Vayikra (Part 3) - Lev. 1:1-5:26

The Five Offerings

In this weeks portion, we are introduced to five different types of animal offerings, some of which can be replaced with bringing fine flour if you are poor enough, and a couple of general terms for sacrifices in general.

The general terms are qorban, which is an animal offering that may or may not be a sacrifice, and a zevach, which is a slaughtered animal which is often for a sacrifice.

So these general terms alone don't really define a sacrifice. For example, on Passover, a lamb or goat is treated as a qorban, and may be killed outside of the Temple and away from the mizbeach, and by any person. So in effect, it's a sacrifice (made sacred), but it isn't an offering which gives it a spark of "holiness", rendering it to be limited to God and His priesthood.

The five types of animal sacrifices listed in this weeks portion (which is by no means a complete list), are:

1. Elevation (1:3 olah עלה) - (also called a "burnt offering")
2. Meal offering (2:1 mincha - מנחה)
3. Peace offering (3:1 - shelamim - שלמים)
4. Sin offering (4:1 - chatah - חטא) 
5. Guilt offering (5:15 - asham אשם) 

There are others, and not all sacrifices are about sin and/or atonement. These were systems put in place for the people to interface with God trough the priestly cult as their intermediary. And while the average reader may be puzzled about how all of these systems worked, it is assumed that the people of that time knew full well how all of this worked.

But apparently some of that information is not so clear, based on the text.

For example, an olah was offered by Noah and then by Jethro to YHVH. So it seems like it was a general term for either honoring God, or being grateful (or perhaps both). And it seems to be something that the people knew that YHVH desired, since He would demand that two olah offerings were to be burned before Him daily. This is not counting the ones that the general population would bring for whatever reason, and it was an optional offering on their part and did not deal with sin. 

And as we read in Judges 11:30-39, Jephthah promises YHVH an olah if He will aid the Jews in defeating their enemy. Of course, in the story, it was his daughter who was sacrificed (although some apologists will disagree. I explain that story fully in this post.)

The shelamim offering, which is a plural form for "peace" could also be a plural form of "completeness". It is brought and dealt with differently than the olah, in that the person or persons bringing it would eat it with the priesthood. There are various interpretations as to how this brings peace or wholeness, but one view is that it was a way to get close to the priesthood who were the intermediaries to God. Again, this was strictly voluntary and had nothing to do with sin or atonement.

The mincha offering is unique in that the verse speaks of it as "a soul (nefesh) offering it", which is a unique language to the mincha. According to Rashi, this is to be thought of as though the aspirant had offered his very soul to God. And unlike the other offerings, this one does not involve and animal, but involves flour that is either raw, baked (bread), or fried (donuts). Unlike the olah which is burned, and the shelamim, which is shared, the mincha is food for the priesthood. And according to the Rambam, the prohibition to adding sweet liquids or yeast when offering this to God (or His priests), was to distance the Jews from the practice of other nations, who would offer sweet soft cakes to their Gods.

So, again, this offering is not about sin. The final two, however, are.

The first, a chatah, is for an unintentional sin, and the second, the asham is for an intentional sin.

What would be an unintentional sin?

Well, a woman who cries out in childbirth, "This is the LAST time I am going to be doing this!", then that is an unintentional sin. And in order to not embarrass a specific woman who uttered these words, the Rabbis instituted a custom, back when sacrifices were brought, that all women who gave birth were to bring a chatah. 

An intentional sin is one where your body would not atone for it (such as being whipped or executed). An example given is cheating your neighbor ("Your hammer? I don't know anything about your hammer." which you know is sitting in your house.).

Of course, there are more offerings, but those we will look at when they are mentioned in later chapters.

A Bloody Business

It appears that whoever wrote this text, wrote it during a time when there weren't a lot of offerings being brought. And so, perhaps this was a text to outline the expectations by the priesthood.

Why do I say that?

Let's say that you have a million people, and only .001% of the overall population will sin unintentionally or intentionally each day. That's 1,000 people per day. And since these could only be brought during the daylight hours, let's say that you have 1,000 minutes in the day to do this. It's not impossible if you have a big enough team to do it in, but it would be pretty rough to meet the deadline. According to Josephus, the hands of the priesthood moved so fast, they were like a blur.

Part of the problem is also the blood. 

A typical lamb has about 6 liters (2 gallons) of blood. A goat is about the same. A bull has about 40 liters (10 gallons) of blood.

So let's keep it low, lets use 5 liters times 1,000 animals every day.

Here is a picture of a man standing next to a 5,000 liter water tank.

Again, that may not seem like a lot of blood to dispose of every single day, until you remember that 2,300 years ago in Jerusalem, there was no place for this blood to go except upon the temple floor, and there weren't power hoses to clean it, nor an underground cistern for it to flow into.

And that much blood (which is being grossly underestimated) flowing every day, being dashed all around the altar, is going to reek on a hot Israeli day! And over time, with the right wind, everyone who lived near the Temple would be well aware of its location!

Hence the ancient Rabbis declaring that the Temple didn't smell and there were never any flies, because, "it was a miracle"!

My guess is that that animal offerings were probably quite rare, and that the priesthood struggled to get people to participate, and wrote Leviticus to tell the people that they had an obligation to give fruit, meal, and meat to the priesthood daily, because God demanded it.

I don't have any proof. It just seems very unlikely that the Temple processed so much blood, daily.