- Messiah and Sacrifice
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- Moshe Ben-Chaim
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- Reader: When the Messiah is here, what will be the purpose to
the temple sacrifices?
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- Mesora: Read Ramban's commentary
on Leviticus, 1:9, and see our article on "Sacrifice"
in the "Newly Posted Articles" section on our homepage. This
will explain the purpose of sacrifice according to both Ramban and
Maimonides.
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- The advent of the messiah does not affect the significance of
sacrifice. It actually enables us once again to offer them. So I am
not clear as to why you ask if sacrifice will have purpose then.
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- If you ask that in that era, idolatry is abolished, then "why
offer sacrifice?" (according. to Maimonides' view) I would answer
that although idolatry is gone, we still must commemorate how wrong
are the false ideas of lost cultures. Although the culture is lost,
the seeds of that culture which brought forth ideas as idolatry are in
each man. We therefore require constant recognition of those emotions
in man which are destructive.
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