Maimonides stakes out a very bold and controversial position when it comes to animal sacrifices. In the Guide for the Perplexed (III:32), he explains that this commandment was only given to wean the Jews away from physical worship. While much ink has been spilled on the pros and cons of this position, I simply want to note that one of the main problems associated with animal sacrifices is based on a false premise.
This premise, assumed by most in their understanding of sacrifices is that those that give them feel they are somehow benefiting God. And one doesn’t have to be a philosopher on the level of Maimonides to know that this can’t be right. After all, the very essence of God implies that He lacks nothing. And yet the phrasing of the commandment in more than one place, which speaking about a pleasing fragrance to God or his bread can lead someone to that conclusion.
Such implications notwithstanding, in what may well have been R. Eliyahu Dessler’s most brilliant essay, he points out that when someone gives a gift, it is actually the giver who derives much more benefit than the one who receives it. R. Dessler continues to explain that giving is a way to intermingle ourselves with others, by expanding who we are and building a more intimate relationship with someone else. What we own is always a part of ourselves and by giving it to someone else, part of us becomes a part of them as well.
It is true that God can’t really benefit from anything that we give him. But it is equally true that the most important way a person can create a relationship with God is nonetheless by giving to Him.
Hence, sacrifices are God’s way of allowing us to find a way to give to Him. Were it not commanded, it would be an aberration or even worse. But once it is commanded, it is elevated and becomes a way that humans can feel better about this paradoxical giving to the One who gave us everything to begin with.
Though the sacrificial rite is not currently an option, we should realize how important it is to find substitutes. Perhaps, “sacrificing” time and money to that which is holy partially accomplishes what more tangible sacrifices were once able to accomplish.
At the same time, we should realize that the traditional yearning for a return to the Temple and its sacrifices is not about the sacrifices. It is about coming closer to God in the most effective way that humans have. And that is something worth yearning for.