[Avodah] Bamos

[Micha Berger]

Another factoid that wouldn't have worked has permission to build bamos
been restored after Shelomo's bayis...

The Rambam famously says:
    [T]he custom which was in those days general among all men, and the
    general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up,
    consisted in sacrificing animals in those temples which contained
    certain images, to bow down to those images, and to bum incense before
    them; religious and ascetic persons were in those days the persons
    that were devoted to the service in the temples erected to the stars,
    as has been explained by us. It was in accordance with the wisdom
    and plan of G-d, as displayed in the whole Creation, that He did not
    command us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service;
    for to obey such a commandment it would have been contrary to the
    nature of man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used..."
			    - Moreh 3:32

The Ramban (Vayiqra 1:9) and everyone else has a problem with his making
qorbanos bedi'eved. And since so much of the Yad is about qorbanos,
it would seem that the Rambam (like everyone else) expects their
restoration. What for, once we were weened away from that sort of
AZ already?

The Ramban cites Noach, whose qorban predates the Chaldeans and Egyptians.
And so he brings his own motivation.

The Narbonni on the Moreh understands the Rambam in a manner that avoids
the Ramban's objection. The element of human nature that Hashem did not
ask us to uproot suddenly is not caused by being acclimated to idolatry.
It is an innate human need that therefore consistently found expression
in idolatry.

The Abarbanel's haqdamah to Vayiqra rejects the Narbonni's shitah,
citing numerous pesuqim from navi that prove that yes, qorbanos are a
bedi'eved. (1-1/2 columns of this, in my edition.)

However, the Narvoni's interpretation of the Rambam could also be
understood as not necessarily implying that korbanos are part of the
ideal. If we humans were less frail and physical beings, we would be
able to address the need to give through Torah study, tefillah, investing
our time doing His Will. It is as a concession to a limitation of human
nature that Hashem needed to give us the ability to give a tangible gift,
one that seems more "real" to us.

The Or Samayach has a middle-ground position. He holds that the Rambam's
notion of weaning us off AZ explains bamos, whereas the Ramban's concept
of teshuvah needs a physical expression (to go with the thought of
teshuvah and the dibur of vidui) is the reiach nikhoach of Noach's
offering and the qorbanos in Y-m.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man can aspire to spiritual-moral greatness
micha at aishdas.org        which is seldom fully achieved and easily lost
http://www.aishdas.org   again. Fulfillment lies not in a final goal,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but in an eternal striving for perfection. -RSRH