TaNaKh and Animal Sacrifice

Shalom:

[This blog posting was written for most Christians .]

A question was asked of me the other night.  It went as follows: "If animal sacrifice is not necessary, they killed many animals needlessly.  Unless the bible is just baloney like they believe over there.  Just saying."

Proper English and grammar aside for now, let's consider this and reason together.  TaNaKh (prounounced "Tah-Nahkh" and meaning Torah, Prophets and Writings in Hebrew) is the "Old Testament" in Christian bibles.  Torah contains most, if not all, of the law for Jews.  In fact, the word "Torah" itself means "Law" in Hebrew.  Torah contains about 613 laws by which Jews should live their lives.  This includes the laws dealing with sacrifices.

HaShem says in Lev 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life. [12] Therefore I said unto the children of Israel: No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourn among you eat blood. [13] And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that taketh in hunting any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. [14] For as to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one with the life thereof; therefore I said unto the children of Israel: Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of al flesh is the blood; whosoever eateth it shall be cutoff. "

You will also find "... the blood upon the altar... " mentioned many times in the TaNaKh.  A short listing is:

• Ex 29:20
• Lev 3:2
• Lev 4:30
• Lev 5:9
• Lev 8:19
• Lev 8:24
• Lev 9:9
• Lev 17:6
• Dt 12:27
• II Chr 29:22
• etc, etc.

So then, some will ask, "Why are the Jews NOT sacrificing animals today?  Answer, "... the blood is given to you upon the altar..." meaning, the altar in the temple of Solomon or the 2nd Temple, not just any pile of stones that someone might want to set up.  Worshiping somewhere other than the temple in Jerusalem was also forbidden but with the destruction of the Temple in about 69 CE, the Jews had to build other places to worship HaShem.  Some think that this was the beginning of the Synagogue that we have today.  Anyway, until that altar is restored to the Jews, sacrifices have been put on hold.

Now, I am not sure where "over there" is except maybe at some Reform Judaism synagogues or at some concervative Christian churches.  Most Liberal Christians don't really seem to care who believes what so long as the are properly "churched."  Some Reform Jews, most Conservative Jews and/or all Orthodox Jews attending their own particular synagogues actually believe that TaNaKh is the written word of G-d, not just campfire tales that were eventually written down.  (Nor do most conservatives and/or Orthodox believe in the JEPD theory that teaches basically the same thing but in a different context.)

Shalom,
Ya'akov