This question came up over Thanksgiving dinner and since there is another open thread with some Jewish expertise represented, I am curious what the comments here would be on this topic.
It’s been so long since wholesale animal sacrifices have been performed that I wonder if the thinking around it has changed.
There are several schools of thought on that. The predominant one is that, yes, animal sacrifices would resume.
However, there are people in the Orthodox community (Rav Kook held this position) that the only sacrifices that would be offered in the rebuilt Temple would be meal-offerings.
Zev Steinhardt
I wonder if he knew Archimedes Plutonium or Robert McElwaine.
//UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT Nosh is ENCOURAGED, ESPECIALLY to RECONSTRUCTED JEWISH TEMPLES.
I don’t see why not. It’s not like we’ve stopped killing animals to satisfy our own hunger, so what would be our rationale to refrain from doing so in fulfillment of G-d’s commandments?
Thanks. It occurs to me that a meal-offering would be functionally indistinguishable from kosher slaughter, though, in terms of how a non-believer might regard the use of the animal.
We (my family) were discussing the notion of sacrifice of the burnt offering variety–i.e. where the animal is killed for the sole purpose of religious ritual and not with any secondary benefit that might be construed as rendering any criticism of the slaughter moot.
As a corollary question I am also wondering if there is any support for animal sacrifice until the Temple is restored. As I understand it, there is not, since that is the only place where the ritual would be appropriate.
You are correct in that the only place where a sacrifice could be brought is in the Temple. Since the Temple does not stand today, there is no one advocating the bringing of sacrifices today.
Zev Steinhardt
But do you still know how you’re supposed to do it? Like, you’re permitted to eat certain locusts, but since the tradition was lost which species of locusts those were, you refrain from eating any locusts.
over a million animals will be offered as sacrifice during the upcoming hajj.
(darn cap lock key!)
The method for slaughtering an animal* for sacrifice is the same as for eating.
Zev Steinhardt
I think he meant “sacrificed by Jews.”
Zev Steinhardt
Related: Why must the Temple be rebuilt on the Temple Mount? Clearly, there was a Tabernacle cult before the taking of Jerusalem, & the traditions seem to date to that point. Why, if Jews believe in a divine mandate for the Temple cult, do we not see a Tabernacle or Temple built elsewhere?
Good question. The general rule*, as laid down by the Talmud, was that before the Temple was built in Jerusalem, sacrifices could be offered at the Tabernacle or even privately in your backyard (an example of this is found by Manoah, the father of Samson). However, once the Temple was built in Jerusalem, that became the only place where sacrifices could be offered, even if the Temple did not exist**.
Zev Steinhardt
So it’s a Talmudic development. I just find it strange that there doesn’t seem to be a sect that just reinstituted animal sacrifice–whether in a Tabernacle; a new Temple elsewhere; or on the same model as the Muslims, pretty much anywhere. That seems like an obvious answer & consistent with Torah.
Of course, the Samaritans don’t care about the Temple, & there was that Temple on the Elephantine in ancient times. I mean a sect of Jews from the Pharisee/rabbinical tradtion. It seems rather as if there’s a leeriness of the idea of just burning meat up for God–& hence we get questions like the OP.
They’re both classic Usenet kooks (people who persist in posting utterly bizarre things well beyond the point of simple trolling and bordering on the diagnosably insane). My little tagline below is a thinly-veiled imitation of one of McElwaine’s catchphrases.
Zev, other than the mosque being there, what are the other difficulties of building the Altar?
You have to remember that technically, modern Jews are the descendants and heirs of the Kingdom of Judea. One of the main points of contention between the southern realm of Judea and the northern realm of Israel was the location of sacrifices: Judea claimed that they could only take place in Jerusalem, which it controlled, while Israel had alters in Shechem (modern Nablus) and elsewhere. In this sense, it’s a tradition that predates the Talmud by a thousand years.
Assuming the Al-Asqa mosque wasn’t there and it wouldn’t start a major war to start offering sacrifices on the Temple Mount, there would still be some major difficulties with re-instituting the sacrificial service. Among them (and in no particular order) are:
The Altar must be built in precisely the same spot as it was in before.
This is one of the more formidable obstacles. While we have a pretty good idea of the general location on the Mount, I don’t know that anyone today really knows exactly where it was.
**
All Jewish people today are ritually impure (tamei)
**
In order to go onto some sections of the Temple Mount (and, according to many authorities, any portion of the Temple Mount), one must be ritually pure. However, today, all Jews are tamei by virtue of either coming in contact with the dead, being under the same roof as the dead, or having contact with those that are already ritually impure*. The only way to remove this impurity is with the ashes of the Red Cow. Since we do not have this today, this presents another difficulty.
**
The Temple Service can only be performed by Aaronic descendants (Kohanim).**
While there are many people who are Kohanim today, the fact is that in the vast majority of cases, it cannot be established that it is so. We usually take people at their word today that they are kohanim. But for the Temple service, that’s generally not good enough. Since there are very few or no people today who can definitively establish lineage from Aaron, the presents another obstacle.
For these reasons (as well as some others that I might have missed), it is generally held that we will have to wait for the Messiah (who, with Elijah, can right some of these matters) before the Temple service could be reinstituted.
Zev Steinhardt
I thought there were a couple of odd sects that still sacrificed? Such as at Shiloh? Or was it Mount Gerizim?
The Samaritans have a temple on Mt. Gerizim. Just about all Orthodox Jews today would not consider the Samaritans to be Jewish.
Zev Steinhardt