Vayikra: the unseen

The sacrificial rite is the enemy of science. At the end of tractate    Succah we have : 

בְּמִרְיָם בַּת בִּילְגָּה שֶׁהֵמִירָה דָּתָהּ וְהָלְכָה וְנִשֵּׂאת לְסַרְדְּיוֹט אֶחָד מִמַּלְכֵי יְווֹנִים כְּשֶׁנִּכְנְסוּ יְווֹנִים לַהֵיכָל הָיְתָה מְבַעֶטֶת בְּסַנְדָּלָהּ עַל גַּבֵּי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְאָמְרָה לוֹקוּס לוֹקוּס עַד מָתַי אַתָּה מְכַלֶּה מָמוֹנָן שֶׁל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאִי אַתָּה עוֹמֵד עֲלֵיהֶם בִּשְׁעַת הַדְּחָק

 Miriam, the daughter of a member of the Bilga watch, who apostatized and went and married a soldier [sardeyot] serving in the army of the Greek kings. When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary, she entered with them and was kicking with her sandal on the altar and said: Wolf, wolf [lokos], until when will you consume the property of the Jewish people, and yet you do not stand with them when they face exigent circumstances?

The ritual slaughter and burning of animal flesh ( or meal) is a terrible waste of resources and time  to the rational mind. Every year, as we extirpate the leavened in preparation  for Passover, we read the description of various voluntary and compulsory offerings of cattle, sheep, goats, birds and matzoh. 

This conflict with the scientific view  involves a difference in the  perceptions of the dimensionality of the world.  Science  is about knowledge, what can be sensed. This has changed over time.  Science, in the usual sense of the word,  has become the knowledge that is not "common sense";  it is philosophy about things that are measured with instruments ( the fancier the better).  Galileo is credited with fathering science through his belief that the stars, as viewed through the telescope,  represented a greater truth than  ideas of celestial forces that are allowed in its absence. Science has gone on to discover many invisible phenomena: electromagnetism, atomic energy, neutrinos, DNA, loss aversion.  These "new" things- that have always existed -  are the stuff of science. 

 Accepting the sacrificial rite requires  a belief that there is more to the the universe than has been, or will be, discovered. Our lives depend upon other, undiscovered forces. The monotheist places these forces under the control of the single Gd. It is fitting to acknowledge our gratitude  and respect by the performance of  rituals. 

The Exodus and the receipt of the Law echo Genesis.  The Hebrews are expelled from Egypt.  Although this is accompanied by the liberation from slavery,  all of the emancipated Israelites had all been born in Egypt. It was a banishment from the only place these people had known. (Consider Liberia after the American Civil War).  The receipt of the commandments is an act of acquiring knowledge, like the ingestion from the tree of knowledge. ( The commandments at Sinai, instructions for following Gd's plan  are an undoing of  the rebellion in Eden).  

Both episodes are followed by drive toward ritual. Abel immediately sacrifices sheep, Cain offers his product: meal. The Israelites create the Golden Calf.  Was the urge to ritual the consequence of eating from the tree of knowledge? Perhaps enlightenment  leads to a comprehension of the  higher dimensionality of the world and our dependence on forces beyond imagination and hence to the sacrificial rite. 

The parsha deals with two kinds of sacrifices.  The first (olah and shlamim) are voluntary.  These could be expressions of gratitude for the forces that are sensed, but not seen.  The Torah then goes on to describe offerings given for transgressions (chatoth)  or guilt with shame ( asham).  These obligatory offerings are a recognition that human actions can damage an substance that only our spiritual sense can detect.  They affirm that Gd is offended when we fail to have the courage to keep our promises.   They offer an entry to the process of repair.  

What do our actions mean?  Which actions are meaningful? We can not understand everything.