It's All Up To Your Insides
When was the last time you brought an animal sacrifice?
In the opening of the third book of the Torah we are introduced to the Mitzvah of sacrifices. We know the Torah is eternal and its application is at all times.
The opening verse of the Torah portion is "when a person will sacrifice himself". It should have read, when a person among you will sacrifice. Our Sages teach that the sacrifice needs to come from "themselves'. We have to offer "of the animal" - ourselves as the sacrifice.
In common Chasidic philosophy, this is understood that we need to offer up "of" the animal within ourselves, our desires and temptations, to Hashem. While in simple terms that would mean not to give in to our desires and temptations, there is something deeper here.
If offering up the animal is through not engaging in our unhealthy desires and temptations the animal is not part of the sacrifice, it is left out of the sacrifice. And while that is truly a major sacrifice it is not "of the animal" but in spite of the animal.
I would like to propose that "of the animal" means that we actually need to bring the animal along with us in our sacrifice - we need to offer up the animal inside of us.
The way we do that in 2026 is very clear. We need to have compassion on the animal within us. To recognize that the temptations, anxiety, frustrations, triggers and all of the other difficult emotions are part of the Divine plan.
When we can comfortably do that, (not that we are giving ourselves a pass) we actually are able to calm the body and nervous system and bring it along with us as part of the offering.
An analogy that comes to mind is a child who throws a temper in the supermarket when you tell them they can't have their 14th candy. In the olden days, we'd yank the child by the hand and say something like "how dare you behave this way in public", or threaten them with no more candy, ever in their lives. Much good that did! The child just cried more. The reason is that we weren't really talking to the child or their brain. It was all offline.
What we need to do in the moment is recognize that the animal within - the nervous system and animal soul is completely activated. It needs love, compassion and soothing. We don't have to give in to the child to calm the child. The child actually doesn't really want us to give in. The child wants our care and to be seen.
When we give the child the care, he/she are ready to come along with us to wherever that needs to be.
Can we do that for ourselves in our moments of activation? Can we do that when we are triggered? Can we do that when we have heightened emotions?
If we can, we are in a position to truly offer that part of us in our journey of life.
We can even speak to the animal and help it understand that serving G-d is in its interest. Our nervous system can understand that reacting to the inner emotions ultimately doesn't serve us well.
This is a true level of mastery but one that our abundance and ease of materialism combined with our current understanding of the brain and neuro plasticity has never allowed for us to do before.
It truly is messianic.
Happy Sacrificing!
Good Shabbos!
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