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    Blood on the altar – Re’eh

    Rav Moshe Feinstein was asked about the verse, “Do not consume the blood, for the blood is the life” (Deut. 12:23).

    Usually, what should not be eaten should not be offered on the altar. Yet blood seems to be an exception.

    Rav Moshe said there was nothing inherently wrong in the blood but it was not allowed to be eaten. Using blood on the altar is because “life can atone for life”.

    A further explanation: those who want to consume blood might think it will enhance and strengthen them. But God wants human beings to be human beings and not to think they can change their nature by behaving like cows and bulls.

    Some writers who describe the Holocaust say that the enemy acted like beasts of the jungle, but the simile is flawed. To say the enemy were like beasts is an insult to the beasts; the enemy were worse because they didn’t act like human beings.

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