Senior Vice President, NPOJ Intl.
(Yeshivas Chipas Emmess)
I had just teed off the eighth hole with a large potential investor...err, donor... in NPOJ Intl. when the esteemed Dean (Rusheshiva), Rabbi Schmeckelstein, instant messaged me on my Blackberry asking that I fill in for him again and develop the weekly homily (Drasha). However, he asked specifically that I not offend any readers with traditionalist philosophies (fruma yidden), apparently in response to a series of complaints following my last sermon.
So out of respect, I will not mention that this week's Torah reading, the first reading in Leviticus (Parshas Vayikrah), was clearly written hundreds of years after the Israelites were purportedly in the desert, the description of animal sacrifices of non-desert flock is a complete anachronism, or that scholars agree that much of this week's reading is consistent with efforts to maintain the elitist hegemony of the Aaronite priesthood in the First Temple period. I won't mention any of that.
Rather, I will focus on an elementary component of the reading and contemplate its relevance to today: the fundamental approach to worship through animal sacrifice (Korbonois).
In preparing this homily, I was quite horrified in rereading the graphically illustrative details of the sacrifices, many of which are intended as penitence (teshuvah) for some misaction (aveirah). One cannot help but be troubled by the brutality. I contrast this with my recent quail hunting outing in Connecticut with several fellow Yale alumni. Death came to those birds rapidly, which were later donated to a local shelter for former dot com executives. However, other than an occasional stuffing, the birds are not subjected to the post mortem mistreatment witnessed with the animal sacrifices.
One must surely contemplate what the Diety (Aimishteh) had in mind when designating ritual sacrifice as the manner for worshiping Him. Perhaps He should have instead designated monetary contributions, i.e., if you accidentally damage someone's property, you must provide restitution, as well as donate a new wing to the local hospital.
The logic of a monetary approach is clear. Taxation, if you will, takes on many forms in Israelite and Jewish culture, and could have been given a more prominent role, in lieu of animal sacrifice. Indeed, monetary sacrifice carries through even today. Take, for example, the commandment (mitzvah) of removing a portion of bread dough for the priest (Mitzvas Challah). In my home, my wife Buffy (Breinah Rifkala) commemorates this action every time she cuts the crusts off the white bread prior to serving finger sandwiches to our guests.
However, given that the ancient Israelite religion evolved from a set of practices that included human sacrifice, animal sacrifice was both a socially conscious approach and a quid pro quo exchange in a pre-monetary agrarian society. Human sacrifice? Just remember, this is the culture that produced the Binding of Isaac (Akeidas Yitzchok) and the sacrifice of Jephtah's daughter (Bass Yiphtach) in Judges (Shoiftim).
The brutality of the practice is still troubling, however. Even if animal sacrifice is a direct evolutionary line from human sacrifice, why would the Diety tolerate aggrandizement through the pain of any living creature? Perhaps it is not at all about the Almighty (Aimishteh) and what He wants. Rather, it is instead related to some essential flaw in the human character.
I recall that once in my youth, prior to the Day of Atonement (Erev Yom Kippur), my paternal figure brought home a live chicken to wave over our heads and capture our collective sins. After the procedure was completed, and I had finished cleaning the bird feces off my glasses, I asked, "Tahti (Father), is it fair that that bird should die?," to which he sympathetically responded, "better him than us."
In the last one hundred years, when the human animal seems to be at the dawn of a newer, more peaceful existence, mankind has used its advances for brutality, instead of peace. Perhaps in our day, instead of monetary and other forms of taxation, we should return to killing animals. Better the "primitive" practice of animal sacrifice than the incessant killing of human beings throughout the globe.
Indeed, pheasant and quail hunting can be not only be good substitutes for homicide and fratricide, they can also be good opportunities for professional networking, provided you belong to the right country club.
