Professor Cooper addresses the ambiguity of how to distinguish the “sin” and “guilt” offerings. He references Professor Milgrom’s emphasis on the psychological aspect of feelings of guilt that motivate sacrifice. He proposed “reparation offering” as a better description, whereas Professor Cooper suggests “liability offering”.
Rabbi Uziel’s Mah Nishtanah
At the Passover Seder, unlike all other nights, we ask what makes being Jewish so special. All of the symbols of the Seder direct us to the larger issue of what it means to be a Jew, rather than as individual concepts. This is because Passover represents the birth of Judaism.
Rabbi Sacks cites Lev 1:2 – the verse is translated “when one of you offers a sacrifice”. Literally, it would read “when one offers a sacrifice of you”. According to Rabbi Shneur Zalman, when we sacrifice, we offer ourselves; the physical form of the sacrifice is only the external manifestation of an inner act. In other words, ‘we give God something of ourselves’.