Animal sacrifices were to ancient Jews what prayer services are to their modern descendants:
the most popular expression of divine worship. About 150 of the Torah's 613 laws deal with
sacrifices. Maimonides, the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher, believed that animal sacrifices
were instituted to wean people from the ancient and horrific practice of human sacrifice. In fact,
when God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac (Genesis 22:11-13), the patriarch immediately
sacrificed a ram instead.
The most famous sacrifice was the one offered on Passover, and known as the Paschal lamb.
It commemorated God's deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian slavery. A Jew would bring a
lamb to the "Temple/Beit ha-Mikdash in Jerusalem, and give it to a priest, who would slaughter
the animal, sprinkle its blood upon the alter, and burn its entails and fat. The remainder would
be returned to the person who had donated the lamb. The animal was then taken back to the
donor's family which would eat the lamb, along with matzah, bitter herbs and other foods.
The festive meal was interspersed with lengthy discussions of the Exodus from Egypt. The roasted
shankbone that Jews still place on the Seder plate on Passover commemorates this Paschal lamb.
In general, some parts of the sacrificed animal were reserved for the priests to eat; others were given
to the person who brought the sacrifice. One kind of sacrifice, however, involved the animal being
wholly burned, and came to be known in English as a holocaust.
Only kosher, domesticated animals---cattle, sheep, goats, and birds---could be used for sacrifices.
The rabbis explained: "The bull flees from the lion, the sheep from the wolf, the goat from the tiger."
Said the Holy One, blessed be He, 'You shall not bring before Me such as pursue, but only such
as are pursued' (Vayikra Rabbah 27). By law, the sacrificed animals had to be without blemish
(Leviticus 3:6 and 22:17-25)
Shalom
