29/30 Acharei-Kedoshim: Day 2 (Monday) | Azazel, Hashem and Animal Sacrifice

3 Iyar 5786 AM | 1 AVE.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by Your Spirit and invited the nations to share in the richness of Your Word. We thank You for the people and state of Israel, including the Messiah, our First Fruits, through whom the harvest of life has begun.

Today is the sixteenth day of the Omer according to the minority Sadducean and Essene counts, which is 2 weeks and 2 days.

May the Spirit of Truth prepare my heart for the revelation of the 50th day.

6:40 AM EDT in Albany. 

Jonathan Writes:

The reading for this morning is Leviticus 16:25-17:7.

This is the link to the Daily Chumash with Rashi at Chabad.

The Daily Wisdom from the Lubavitcher Rebbe is titled "The Power of Sacrifice." 

The video today is The State of the Jewish Vegan Movement with Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz | Shamayim.

The Rebbe is frank: "Offering up animal sacrifices to G‑d seems to go against the Torah’s respect for animal life.... Unlike other commandments, there is no possible 'ulterior motive' for sacrifices. Since they fly blatantly in the face of logic, no self-interest can be involved. Clearly, this is a much greater state of self-nullification than that required to fulfill any of the Torah’s other commandments."  

But is the Rebbe completely correct on this point? Is it possible that animal sacrifices "fly blatantly in the face of logic" because G-d's apparent desire for them is a deception of Azazel? Doesn't it take enough self-nullification to love our neighbors as ourselves without needing to go the extra "self-nullification mile" by perpetuating animal sacrifice?

Consider Leviticus 17:7 from today's reading:

"They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons to which they have prostituted themselves. This will be a permanent statute for them for the generations to come." (MSB)

The Torah teaches that Jews once had a problem prostituting themselves to demons with animal sacrifices. What if the "Lord of Industrial Livestock Profit" in today's globalized meat production system is none other than Azazel - or even Satan? If it's not a kosher animal product, was it slain as a sacrifice to the idol of global market security? If it is a kosher animal product, is it compliant with contemporary flexitarian, vegetarian, and vegan halakha, enroute to net zero 2060? What does Hashem really want from today's observant Jews, and what is a demonic deception about what Hashem really wants?