In this week’s parsha the torah continues discussing korbanos (sacrifices)…

The Torah (7;1-2) relates that Hashem told Moshe to command Aharon and his sons to offer sacrifices.

We could learn a great lesson regarding peace from the commandment to offer sacrifices…

The Medresh Tanchuma relates that the nations of the world approached Bilaam and asked why Hashem only commanded the jews to offer sacrifices. Bilaam answered by saying that sacrifices are all about peace, and since the jews are the only ones who accepted the torah, they are the only ones who were commanded to offer sacrifices.

Firstly, how are sacrifices all about peace? The sacrifices served as atonement for our sins (see: 1;4)!?!

Secondly, why did Bilaam need to mention that sacrifices are all about peace? He could have simply responded by saying that the jews were the only nation who accepted the torah! What was he adding by mentioning that fact?

The Sifrei (Devarim, 343) relates that Hashem offered the torah to all the nations of the world prior to the nation of Israel. Upon the offer they all asked, “What’s written in it?”, to which they eventually refused. When He offered the nation of Israel, however, they responded: “We will do and we will listen.”

There’s a huge difference between our response and the response of the other nations. By asking “What’s written in it?” the nations of the world were in effect saying that they would only accept the torah if there was something in it for them to gain. They were unwilling to give up their way of life and change themselves. The nation of Israel, however, responded “We will do and we will listen.” Meaning, the nation of Israel were willing to give themselves up completely in order to establish a connection with Hashem.

Many commentators explain that while bringing a sacrifice one was supposed to think to themselves that they should really be the one getting slaughtered. Meaning, one was supposed to “come clean” in front of Hashem and accept the challenge to work on themselves in order to fix their flaws. As a result, the sacrifices would create peace between Hashem and the nation of Israel, for we showed willingness to give up part of ourselves for Him. The sacrifices served as a symbol between us and Hashem that we were willing to part with our rights and desires in order to join forces with Him.

Now we could understand why Bilaam mentioned the fact that sacrifices are all about peace…Peace could only be achieved when a person is willing to sacrifice part of himself. The nations of the world showed that they were unwilling to give up part of themselves by asking “What’s written in it?” Therefore, it could be that Bilaam stated that sacrifices are all about peace in order to tell the nations of the world that they are unable to offer sacrifices to Hashem because they’re unwilling to surrender some of their desires and therefore unable to achieve peace with any outside sources.

Interestingly, it should be noted that Aharon was loved and pursued peace (Pirkei Avos, 1;12) more than anyone in the world. However, why then did Hashem tell Moshe to command Aharon and urge him so strongly to offer sacrifices? Aharon and the sacrifices both stood for peace–what was the need to command Aharon so strongly to fulfill this mitzvah? I think the torah is teaching us that peace is always difficult to create (even if your Aharon) because it requires one to give over part of themselves. Therefore, we should all constantly go to any lengths necessary until we achieve peace.

Summary: The korbanot (sacrifices) created peace between the nation of Israel and Hashem. How so? When one brought a sacrifice they were supposed to realize that really they should be the ones getting slaughtered for their sins. This would cause the nation to realize that they need to work on themselves in order to fix their flaws. Therefore, the sacrifices showed how the nation of Israel were always willing to change themselves and give up their desires in order to connect with Hashem. Similarly, the nation of Israel showed willingness to give over part of themselves when they told Hashem upon being offered the Torah, “We will do and we will listen.” The other nations of the world, however, responded by asking “What’s written in it?” because they were unwilling to give up their way of life and change themselves (Devarim, Sifrei: 343). We should all learn from here how peace could only be achieved through sacrifice and be willing to go to any lengths necessary in order to achieve it.