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Sacrifices

Isaiah’s Warning: Piety without Justice Leads to the Fall of Jerusalem

“What need have I of all your sacrifices?” says YHWH. “Devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow” (Isaiah 1:11, 17). By placing a reminiscence of the Assyrian invasion of Judah right before this rebuke (1:7–8), the opening chapter of Isaiah sends the message that Judah can survive only when society takes care of its most vulnerable members.

Dr.

Ethan Schwartz

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Who Wrote the Story of Noah, and When?

Clue: Seven pairs of kosher animals are brought to the ark so that Noah can sacrifice to YHWH after the flood.

Dr.

Lisbeth S. Fried

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Does an Intentional Sinner Attain Atonement?

Leviticus 16 describes how the scapegoat ritual on Yom Kippur attains atonement for all of Israel’s sins, even acts of rebellion. Numbers 15, however, states that a person who sins unintentionally can bring an offering and be forgiven, but the person who sins intentionally is cut off from the people.

Prof. Rabbi

David Frankel

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Is Atonement Possible Without Blood? A Jewish-Christian Divide

Blood has a significant role in many biblical stories and rituals, most prominently in the atonement sacrifices of Leviticus. With the destruction of the Temple and the loss of sacrifices, Judaism and Christianity took very different paths to achieving atonement.

Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

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Prof.

Amy-Jill Levine

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On Sacrifices and Life: Wholeness Dismembered but Re-membered

A burnt offering, must be whole (תמים), after which it is dismembered (נתוח) and offered to YHWH. In the wake of the loss of my parents, I have come to appreciate how this process mirrors the creation story and life.

Prof. Rabbi

Wendy Zierler

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Asham of False Oaths: Why Does the Offender Confess?

Drawing on biblical and ancient Near Eastern evidence about the consequences of swearing falsely, I suggest a new understanding of the asham case (Lev 5:20-26) involving property violation and a subsequent false oath.

Dr.

Yael Landman

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The Flood Changes God Not Humanity

When YHWH sees the evil ways of humanity, he initially decides to wipe them out, but then determines to save Noah’s family. After the flood and Noah’s sacrifice, YHWH promises that He will never again destroy the earth and all life, even though humanity will continue in its evil ways. Thus, the story chronicles not the moral and emotional advancement of humanity but of YHWH.

Prof.

Ronald Hendel

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Yom Kippur’s Seder Avodah Begins with God’s Creation of the World

Arguably, the highlight of the prayer service on Yom Kippur is the Seder Avodah, a type of piyyut (liturgical hymn) that poetically reenacts in every detail the ritual service performed by the high priest on Yom Kippur in the Jerusalem Temple. But why do these poems begin with the creation story?

Prof. Rabbi

Dalia Marx

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Leviticus’ Rhetorical Presentation of the Sin and Guilt Offerings

The transition from the chatat (חטאת) sin offering in Leviticus 4 to the asham (אשׁם) guilt offering in Leviticus 5 is sudden, even seeming to collapse them into one offering. The history of these offerings, when and why they were introduced into the Temple service, sheds light on the interpretation and structure of these chapters.

Prof.

James W. Watts

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Sukkot’s Seventy Bulls

The Torah’s adaptation of a polytheistic ancient West-Semitic custom of sacrificing to seventy gods.

Dr.

Noga Ayali-Darshan

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Which Sacrificial Offerings Require Libations?

A burnt offering (olah), described as “sweet smelling” food for YHWH, always includes grain and wine libation “side-dishes,” constituting a complete meal. A purification offering (chattat), however, is a cleansing ritual. Should it also have an accompanying libation? The Masoretic Text of Numbers 28-29 offers an inconsistent answer that differs from that of the Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch.

Dr.

Naphtali Meshel

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Mitzvah Piety and the Need for Individual Atonement

In the Priestly texts, observing the divine commandments became an end in itself while the unique meaning or purpose of the particular mitzvah took on less significance. Concomitantly, Priestly authors asserted the need for personal atonement through a chatat (sin offering) for even unintentionally violating God’s commandments.

Prof. Rabbi

David Frankel

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Searching for the Meaning of the Passover Sacrifice

To counter Christian exegetes who saw the paschal lamb as symbolizing Jesus, medieval rabbinic commentators offered new rationales for the details of this ritual.

Prof. Rabbi

Marty Lockshin

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Is God Truly Everywhere? Sacred Space and the Role of Sacrifices

The deepest desire of worshipers was to have YHWH in their midst.

Prof. Rabbi

Baruch A. Levine

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Debates Over Centralizing Sacrificial Worship and Eating Non-Sacrificial Meat

Moses’ first set of laws in Deuteronomy (11:31–12:28) requires the Israelites to destroy Canaanite sites of worship and to centralize sacrifice for Yahweh at the site of His choosing. It also allows them to eat meat without sacrificing the animal, under particular conditions. A close look at the terms of Moses’ speech shows that the text has been supplemented no less than three times.

Dr.

Simeon Chavel

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Meat or Murder?

The Torah first describes a world that is created to be vegetarian. It is only after the Flood that humans were allowed to eat meat. Leviticus restricts meat consumption to the sacrificial offerings only, whereas Deuteronomy permits even non-consecrated meat. How do we understand the tension between these approaches?

Dr.

Yitzhaq Feder

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Expiating with Blood

Is the book of Leviticus primitive? I believe so, though an analysis of the meaning of the word kipper suggests that these sacrificial laws may be more relevant than we often realize.

Dr.

Yitzhaq Feder

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On the Problem of Sacrifices: Maimonides’ Ladder of Enlightenment

Maimonides, in his Guide of the Perplexed, portrays sacrifices as a ruse to repudiate idolatrous practices prevalent at the time. In Mishneh Torah, however, Maimonides states that the messiah will rebuild the Temple and restore sacrifices just as they once were. How are Maimonides’ two works reconcilable?

Dr.

David Gillis

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The Wood Offering Celebration – “As Written in the Torah”

Bringing wood for the altar was an important celebration in Second Temple times. To ground this practice in the Torah, Nehemiah (10:35) describes it as a Torah law, while the Temple Scroll (11Q19) and the Reworked Pentateuch (4Q365) include it in their biblical festival calendar.

Dr.

Alex P. Jassen

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Sacrificing a Lamb in Egypt

When a Temple of Yahu Stood Near a Temple of Khnum

Prof.

Jan Assmann

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Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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Not Signing Off on Sacrifices

The Hidden Message of the Opening Verses of Kedoshim

Rabbi

Uzi Weingarten

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“This Is the Torah” for the Priests Performing the Offerings

Expanding upon R. David Zvi Hoffmann’s insight that Parashat Tzav (Leviticus 6-7) was originally connected directly with the laws of the ordination/miluim sacrifice in Exodus 29, with a second sacrificial unit (Leviticus 1-5) spliced in the middle.

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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The Discrepancies Between the Sacrifices in Ezekiel and the Torah

The laws of holiday sacrifices in Ezekiel 45–46 contradict the laws in Numbers 28–29. The problems are so significant that some Talmudic sages thought it would be best to withdraw (לגנוז) the book of Ezekiel. This piece lays out the discrepancies in detail, surveys some traditional and modern answers, and ends with my own thoughts about why Ezekiel’s system is so different.

Dr.

Tova Ganzel

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The Tabernacle, the Creation, and the Ideal of an Orderly World

The account of the Tabernacle’s construction echoes the creation story in Genesis 1-2:4a, providing an interpretive key to the ancient understanding of this structure. Ritual theory provides further insight into what Israelite readers may have found meaningful about the Tabernacle as a ritual place.

Prof. Rabbi

Naftali S. Cohn

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Meeting the Challenge of Critical Scholarship with Leviticus

Dr. Rabbi

Irving (Yitz) Greenberg

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