How you can offer God a sacrifice

God says of the Tabernacle, “I will dwell in <em>their</em> midst.” This reflects the existence of an “inner Tabernacle” – the Jewish heart, and the Jew in general. The purpose of the Altar was to offer up a sacrifice to God. With regard to sacrifices, there is the question: What is the affect, the connection, between the person and the animal or flour which he offered upon the Altar? The answer: According to Torah, when a Jew offered up a sacrifice, he would contemplate, as the Alter Rebbe emphasizes, the meaning of the sacrifice. The verse states: “When one sacrifices” – when a Jew offers up a sacrifice – “bring it from <em>yourselves.”</em> First and foremost, bring yourself closer to God, until you offer yourself to God completely, surrendering your passion, the blood; give away your pleasure to God, represented by the “fats,” the person’s choicest part – offer it upon the Altar. But God declared that it is sufficient to do this symbolically by offering the blood and fat of an animal – or the choicest wine, flour, or bird – upon the Altar. God considers it, because it was done with a full heart, as though he had offered up his very own blood and fat. Meaning he “slaughters” his lusts and inappropriate desires so that he may bond with God, and so that the sacrifice may bring God pleasure, a “pleasing aroma.” Now, there were two altars: The Outer Altar, and the Altar of Incense. Torah calls it ‘the Outer Altar,’ underscoring that these two altars, and the connection that they establish with God – the way that one surrenders his passion and pleasure to God – exist on various levels. One can connect in such a way that when he prays – and prayer is compared to a sacrifice, whether the morning, afternoon, or evening – he does not create a connection that remains visible throughout the day; that this is a man or woman who recited blessings and prayed to God. While he prays, he is obviously aware that he is praying to God, and because he reflects upon Whom he is praying to, he does so “with all his heart, soul, and might.” Yet between one prayer and another, between the Morning Prayer and the Afternoon Prayer, he is busy – surely, in accordance with Jewish law – with the intent to go according to God’s wishes, but it is not recognizable that he <em>prays.</em> What does one see by looking at him? Only that he is engaged in business, or some other area of livelihood. Although inside, in his heart, he knows that he does this in order to be able to give charity, or do other worthy deeds related to Judaism. Then there is the Altar of Incense. It is unlike the Outer Altar, which reflects one’s involvement with outside matters; where one’s connection to God is not readily visible throughout the day. Among the sacrifices themselves, one was called the Incense-offering. The Hebrew word for incense, <em>ketores,</em> means connection; it permeated the one who offered it binding him with God for the entire day, until the next occasion when he brings an offering on the Altar of Incense. When one offers a sacrifice, which one does every time one prays, it becomes a sacrifice that is <em>ketores</em> – it binds him to God constantly – until the next time he offers the sacrifice, which will bind him to God even more, deepening his bond with all matters related to Judaism, for they were given by God, Who created the entire world, and is Master of the entire world. It follows that when a Jew decides to live this way, no one can disturb him, for he does so a messenger of God. His entire environment becomes illuminated with the light of Judaism and with the light of Torah; it binds him and everything in his life to God, as seen from the lesson of the Altar of Incense.