BackWhat is a Korban?
By: Rabbi Barak Bar-Chaim
In his commentary on Leviticus, Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch discusses the concept of a Korban. He explains that the words we generally use to translate the word “Korban” do not convey the true meaning of Korban. The word “sacrifice,” which is often used to translate the word “Korban,” implies that the person who brings a Korban is losing (sacrificing) something. The word “offering,” which is also often used as a translation for Korban, carries the idolatrous notion of an appeasement sent to a god to appease the god’s wrath. Neither of these ideas represent the true meaning of Korban.
Rabbi Hirsch explains that Korban comes from the Hebrew word Karov, which means close or nearby. Korban is an instrument that carries the purpose of drawing a person close to God. The person bringing the Korban gains closeness to God and loses nothing. The person bringing the Korban is not trying to appease an angry god, rather, they are trying to draw closer to God. This is the reason that the four-letter name of God, which represents love and compassion, is always used when referencing a Korban.
The Korban Pesach (Pascal Lamb) is the first national Korban of the Jewish people. It was their induction into the service of the one true God. Drawing closer to God requires courage. The Jewish people had to slaughter their Egyptian gods which they had grown attached to and, thereby, draw close to the one true God. Similarly, the Korban Pesach teaches us to shed our attachments to our false Gods (our desires, reliance upon wealth, etc.) and to truly draw close to the one true, all-powerful, and omnipresent God. While it takes courage to shed our attachments to false Gods, we realize that we lose nothing in the process and gain the greatest treasure, closeness to God.