hillula: barbeque or sacrifice?

If I was still clutching at the idea that Judaism was a singular culture, unique among world religions, I lost my grasp today. The past few days have been the celebration of Hillula in Netivot, an annual pilgrimage day when people come from all over the country to pray at the tomb of the revered late rabbi and miracle-worker, the Baba Sale. I saw the devout among us in action--throwing candles into a bonfire, tying a red string around their wrists, buying blessed bottles of water and arak, touching the tomb and praying intently.

I was volunteering, sitting in the ambulance next to the tomb with Shlomi, the driver, listening to Galgalaz* through one ear. Through the other ear I heard a Shas (an ultra-orthodox religious party) campaign song, lyrics set to the primal sounds of Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ la Vida Loca”. Picture the young, black-hat yeshiva guys, stripped down to their four-cornered tzit-tzit undergarments, dancing on top of the van, covering the loudspeakers with plastic when the rain started to fall. This is the kind of excitement Jews can’t display publicly in America, or at least I’ve never seen the likes of it. And this was only one of many vans filled with sticker-friendly Bretslevvers, gregarious Chabadniks, vegan-hippie Carlebachers, and the rest-of-spectrum Israelis who needed to made the trek to ask a special favor. (I realize that I’ve been in Israel a while when I started to identify the different black-hat crews).

But the main reason I take to the keyboard is the sheep. There are Jews who still sacrifice animals!!! Or so one could say. The sheep were dirty, and stupidly tied to a tree in the parking lot. A Carlebacher with a nice rasta hat gave it some grass, but otherwise they only received attention from some little boys, who couldn’t really figure out how to engage them.

Shlomi told me that when someone moves into a new home or requests something from Hashem, they often sacrifice (la-asot korban, he said) a sheep. This baffled me. I was taught that Jews could only make sacrifices at the Temple, on the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, and they can only be made by the high priests. Since Jews don’t have control over this area, we cannot build the Temple and not make sacrifices, and in 70 CE when the Second Temple was destroyed, prayer replaced sacrifice as devotion to Hashem.

According to yeshivanik friend Feivel, to consider something a real sacrifice it's a really involved process--the high priests have to be pure in their special clothes, anointed in oil, libations of wine have to be made, and it has to be done atthe right time of day, month, year and the right words (it's all in Leviticus, but I don't have a copy on me). Basically, if you slaughter a sheep to dedicate your new home, it's just a barbeque. Thoughts?


*The toe-tapping-est radio station I’ve ever heard. They play the best American and Israeli hits nonstop, and they throw in a few British or French songs too. Try to get it off the Internet!