Today, I will be advocating animal rights. While talking about korbanot, we read the opinion of Rav Hirsch on why korbanot were brought. Supposedly Rav Hirsch is supposed to be a more modern guy, but what he said struck me as very odd and cruel.
He said that we bring korbanot to become closer to G-d. A korban is not a gift or a sacrifice, because 1) we do not want to imply G-d needs a sacrifice 2) we don't want to give gifts and sacrifices because this is the relationship man has with man, not the relationship man should have with G-d. The shoresh of the work korban is karov, which means close. So we bring korbanot to become closer to G-d.
Well, this is the upsetting part. Why does killing an animal bring you closer to G-d? It doesn't make sense. Forget about other meforshim we read who talked about the symbolism etc. Why would an animal being killed bring you closer to G-d? G-d isn't the one who needs the sacrifice- right? And a good Jew/person shoudn't go around killing animals, because why would G-d want His creations destroyed if HE doesn't require it? Why isn't there a different way to become closer to G-d?
I think the only thing that makes sense is to say korbanot were brought by the jews because they were so used to it that they couldn't go from one extreme to the other (no korbanot).
So why is this modern person saying killing an animal brings you closer to G-d? how does this benefit you? From G-d's side it doesn't mean anything, because G-d doesn't need it. So why should we, as humans, do it?
So, someone who would not normally ever really take a stand on animal rights, I will be a PETA person and say that this is cruel...
Anyone care to change my mind?
I understand your feelings and concerns towards this. I am going to accept your challenge and I shall try to change your mind.
ReplyDeleteFirsly, I'll try to explain how an animal killing would bring us closer to God: We don't bring it because God needs the sacrifice, and the "coming closer to God" has nothing to do with God needing our sacrifices, but it is for us. A reason why we would bring an animal and sacrifice it, will show that we would take something that it valuable to us (in those times and animal was the symbol for that, like today would be a popcorn machine.)You give god this thing that gives you something in life and therefore you come closer to God.
Do you ask yourself why a mother sometimes likes her baby more than the father does in the first years of its life ( I know this is not in most cases but in some). The reason for that is because the mother has given so much for this child, and invested time and money for the child that she has grown to love it. There is this idea of "You grow to love something that you have invested in, and given much to". This also applies to the giving of Korbnot, since we give god something of our own, that could be of use to us, but we give it to God, since we want to give and come closer to God.
I cant speak for God, but I think the killing of an animal is worth it if he then sees that the human gave an animal up for God to come closer to him, and because he wants to give. God allows us to kill those animals because God knows that we need it, and that we could come to realisations and different holy stages (depending on what mefarshe you take) and therefore I think God allows it.
I think there are other ways to come closer to God, like following the mitzwot and thinking about God in the everyday life e.c.t but maybe if we combine the mefarshim we can see that since it was the norm to sacrifice the animals during that timeperiod, it was a good idea to become closer to God in this way.
I also think that it's a little unnecessary to kill animals in order to establish a relationship with Hashem but I think that in a way it makes sense because in those days, animals were of high value and the idea that we have to give up something of value to us definitely could be an explanation as to why we have to give korbanot.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think that Korbanot are just like anything else in Judaism - there's often no explanation for certain things and maybe this is the same thing. Perhaps this is a test of our Emunah to Hashem and he specifically tells us to do these things in order for us to show that even though we don't understand certain things we are supposed to do, we do them anyway out of our respect and love for Hashem.
Jamie, the second thing you said is also just a good answer because so far the reasons are weird and this will allow all the weirdness! Thanks!
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