Worship is man’s reaction to his experience of the sacred power; it is a response in action, a giving of self, especially by devotion and service, to the transcendent reality upon which man feels himself dependent. Sacrifice and prayer—man’s personal attempt to communicate with the transcendent reality in word or in thought—are the fundamental acts of worship.
Encyclopedia Britannica - Sacrifice
It is, namely, impossible to go suddenly from one extreme to the other: it is therefore according to the nature of man impossible for him suddenly to discontinue everything to which he has been accustomed. The Israelites were commanded to devote themselves to His service... but the custom which was in those days general among all men, and the general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up, consisted in sacrificing animals in those temples which contained certain images, to bow down to those images, and to burn incense before them.
It was in accordance with the wisdom and plan of God, as displayed in the whole Creation, that He did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service; for to obey such a commandment it would have been contrary to the nature of man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used; For this reason God allowed these kinds of service to continue; He transferred to His service that which had formerly served as a worship of created beings, and of things imaginary and unreal, and commanded us to serve Him in the same manner; viz., to build unto Him a temple; comp. "And they shall make unto me a sanctuary" (Exod. 25:8); to have the altar erected to His name; comp. "An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me" (ibid. 20:21); to offer the sacrifices to Him; comp. "If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord" (Lev. 1:2), to bow down to Him and to burn incense before Him. He has forbidden to do any of these things to any other being; comp. "He who sacrifices unto any God, save the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed" (Exod. 22:19); "For thou shalt bow down to no other God" (ibid. 34:14)... By this Divine plan it was effected that the traces of idolatry were blotted out, and the truly great principle of our faith, the Existence and Unity of God, was firmly established
This [Rambam] is rubbish! It is at best dealing offhandedly with a great problem, and at worst an actual defilement of the Lord's altar, to suggest that the purpose of the sacrifices was simply to root out false beliefs from the minds of these wicked fools. Doesn't Scripture say that they are "food of the gift offering, for a pleasing odor?" (Leviticus 3:16).
Behold, when Noah and his three sons came out of the ark – there were no Chaldeans or Egyptians in the world – he offered up sacrifices which pleased God as the Torah states "And the Lord smelled the sweet savor" (Gen. 8:21), and as a result He said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake". Similarly: "and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and the fat parts thereof. And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offerings" (Gen. 4:4), although at that time there was no trace of idolatry in the world...Moreover, the sacrifices are described as: "My sacrifice, my bread for my offering made by fire, for a sweet savor to me" (Num. 28:2). It is unthinkable that they lack any benefit or purpose other than the elimination of idolatry from its foolish followers.
Since the deeds of people are determined by thought, speech and action, God, may He be blessed, commanded that when he sins, he brings a sacrifice and place his hands upon him corresponding to the deed, and confess with his mouth corresponding to the speech, and burn the innards and the kidneys, as they are the instruments of thought and desire. And the limbs [of the sacrifice] correspond to the hands and feet of a person that does all of his work. And he sprinkles the blood on the altar corresponding to the blood of his soul, so that a person think in doing all of this that he sinned to God with his body and his soul, and it is fit for him that his blood be spilled and his body burnt; were it not for the kindness of the Creator, who took an exchange and ransom from him [in] the sacrifice - that its blood be instead of his blood and its soul be instead of his soul.
A korban, an offering to God, is more than an act of violence. It is violence transmuted into something higher; it is God re-shaping a destructive energy. Through bringing offerings to the altar, the fierce passions of the ego are not indulged but controlled and transcended. Animals, valued possessions and markers of wealth, are given selflessly to God, and thus the worshiper learns gradually to overcome narcissism and greed. Animal blood is dashed on the altar, but human blood may not be shed; substitution trains the worshipers to restrain their own innate savagery.
- Rabbi Janet Marder
Once, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, left Jerusalem, and Rabbi Yehoshua followed after him. And he saw the Holy Temple destroyed. Rabbi Yehoshua said: Woe to us, for this is destroyed, the place where all of Israel’s sins are forgiven!
Rabbi Yohanan answered him: My son, do not be distressed, for we have a form of atonement just like it. And what is it? Acts of kindness, as it says (Psalms 89:3), “For I desire kindness, not a well-being offering.”
They were not criticising the institution of sacrifices. They were criticising something as real now as it was in their time. What distressed them to the core of their being was the idea that you could serve God and at the same time act disdainfully, cruelly, unjustly, insensitively or callously toward other people. “So long as I am in God’s good graces, that is all that matters.” That is the thought that made the Prophets incandescent with indignation. If you think that, they seem to say, then you haven’t understood either God or Torah.
The thought that “If I bring a sacrifice to God, He will overlook my other faults” – in effect, the idea that I can bribe the Judge of all the earth – turns a sacred act into a pagan one, and produces precisely the opposite result than the one intended by the Torah. It turns religious worship from a way to the right and the good, into a way of easing the conscience of those who practice the wrong and the bad.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The assertion that crimes against persons are also crimes against God also stands out as the central message of biblical prophets like Amos or Isaiah, and it constitutes a distinctive contribution of the Bible to Western ethics. Leviticus presents this idea, radical for its own time, as the final point in this parashah.
- Torah Women's Commentary, p. 585
מַעֲשֶׂה בְּאִשָּׁה אַחַת שֶׁהֵבִיאָה קֹמֶץ שֶׁל סֹלֶת, וְהָיָה כֹּהֵן מְבַזֶּה עָלֶיהָ, וְאָמַר, רְאוּ מָה הֵן מַקְרִיבוֹת, מַה בָּזֶה לֶאֱכֹל, מַה בָּזֶה לְהַקְרִיב, נִרְאָה לַכֹּהֵן בַּחֲלוֹם אַל תְּבַזֶּה עָלֶיהָ, כְּאִלּוּ נַפְשָׁהּ הִקְרִיבָה. וַהֲרֵי דְבָרִים קַל וָחֹמֶר, וּמַה אִם מִי שֶׁאֵינוֹ מַקְרִיב נֶפֶשׁ כְּתִיב בּוֹ נֶפֶשׁ, מִי שֶׁהוּא מַקְרִיב נֶפֶשׁ, עַל אַחַת כַּמָּה וְכַמָּה כְּאִלּוּ נַפְשׁוֹ הִקְרִיב.
It is told that a woman once brought a handful of flour to the temple as an offering and the priest ridiculed her, saying 'look what the women bring a sacrifice, there's barely anything to eat from this.' God admonished the priest in a dream: 'do not mock her, for it is as if she offered her very life.'