This week’s portion can be a challenging one. Over the past several parshot (portions), we’ve been reading instructions about how the priests, Aaron’s sons, are supposed to treat different sacrifices offered on the altar of the mishkan, the tabernacle. In this week’s portion, we’ve moved past instructions, and we see Aaron and his sons actually slaughter the calf of sin offering, mark the horns of the altar with its blood, and turn the appropriate bits into smoke upon the altar. We see this happen with Aaron’s sin offering, with the people’s sin offering, and with the people’s offering of well-being. These animal sacrifices happen again and again, pretty much the way we read it was supposed to, with oft-repeated phrases that turn a vegetarian’s stomach, like “the protruberance of the liver.” To be honest, it’s tough for me to to pay close attention or to distinguish between this portion and earlier ones describing sacrifices.

And then something curious happens.