My son came home after an event recently and asked, “Do you think religion has been an overall net positive or net negative for humanity?” Hmm … nothing like deep philosophy at an hour way past my bedtime lol! But I take any chance I get for a substantive conversation with my kids so off we went!
Sacrifice is central to ancient Judaism as shown by the placement of the Book of Leviticus at the actual center of the Torah. In the weekly Torah reading cycle we spend approximately two months in this book focused on something that seemingly has no modern relevance. That’s a lot of time! – which speaks to my son’s underlying question: What is the purpose of religion?
Our tradition has done much to rehabilitate the concept of sacrifice for modern times. Sacrifice is not about killing animals, it’s about giving up something of value, it’s about putting God first before our own needs, it’s about being grateful for our bounty and recognizing that most of the things we feel belong to us are really on loan to us.
I appreciate all of these re-interpretations.
And I learned a new lesson from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ z”l book I Believe which I’ve been sharing in these monthly columns this year.
Regarding sacrifices, Rabbi Sacks teaches that other ancient civilizations made sacrifices to their gods in order to feed the god or in order to appease the god and gain favor.
In contrast, the Jewish God explicitly admonishes against sacrifice without ethical behavior. Yes, the same God who commands five different types of sacrifices and lays out painstaking detail about when they are offered – basically every day with extras offered on holidays and special occasions – this same God, in the voice of the Prophets, says quite the opposite.
The Prophet Isaiah said: What need have I of all your sacrifices? … I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats… Who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! (Isaiah 1:11 – 13)
Rabbi Sacks teaches that what troubled the prophets and God as well was hypocrisy. When human society was corrupt and yet people continued to bring sacrifices and think all was forgiven, they were sadly mistaken.
“What distressed (the prophets) to the core of their being was the idea that you could serve God and at the same time act disdainfully, cruelly, unjustly, insensitively, or callously towards other people … If you think that, then you haven’t understood either God or Torah.”
This reading of sacrifice paired with ethical human behavior forms my personal response to the “purpose of religion” question. We need rituals to guide us and give us structure. But if those rituals are void of meaning or if they serve as a false protection against unethical behavior to our fellow human beings, then we are sadly mistaken.
As we know from Yom Kippur – we cannot ask God for forgiveness until we have settled our accounts with our own people. For an ancient religion, Judaism is remarkably human focused. The purpose of Judaism is to elevate ourselves from basic existence to being spiritually awake to the holiness of each moment in time and each encounter with ourselves, others and God. That is the purpose and a lifelong pursuit.
May we take steady steps in that direction every day.
Shabbat Shalom & Love,
Rabbi Amy