Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio

When you make a mistake, it can be hard to figure out how to move forward. Sometimes there is an easy fix—you apologize to the person you hurt, or you repay money you stole. But what if you did something, and you feel terrible, but the only ones hurt were you and God? What if, by mistake, you lit the Havdalah candle before Shabbat was actually over? Or what if you ate חָמֵץ (hametz) on Pesah without realizing it?

The Torah tells us that, in those situations, we are supposed to bring a sacrifice called a חַטָּאת (hattat), which “cleans” away the mistake and helps us move forward. That’s because when we do something wrong, we have a strong urge to do something to make it right. Feeling bad or just saying sorry doesn’t always feel like enough. And that is part of the special power of קָרְבָּנוֹת (korbanot, sacrifices).

So what do we do in a world without korbanot? Is there still a way for us to do something in cases like these to help us move forward? Other people asked this and they came up with a bunch of ideas. Here’s one:

What an amazing idea! If you think about it, a person bringing a korban would mainly have experienced it as spending money (on the animal), and then giving it over to someone else (the kohen) to do something important with it (sacrifice it). Instead, we can take money and dedicate it to something meaningful that will help other people. That may help us feel like we can start over.

And the number 18? Well, 18 is written as י"ח, which has the same letters as חַי (hai), the word for alive. This act of tzedakah helps us contribute life to the world! Even today, many people give tzedakah in multiples of 18.

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