V
Valke2
Guest
Without blemish referred to, i believe, without scarring on the organs, especially the lungs of the animal. But I am no expert in the laws of kashrut. Of course human sacrifice was shunned by Israel and judaism which is why I assumed any reference to Israel being sacrificed was meant to be taken metaphoricaly, at least to the extent it was compared to the instutiionalized practice of sacrifice in the Temple.Well, when it came to animal sacrifices, were the animal not required to be without blemish? In the case of Israel (Ephraim), their being with sins meant that there were NOT without blemish, there. Moreover, I thought that to Jews human sacrifices (slaying humans for the sins of another) is considered to be unacceptable to God.
Hence I can’t buy Ben’s theory that the ten tribes of Israel were “sacrificed” for the sins of Judah. Their own pile of unrepented sins was enough to call for God’s letting them be exiled, at least from the texts of the Old Testament.