Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “There are people whose whole approach to religious life is to be crushed and mangled, torn and cut.”

In detailing the laws of blemished animals, the Torah says, “That which is crushed or mangled, torn or cut, you shall not offer to God, neither shall you do thus in your land” (Lev. 22:24).

There are people whose whole approach to religious life is to be crushed and mangled, torn and cut.

These people feel that the more they are downtrodden and oppressed, the more exalted and holy they become, and the greater their ability becomes to draw close to God.

In the above verse, God says that the opposite is true; not only should such an animal not be offered to God, but “neither shall you do thus in your land.”

God does not want the crushed and mangled – neither inside nor outside.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz