When a man from you brings a sacrifice to God: The fact that the nouns and verbs we herein translate as “sacrifice,” “offering,” “to sacrifice,” and “to offer up” are all derived from the same Hebrew root meaning “drawing close” indicates that the sacrifices are the ultimate experience of closeness to God that we can achieve. When we offer up a sacrifice, we do not merely connect a specific aspect of our personality with a specific aspect of Divinity, as we do when we fulfill any of God’s other commandments, but rather give ourselves away totally to God.
There are two ways in which we can experience a desire to become close to God: either as a result of God’s initiative—which we experience as an unanticipated, Divinely-inspired, sudden desire to cling to Him—or as a result of our own yearning for spirituality.
This notion is reflected in the different ways this verse can be read. Let us first note that the literal order of the words is as follows: “A man, if he offers up from you a sacrifice to God: from the animal, from the cattle or from the flock, offer up your sacrifice.” Thus, if God takes the initiative, we read the verse like this:
If a man: if God, the “Supernal Man”—Draws close: desires to bring us close to Him, then—[There will be] from you a drawing close to God: this will create a reciprocal desire for closeness on our part, which we will experience as our Divine soul drawing us toward God. However, if the relationship does not move beyond God’s initial initiative, it will soon dissipate. The Torah therefore advises, You must bring your sacrifice from animals. In order to ensure this arousal’s permanence and growth, we must also involve our animal soul, for then, our connection with God will not be solely a result of an external influence but of our own efforts, as well.
If we take the initiative, we read the verse as follows: If a man or woman draws close: if we are aroused on our own to become close to God—From you [yourself] a sacrifice to God: we must sacrifice something of our own self; merely slaughtering a physical animal will not in itself change us. We must bring our sacrifice—From the animal: from our own animal self—our materialistic drives, which, like an animal, are interested only in self-gratification, and which slowly lead us astray from the path of spiritual growth. This animal must be slaughtered—the life-blood and excitement must be let out from these activities and sprayed upon the Altar, i.e., transferred to Divine service. Of course, we must to attend to our mundane needs as necessary, but our joy and excitement should be reserved for higher callings. It is only through such commitment and self-sacrifice that we can hope to become a sacrifice for God—a true expression of closeness to God.
