If I'm reading correctly I read in Menachos 93a that the placing of the hands is non-essential. If someone does not place the hands on the sacrificial animal, it is 'as though' one did not perform a sacrifice, but it is nevertheless accepted as sacrifice.
My question is: the Torah seems clear about the fact that the placing of the hands is needed for the sacrifice to be accepted (wayiqra 1:4). This is not to say that the placing of te hands effects atonement, for only the blood does. But is essential and needed to make the animal acceptable for a sacrifice of atonement. How does this relate to what Menachos 93 is teaching us?
Thank you in advance!
Jan-Willem
Jan-Willem van den Bosch, Aalsmeer, Nederland
I believe that Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch refers to your question in his commentary on the Torah. He explains that Semichah has a national dimension to it, since the person doing this is not just an individual (because if it was an individual, it would apply to women, blind people, and foreigners), but rather representing his nation and stating that he is fulfilling the will of the Torah as a member of his nation. Thus, the Semichah does not apply to his individual sin, which is atoned for by the sacrifice itself and its blood sprinkled on the Mizbe'ach, but rather to his status as a member of the holy nation. This is why the Semichah must be performed "Lifnei Hash-m," as it applies to the Jewish nation which stands before G-d in the Beis ha'Mikdash.
This Semichah, if not done, does not prevent the individual atonement, but rather the atonement for the nation, as only they and not the individual are represented by this Semichah. The first part of this verse doesn't refer to the second part; the Semichah is for the nation but the individual will anyway achieve his atonement with the blood of his sacrifice.
Yoel Domb