BY: GABRIELLA LEVIN
In Parshat Vayiqra we read a curious thing regarding the korban-chatat(sin-offering); the korban chatat is it is imposed on the unintentional sinner but not on the intentional sinner! Why is this so? Are we not giving high-handed sinners an incentive to be evildoers?
The answer is as follows. The implicit message of the chatat-bringer is that really he himself deserves to be put on the altar, but the animal serves as his substitute.However, this substitution mechanism can only work with a shogeg(unintentional sinner).Why is this so? For man has two souls: a lower, materialistic soul, and a higher, more spiritual soul. A shogeg is only guilty of having sinned with his lower soul, thus an animal with its lower soul can be offered in his stead. A mayzid (intentional sinner), by contrast, has transgressed with his higher soul as well. This higher soul is something an animal lacks, and it is therefore not possible for an animal to be substituted for him.The mayzid has no recourse to korbanot, and can only re-enter the grace of G-d through more spiritual means.
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