Ask the Rabbi with Rabbi Chaim Mintz
The idea of animal sacrifice seems so cruel and outdated. Yet, I hear that this practice will resume after the Temple (Beit HaMikdash) is rebuilt. Are we really headed back to the Dark Ages and these old-fashioned customs?
Rabbi Chaim Mintz responds:
Meat Consumption
Let us first address a similar question, why we eat meat. As will be explained elsewhere (“Being a Vegetarian”), killing an animal and eating it is the greatest kindness one can do for an animal!
If we take a look at the animal kingdom, we don’t see any eternal purpose. An animal just does what Hashem (God) programmed it to do, then dies and decays into the ground, disappearing forever. It can’t make choices between doing good or bad, or connect to Hashem by doing mitzvot, and doesn’t seem to accomplish anything for the ultimate purpose of creation.
An Animal’s Purpose
But when a Jew ritually slaughters an animal and consumes its meat, the entire picture changes! This animal has just transcended the physical and turned into something of eternal significance. First of all, the Jew recites a blessing, both when slaughtering the animal, as well as before and after consuming its meat, which brings untold blessing to the world. Similarly, a Jew who derives nourishment from eating meat and is then able to better serve Hashem, has elevated this simple cow into a medium for mitzvah performance. The animal can also be used as part of a Shabbat or Yom Tov meal, thereby serving to enhance the pleasure of a Shabbat. Since Shabbat is the source of blessing, when a Jew partakes of the pleasures of Shabbat, he will once again be worthy of receiving heavenly blessings.
This simple animal has now become a vehicle for transmitting a bounty of good to the world, something it could never have accomplished by living out its life and dying of natural causes.
Closer to God
Taking this to the next level, in the times of the Beit HaMikdash, an animal offered as a sacrifice (korban) was elevated to the ultimate greatness. The word korban in Hebrew derives from the root kareiv, which means to come close. When a person offers a korban as a “gift” to Hashem, the person, as well as the entire universe, comes closer to Hashem. Thus, this animal has turned from a mere physical being into something with a spiritual purpose in the world.
Eternal Connection
Finally, the kabbalists tell us that through the aforementioned mitzvot we elevate the animal to a whole new level of existence, and give it some share in the World to Come. Far from being cruel to animals, by offering them to God we are giving them a connection to eternity, something we will once again do when the Beit HaMikdash is rebuilt.
In short: Offering an animal as a sacrifice is not cruelty. On the contrary, it elevates the animal and gives it purpose in the world.
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