Self-Sacrifice

According to Campbell’s Semitic Magic, in ancient Semitic culture, animal sacrifice was part of an exorcism ritual. A shaman would take your bad mojo (believed to be a demon), focus it into a yearling, and chop its head off, thus releasing the individual from possession.

In Judaism, this evolved into the less superstitious belief that rather than demons, it was our own sin which possessed us, and so in temple times, we’d sacrifice goats and sheep as “sin offerings” in order to atone and free ourselves from our sin.

When the temple was destroyed, animal sacrifice ceased, and the Rabbis decided to evolve the idea even further: Instead of sacrificing animals three times a day, we’d offer prayer three times a day. And instead of projecting our sins onto animals, we’d do teshuva instead. We’d repent and make amends for our sins. We’d take responsibility for them.

How beautiful is this evolution from the barbaric and superstitious practice of animal sacrifice to the esteemed and noble practice of prayer and teshuva?

I can’t begin to tell you how many idiots I’ve spoken to who want to go back to chopping heads off. Messianic delusionals who want the temple back tomorrow. Who want to bumrush the temple mount on a weekday morning and spark a holy war.

Fuck that noise. If that’s what having a temple means, we’re probably better off without it.

Here’s Rav Kook and Reuven Hammer with additional commentary.

[Update] Manuscript Boy has some interesting remarks regarding the Rabbanim’s stance on placing disproportionate value on the temple rituals.