Daily Talk
The Hebrew word korban does not mean sacrifice; it comes from the root that means to draw near. So why is the whole system built out of such rigid precision - five species and no others, exact measures of flour and oil that no love may enlarge and no laziness may shrink? These chapters answer by resting the entire structure on one gesture no measure can capture and no agent can perform for you.
A Grammar of Nearness
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About This Talk
Maaseh HaKorbanot 1 through 3 lay down the fixed grammar of drawing near: the five species and four types and exact ages of chapter one, the unchangeable measures of chapter two that open onto the Rambam's ninth principle of faith, and finally the one thing the fixed form cannot supply on its own - a person leaning both hands with all his strength and confessing in his own voice. The precision is the language, and the leaning is you, at last, speaking it.