For the modern reader, the Torah’s sacrificial order is among the least understood aspects of biblical religion. The legal structures and religious assumptions underlying these practices often seem alien to the contemporary religious spirit. Yet the effort to understand what these rites meant to our ancestors and the religious insights gained in that search still have much to say to Jewish spiritual life today.

Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman (Ramban – Spain 13th century) posits one of the more significant explanations of the religious-psychological significance of the offering of sacrifices (Leviticus 1:7):

It is far more fitting to accept the reason for the offerings which scholars say, namely that since man’s deeds are accomplished through thought, speech and action, therefore God commanded that when man sins and brings an offering, he should lay his hands upon it in contrast to the [evil] deed [committed]. He should confess his sin verbally in contrast to his [evil] speech, and he should burn the inwards and the kidneys [of the offering] in fire because they are the instruments of thought and desire in the human being. He should burn the legs [of the........

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