Sacrifices

The Mission Statement of Judaism

"One sheep you shall offer in the morning and the second sheep in the afternoon." The verse that says it all.

Activists arrested for attempting sacrifice on Temple Mount

The group claims they intended to reinstate the biblical daily offering.

Shlach: Offering wine and flour

Israel's first Chief Rabbi: The Temple service was meant to encompass all aspects of creation.

Tazria: Shiloh and the Birth-Offerings

Israel's first Chief Rabbi: True morality cannot sanction a mechanical Temple service, disconnected from the people and their lives

The spiritual defect of a depleted pocket

Selected commentators explain why the priests had to be urged to bring the burnt offering as opposed to other offerings.

The offering of self

The wondrous burnt offering and what its purpose is. A selection of renowned commentators.

Will there be animal sacrifices in the Third Temple?

Israel's first Chief Rabbi: Compassion for animals should recognize the issue's fundamental morality.

Vayikra: Being on call

It is not by accident, obviously, that 'calling' is introduced in relation to the sacrifices.

Rabbi Hirsch on the parasha: Are we doomed without Korbanot?

How can we be forgiven without the essence of Temple worship, the offerings brought to God?

An altar of earth? Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on the parasha

This is one of the places in the Torah where Rabbi Hirsch's philosophy of Torah and Derekh Eretz can be understood.

Violence and the sacred

Sacrifices divert the destructive energy of violent reciprocity. But justice could do the same, if society reached that level.

Perpetual sacrifice

Jerusalem stood by virtue of the Tamid offering, the perpetual sacrifice which corresponds to the Holy City and its characteristics.

Sacrificial Offerings, so far and yet so near!

Insights into the more symbolic and mystical aspects of the sacrifices as taught by the Zohar and other sources.

Vayikra: There is no free lunch

We ourselves are the sacrifice that can bring us to a true attainment of forgiveness, in terms of heavenly judgment.

Shelamim: Peace to Am Yisrael and to the world

Shelamim means whole. Peace is completeness, harmony, the feeling that one thing complements another, and both are equal parts of a whole.

Vayikra: The traits of a Shaliach

The attributes of a dedicated Shaliach mirror the message behind one of the offerings in the Temple.

Coming closer

What is the idea behind bringing offerings to the Temple? Will that resume?

History and destiny

This coming Shabbat's parashah spells out the details of the offerings once brought to the sanctuary, but today read each morning..

Why civilizations die

Contemplate worst-case scenarios. Ask what we would do, if…

Police arrest Jews for trying to offer sacrifice on Temple Mount

Jerusalem police stress importance of 'keeping the peace'; Temple Mount rights organization calls on Israel to keep the mitzva.

'Write about Jewish law, get banned from the Temple Mount'

Rabbi Yehuda Kroizer reveals police banned him from Mount because 10 years ago he wrote about legal facets of Temple offerings.

Rabbi Ronsky: We Are Fulfilling the Will of the Fogel Family

4 years since the brutal Fogel family murder, Itamar remains defiant. 'The terrorists want to get rid of us, but we hold tight to the land.'