In the times of the Great Temple in Jerusalem, we were
required to offer two sacrifices, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Our sages tell us, the world did not reach its purpose for
creation until the sanctuary was built in the desert, and the sacrifices were
being offered. The entire purpose for creation, is fulfilled in the
sacrifices!!!
These daily sacrifices, unlike other ones that were
partially offered and burned on the altar, and partially eaten by the priests
and owners, these daily ones were burnt entirely on the altar.
Nowadays, until the Messiah comes, while we do not have a
Grand Temple and therefore prohibited from making animal sacrifices, our sages
derived from the instructions in the Bible, that our prayers, take the place of
the obligation to offer these daily sacrifices.
What is a sacrifice? Why and how do they fulfill the
ultimate reason for creation?
In Hebrew, the word for sacrifice is to “draw near.” The
objective in coming to Jerusalem, and up the Temple mount, in total purity, and
be in the holiest place on the face of this earth, where G-dliness was revealed
on the highest and clearest levels, was to inject our psyche, and our entire
being, into this mindset and pure G-dly reality of existence that was in the
Temple. “To see, and to be seen, by G-d.”
The ultimate objective in bringing a sacrifice is to elevate
and transform in every way possible, the life and the possessions, of the one
making the sacrifice to a more spiritual and G-dly being.
Prayer is meant to serve the same purpose. To bring closer,
mentally, emotionally, and practically, the one praying; with G-d. What G-d
wants out of this physical world, is to be invited and introduced into every
aspect of this physical and mundane existence. (for our own good)
Sacrifices, and prayer today are at the core of
fulfilling this intention.
The most basic and crass level of fulfilling this goal is when
a person realizes the only one who can help, and is always there, and nothing
stands in His way, is G-d. When a person stands before G-d and requests wisdom,
recovery, greater luck in earning a living, or whatever it may be, this
recognition that it is G-d, who is the ultimate source of everything, although
triggered by selfish needs, accomplishes in a small degree, and an important
step towards G-dliness and spirituality in one’s life.
A much deeper and higher motivation for coming before G-d,
is for no personal reasons at all. There is no selfish incentive. Like the
difference between entering a relationship thinking, what can “I” gain out of
this? Or, being in love, yearning to always be attached with, my children, my
spouse, my true friend, for reasons that transcend the “I”. “Unconditionally.”
When both partners in a relationship are in it, each one for
themselves there is a very superficial connection and is bound to fall apart
sooner or later. Such a relationship is based on the needs of each partner and
is always rocky and never truly enriching.
In order for a person to be there for each other, whether
its morning or afternoon or evening, whether the sun is shining or its raining,
there must be the kind of love that goes deeper than just doing it for me, for
selfish reasons, because I, was forced to do it.
Only the kind of relationship that has developed and
matured, through hard work, into an unconditional love for the other, and is
not on a time clock, will this love overcome difficulties and setbacks.
When a person prays before G-d, in the morning and afternoon
of each day, with this complete and total loyalty and subservience to G-d, like
the sacrifice that was totally burnt on the altar, because G-d is good, G-d is
the source of all kindness, this creates by virtue of one’s own unconditional
approach, the reciprocal response from G-d, which is complete and total in the
person’s life, and then, even the most physical and inconsequential needs of
the person are addressed, automatically.
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