Sacrifices Then and Now

North Miami Beach, Florida 3-25-2000 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.

SACRIFICES THEN AND NOW

We have just finished reading the weekly portion of Torah in Leviticus the
sacrifices detailed by Moses requiring certain behaviors of the Hebrew
people. The High Priest and his sons were designated to slaughter animals
and "dash" the blood against the sides of the altar. This was certainly
much more human (e) than killing children to appease the gods.

The subject changed to the way we sacrifice today. In a narrow sense we
make sacrifices of ourselves when we pray. We give up something of our
identity when we talk one on one to God. Aaron and his sons were required
to eat the burnt offerings if they were not completely consumed. These
priests were necessary as intermediaries between the people and God. Today,
Jews pray either together or separately and have no priest or minister to
assist the prayer to Heaven.

Now, all this presupposes that an omniscient and omnipotent Deity exists
who demands fealty from subjects here on earth. It certainly would behoove
us to behave the way we have been instructed in order to please this God,
this Father in Heaven. It definitely would be incumbent upon us to do this
if we believed in an afterlife and a continued existence in that Heaven.

I have problems with sacrifices of any kind other than those that are
selfless on the behalf of other people - giving of what I have in order that
their lives might be better. I know of no cause that exists today that
would be important enough for me to relinquish living in order to support
it. This makes me think of the Monks who doused themselves with gasoline
and set themselves on fire in order to change conditions under which they
did not want to live. This is extreme and I know there are some who reach a
point where such a statement makes sense to them. It does not for me.

I once did a study of the conditions in Monasteries and Nunneries, places I
considered kind of utopian institutions - their longevity being a case in
point. A Mother Superior explained that the job of monastics is to pray. I
could not then and still cannot understand how people can believe that
prayer can do what sacrifices of old were intended to do. But that is my
problem. What do you think? Carol's Evaluation: 9.5 out of 10.