Blood Sacrafice
In Parashat Tzav we are instructed not to eat the blood of any bird or animal. This is more than just a ban, it is fundamental; when God made a covenant with Noah, he instructed him not to eat any meat that still has its lifeblood in it. Moses also returned to this subject in Deuteronomy:
“Be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life and you must not eat the life with the meat. You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.”
What is so wrong with eating blood? There are two possible interpretations which both have merit. Maimonides suggests that the ban has to do with idolatry and he brings two almost identical verses as proof points:
I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from the people (Lev. 17:10)
I will set My face against that man who engages in Moloch worship and his family and will cut him off from his people (Lev. 20:5)
“Set My face against” is only used in these two contexts in the whole Torah. In Maimonides' view, eating blood is forbidden because of its association with idolatry worship.
Nahmanides on the other hand believed that the ban had to do with human nature. We are affected by what we eat. Nahmanides believed that eating blood would make us cruel and animal-like.
It turns out that both are correct. Human sacrifice was very prevalent at the time that the Torah was given. Mayan, Aztec, Greek cultures to name just a few believed in human sacrifice - the blood that gave life had the power to appease the Gods through sacrifice.
Humans, in time of war band together and are willing to self-sacrifice for the sake of the group. These types of emotions appear at times of conflict. They are not the cause of the conflict however they invest it with profound feelings - dread, awe and the willingness to self-sacrifice - this makes it sacred to us. They help explain why it is so easy to mobilize people by conjuring up the spectre of an external enemy.
War is a destructive and self destructive activity. Humans still thrill at the prospect of shedding blood.
Maimonides was correct to see in the blood sacrifice a central idolatrous practice. Nahmanides was equally correct to see it as a symptom of human cruelty. We now sense the profound wisdom of the law forbidding the eating of blood. Only thus could human beings be gradually cured of the deeply ingrained instinct, deriving from a world of predators and prey in which the choice is to kill or be killed.
Evolutionary psychology has taught us about these genetic residues from earlier times - because they are not rational - can not be cured by reason alone, but only by ritual, by strict prohibition, and habituation. The contemporary world continues to be scared by violence and terror. Sadly the ban against blood sacrifice is still relevant today. The instinct against which it is a protest - sacrificing life to exorcize fear - still lives on.
This essay is based of an essay from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks published in Covenant and Conversation - Leviticus.
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