Peace Offerings

(Leviticus 3:1 - 3:17)

"If you are to make a peace offering and are sacrificing to Jehovah cattle from the herd, the animal should be without defect, whether it be male or female.  You should grab the animal by the head and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tabernacle.  Aaron's sons, the priests, will then sprinkle its blood against the sides of the Sacrificial Altar.  As part of the peace offering food should be presented to Jehovah -- the internal organs and the fat connected to them, both kidneys with the fat surrounding them on the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which should be removed with the kidneys.  The priest will place these upon the sacrificed animal burning in the wood fire on top of the altar.  The food offering will produce an aroma very pleasing to Jehovah.

"If your peace offering to Jehovah is an animal of the flock, it should be a male or female without defect.  If you offer a lamb to Jehovah, then you should grab it by the head and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tabernacle.  Aaron's sons, the priests, will then sprinkle its blood against the sides of the Sacrificial Altar.  As part of the peace offering, food should be presented to Jehovah -- the fat of the entire broad tail, cut off at the backbone, the internal organs and the fat connected to them, both kidneys with the fat surrounding them on the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which should be removed with the kidneys.  These the priest will burn upon the altar as a food sacrifice, a burnt offering to Jehovah.

"If the offering to Jehovah be a goat, then you should grab it by the head and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tabernacle.  Aaron's sons, the priests, will then sprinkle its blood against the sides of the Sacrificial Altar.  As part of the peace offering, food should be presented to Jehovah -- the internal organs and the fat connected to them, both kidneys with the fat surrounding them on the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which should be removed with the kidneys.  These the priest will burn upon the altar as a food offering, producing an aroma very pleasing to Jehovah. 

"All the fat is reserved for Jehovah.  This is established as a permanent law to be observed by all future generations wherever they may live: you are forbidden to eat fat or blood."

Notes
1.  The term "peace offering" is used today in a general, non-religious context.  It is a gift to foster goodwill among rivals or enemies or to make amends after conflict.  In this context it seems to be less a means for atonement and more as customary tribute to ensure Jehovah's continued favor and to foster the worshiper’s relationship with his god.  Sacrifices were always a part of the relationship that ancient man had with his god.   You do something for me, I do something for you.  This is not, of course, an inequitable arrangement.  The worshiper held up his end by making sacrifices, mostly by slaughtering livestock for the benefit of the god.  To the literal minded, this cannot make much sense, even if others may find some satisfying symbolism in it.  Does the god come down to earth and chow down at the altar.  No.  Does he absorb some spiritual energy from the slaughtered animals?  How and why does he need to do so?  Can he actually smell the aroma of the roasted flesh of the sacrificial victims, as Jehovah purportedly does?  Does Jehovah do this through a physical presence?  (Although ghostly smells have been often recorded, there is little evidence that spirit beings or entities on an astral plane can smell, even if they are able to see and hear.)  And if Jehovah were God, or even a lesser spirit being, why would he be obsessed with such earthly and earthy sensations as the aroma of cooked meals?  Shouldn't he be attracted to more exalted pleasures and find gratification in more productive and morally uplifting acts?

2.  The fat of sacrificed animals is expressly reserved for the deity and forbidden to man.  Jehovah is never shy about asserting his prerogatives, but why he should prefer fat to lean is a question.  But there always be in the proclamations of Jehovah some prohibition of a trivial nature that will be promoted as an eternal law, the violation of which constitutes a deadly sin.  This corresponds to the regimen of taboos that permeate primitive cultures.  Such taboos are an intrinsic part of all societies at an early stage of development.  Civilized man discards these taboos when he eventually realizes how childish and useless they are.

3.  Blood and fat are forbidden for man to eat.  Is this a general prohibition or does it pertain only to the meat of sacrificial victims?  How strictly should the law be applied?  Is there such a thing as a piece of meat that does not contain cooked fat and blood?  A 100% lean, fatless, juiceless steak does not sound very appealing.  Is that all that the followers of Jehovah are allowed to eat?