Sacrifice:The Career of an Idea in Tanakh and Later Texts
Our study of sacrifice in Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, and in later texts, will demonstrate how the content of Jewish worship was altered by the historical fate of the Second Temple. Along the way, we will mention some interesting aspects of Hebrew as a language and examine the prophetic critique of sacrifice, which anticipated the replacement of sacrifice by prayer in rabbinic Judaism. Thus we will end where we began, considering the content of Sabbath worship.
The scriptural texts which follow are given in the Tanakh translation made by JPS, the Jewish Publication Society.
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These are the offerings by fire that you are to present to the Lord: As a regular burnt offering every day, two yearling lambs without blemish. You shall offer one lamb in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. . . . On the sabbath day: two yearling lambs without blemish . . . On your new moons you shall present a burnt offering to the Lord: two bulls of the herd, one ram, and seven yearling lambs, without blemish. (Numbers 28:3-4, 9, 11)
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Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices . . . For when I freed your fathers from the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifice. But this is what I commanded them: Do My bidding, that I may be your God and you may be My people; walk only in the way that I enjoin upon you, that it may go well with you. (Jeremiah 7:21-23)
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For I desire goodness, not sacrifice;
Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6)
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Take words with you
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him:
"Forgive all guilt
And accept what is good;
Instead of bulls we will pay
[The offering of] our lips. (Hosea 14:3)
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If you offer Me burnt offerings -- or your meal offerings --
I will not accept them;
I will pay no heed
To your gifts of fatlings.
Spare Me the sound of your hymns,
And let Me not hear the music of your lutes.
But let justice well up like water,
Righteousness like an unfailing stream. (Amos 5:22-24)
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With what shall I approach the Lord,
Do homage to God on high?
Shall I approach Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
. . . .
He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God (Micah 6:6,8)
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I censure you not for your sacrifices,
and your burnt offerings, made to Me daily;
I claim no bull from your estate,
no he-goats from your pens.
For Mine is every animal of the forest,
the beasts on a thousand mountains.
I know every bird of the mountains,
the creatures of the field are subject to Me.
Were I hungry, I would not tell you,
for Mine is the world and all it holds.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of he-goats?
Sacrifice a thank offering to God,
and pay your vows to the Most High. (Psalm 50:8-14)
* * *
You do not want me to bring sacrifices;
You do not desire burnt offerings;
True sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit;
God, You will not despise a contrite and crushed heart.
May it please You to make Zion prosper;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then You will want sacrifices offered in righteousness,
burnt and whole offerings; then bulls will be offered on Your altar. (Psalm 51:18-21)
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[That Repentance Is the Remedy of Sin and the Path to God] (Biblical citations from the NIV)
[From the avot de rabi natan, ca. 550 C.E.]
Once as Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai was coming forth from Jerusalem, Rabbi Joshua followed after him and beheld the Temple in ruins.
"Woe unto us!" Rabbi Joshua cried, "that this, the place where the iniquities of Israel were atoned for, is laid waste!"
"My son," Rabban Yohanan said to him, "be not grieved; we have another atonement as effective as this. And what is it? It is acts of loving-kindness, as it is said, For I desire mercy and not sacrifice."
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In the neighborhood of Rabbi Zera there lived brigands, whom he befriended in the hope that they might repent. But the sages were anoyed. When Rabbi Zera died, the brigands said: Until now we had that [so-and-so] beseech mercy for us. Who will do it for us now? Thus they were led to thinking about the kind of people they were, until they resolved to repent. From the Talmud, ca. 500 C.E.
"Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinner in His ways" (Psalm 25:8). He shows them the way of repentance.
When Wisdom is asked, "The sinner--what is to be his punishment?" Wisdom answers, "Misfortune pursues the sinner"(Proverbs 13:21).
When Prophecy is asked, "The sinner--what is to be his punishment?" Prophecy replies, "The soul who sins is the one who will die"(Ezekiel 18:4).
When Torah is asked, "The sinner--what is to be his punishment?" Torah replies, "Let him bring a guilt offering, and his sin will be expiated for him."
When the Holy One is asked, "The sinner--what is to be his punishment?" the Holy One rpelies, "Let him vow [promise] penitence, and his sin will be expiated for him."
With regard to this, the psalm says, "Therefore He instructs sinners in His ways." He shows sinners the way to resolve on penitence.From the [Jerusalem] Talmud, ca. 425 C.E.
"Open to me, my sister" (Song of Songs 5:2). According to Rabbi Yose, the Holy One said to Israel: My children, open to Me in penitence an opening as msall as they eye of a needle, and I shall make an opening in Me for you so wide that through it wagons and coaches could enter.From the Midrash on the Song of Songs, fifth century, C.E.
Rabbi Yohanan said: Great is penitence, for it tears up the decree issued against a man.From the Talmud, ca. 500 C.E.
Rabbi Levi said: The power of repentance is so great that it soars up all the way to the throne of glory, as is said, "Return, O Israel, [all the way] to the Lord your God" (Hosea 14:2).From the Talmud, ca. 500 C.E.
Rabbi Abbahu taught: In the place where the penitents stand, even the wholly righteous are not permitted to stand, for Scripture promises, "Peace, peace, to those far and near"(Isaiah 57:19)--first to him who had been far [i.e., the penitent], and then to him who has been near all along [the devout].From en ya-akov, a sixteenth century C.E. compilation of passages from the Talmud by Jacob ben Solomon ibn Habib.
Rabbi Abbahu bar Ze'era said: Great is repentance, for it preceded the creation of the world, as is said, "Before the mountains were born . . . You turn men back [to contrition]" (Psalm 90:2-3)From the Talmud, ca. 500 C.E.
Related Pages
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Beauty and Structure in Sabbath Worship
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