They translate it as “sacrifice” or “offering,” but the Hebrew word korban means none of these. Korban means to get close to G‑d.

How does a warm-blooded creature built of meat and bones get close to G‑d?

G‑d is beyond heaven and earth. We are stuck firmly at the ground floor. A wild beast kicks and screams inside us, forever running us off the path of reason and throwing us back to the ground.

So the Torah says: Take that animal of yours. Make it your korban to G‑d.

Work with that animal. Teach it. Tame it. Bring it to do good things—with its heart, its guts, with all its earthiness. Let it have even just a sip of Torah’s divine wisdom.

No aroma is more pleasing to G‑d than such a korban, than a human beast roasted and spiced with the divine. With such a korban, all of G‑d's creatures rise higher, and as they rise, a burst of divine light is released into your world.

A light, says the Zohar, beyond any light even the highest of heavens could contain.

There is no greater closeness to G‑d than one small act of the divine performed by your beast inside.