Qorbanot at Lent

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Sunday, March 23. 2014

This season of Lent naturally has me thinking about the theme of sacrifice. I wondered when Jews gave up ritual sacrifice, and was interested to learn that the tradition was to eat the sacrificed animal - sharing it with the priest who no doubt got the filet, and to let the guts burn to ashes. In Christianity, Christ is the unblemished Lamb of God.

Those are the roots of Christ's instructions about what we now call "Communion." "This is my flesh, take of it and eat."

Qorbanot: Sacrifices and Offerings

Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, Religion at 11:01 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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Very interesting, BD. I wasn't uncomfortable with the idea of body and blood of Christ in communion but was more ignorant about it. A smart alec I used to work with (who it turns out was a non-practicing Jew) used to kid me about Christians' "ritualistic cannibalism" and I because of my ignorance of the roots of the sacrament, I had no retort.

Now that I go to a Methodist church, I have to come to terms with unleavened bread and wine being translated to Hawaiian bread and grape juice. It doesn't really matter - after all it's symbolism - but coming up in an Episcopal church, it is different.

#1 mudbug on 2014-03-23 11:49 (Reply)

"Hawaiian bread and grape juice."

Hey! I'll take that over my Presbyterian oyster crackers and grape juice any day.

I did know something about "eating the sacrificial lamb" but didn't have the courage to stand up to an ignorant professor in college who called Christian communion "cannibalistic." I wish I had stood up to him; but, he could have easily failed me for being a "smartass."

#1.1 Charles on 2014-03-23 15:18 (Reply)

See how important Maggie's is! Where else would you find information like this out?

#1.1.1 mudbug on 2014-03-23 15:50 (Reply)

Kaproet is strictly speaking a sacrifice still done in very religious circles during the ten days of reckoning between rosh hashana and yom kippur. A chicken is swing over the head of the person to absorb his or her sins. Then the chicken's neck is cut and the bird is inverted in a funnel. As far as I know, this bird is not eaten.
I saw this done next to the shuk (outdoor market) in Jerusalem.
N

#2 ns on 2014-03-23 12:55 (Reply)

The chickens are eaten - or given to the poor.
Many people do the same ritual with money, which is then donated to charity.

One key aspect of the Jewish (animal) sacrifices was placing one's hands on the live animal's head and leaning one's body on the animal's back... this created an identification with the animal. "It is my blood that should be spilled for what I did."

That is the motivation behind the Kapparot ritual as well.

#2.1 Ben David on 2014-03-24 05:35 (Reply)

Interesting thoughts, Bird Dog. Wine, grape juice, oyster crackers, Hawaiian bread, or the little unleavened tidbits we use at our church. The point is that Christ simply asked us to "do this in remembrance of me." He didn't say turn this upper room into a monument or a cathedral; He didn't say make this last supper some sort of talismanic ritual. He simply said, when you lift this cup and take this bread, remember what your sins cost. All the food and drink in the world will not sustain us if we do not partake of it. He gave his life to sustain us and He simply asks us to partake of Him, to make Him our sustenance.

#3 Ralph Kinney Bennett on 2014-03-23 16:10 (Reply)

Jews for Jesus once came and put on a Passover seder for our church. As it was explained, the ties between the seder ritual, the Last Supper (which was of course a seder), and Jesus' death and atonement are in fact quite amazing when you view the Last Supper through Jewish eyes.

#4 Jim on 2014-03-23 17:50 (Reply)

Uhh... an organization called Jews for Jesus is not really giving you anything "through Jewish eyes".

There certainly is no "Jewish" view of Jesus' death and elevation to godhead since we don't believe anything special happened after Jesus was killed - together with thousands of other Jewish rebels against the Romans.

From the historical perspective, there is nothing "amazing" about parallels with the Passover service: we Jews were here first and Jesus lived as a Jew.... Christians came later and picked and chose what to retain/embroider based on existing Jewish rituals. The "amazing confirmation" of Christian doctrine by Judaism is an optical illusion.

#4.1 Ben David on 2014-03-24 05:43 (Reply)

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Sunday, March 23. 2014

Qorbanot at Lent