Olah Tamid u'Minchah
So let me get this straight: Am I correct in my understanding that the Olah Tamid, also known as the Olat Ha-Tamid (Daily Offering), and the Minchah (Daily Twilight Offering) were offered to HaShem completely and were not eaten, even in part, by anyone?
In a world in which not everyone had (or has) enough to eat, this was a huge waste of food. Did this wastefulness bother the ancient and/or later sages? Was the bal tashchit (wastefulness) prohibition (greatly expanded from D'varim/Deuteronomy 19:20 [Parshat Shoftim]'s prohibition against cutting down fruit trees when conducting a siege) their response?
In a world in which not everyone had (or has) enough to eat, this was a huge waste of food. Did this wastefulness bother the ancient and/or later sages? Was the bal tashchit (wastefulness) prohibition (greatly expanded from D'varim/Deuteronomy 19:20 [Parshat Shoftim]'s prohibition against cutting down fruit trees when conducting a siege) their response?
posted by Shira Salamone at 3:52 PM
5 Comments:
2 lambs per day on the scale of an entire nation? I think you are overstating the waste.
Quite possibly. But I guess that's what comes of having grown up in a family whose budget was tight enough that we were rationed one glass of orange juice per day until I was well into elementary school.
First of all, God said to do it so it was done. If He was concerned about it being a waste then He wouldn't have commanded it.
Secondly, not the entire animal was burned. The skin and bones were the property of the priests that offered it and could be used for any purpose.
Finally, the sacrifice was offered from funds raised from the entire nation. Yes, a family budget might be tight but the national budget should be able to afford this. When we see how much national governments nowadays waste, this is downright thrifty.
"not the entire animal was burned. The skin and bones were the property of the priests that offered it and could be used for any purpose."
Thanks for the information Garnel. That makes me feel a bit better.
"When we see how much national governments nowadays waste, this is downright thrifty."
:)
Sacrifices to regional gods were a stable of ANE religions. The fact that the Israelites were to offer two lambs on behalf of the nation is pretty small, I'm pretty sure indigenous people offer much more severe sacrifices to their gods.
Interestingly, while we claim that the Torah has no timeline and is eternal, 2 lambs/day in settled Canaan was no big deal... Not spread across the 11 land owning tribes...
However, during 40 years in the desert, the idea that 30,000 lambs were available for sacrifice as a non-food seems a little far fetched.
Post a Comment
<< Home