding man, “This whole grand thing called life . . . it only works if you
act like a man and don’t act like me.” Or worse, act lower.
Sacrificing animals at the Temple was not a cruel act. Not sacrificing them, however, that is
what is cruel. Most people long
for the day when swords will be beaten into plowshares. Yet most people don’t connect the dots
to what precedes the advent of world peace. The prophets Isaiah and Haggai state simply and clearly
where peace will be begin. The
Temple. And Ezekiel explains very
clearly and extensively what will be happening at that Temple. Animal sacrifices. Isn’t it time we admit that our plans
are not working and instead accept the One of Perfect Knowledge’s plan? It’s time to rebuild the Temple and let
the animal sacrifices begin.
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