Why sacrifices?

It's a serious question in Judaism, and of course, although they haven't been practiced for 2,000 years since the destruction of the Second Temple, its question is still worth on asking.

And there are many, many answers given by the great rabbis, most famous being won by Maimonides.

But today I want to explore another explanation given by the early 15th century Jewish thinker of Yosef Albo in his Seif Haikarim, his book of principles.

Albo's theory took as its starting point, not sacrifices, but two other very interesting questions.

Why? After the flood, did God permit human beings to eat meat?

Initially, neither human beings nor animals have been meat eaters, according to Baratius.

So what, after the flood, caused God, as it were, to change his mind?

The second, what was wrong with the first act of sacrifice,

Cain's offering of some of the fruits of the soil?

You remember that Cain in the biblical story offered some vegetables or grain as a sacrifice, whereas Abel offered animals.

God's rejection of Cain's offering led directly to the first murder when Cain killed Abel.

What was this state in the difference

between Kane and Abel as to how to bring a gift to God? This is Albo's theory. Killing

animals for food is inherently wrong. It involves taking the life of a sentient being to

satisfy our needs.

Kane knew this.

He believed there was a strong kinship between man and the animals.

That's why he offered not an animal sacrifice but a vegetable one.

His error, according to Albo, is he should have brought fruit, not vegetables.

He should have brought the highest, not the lowest

of non-meat produce. Abel, by contrast, believed that there was a qualitative difference between man

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