Martyrdom for the Sake of Heaven 57

For Richard Rubenstein, the Holocaust was a gigantic act of sacred violence with the Jews as the sacrifice:

“The Nazi‘final solution’ represented one vast explosion of all the repressed forces which in Paganism had been channeled into the controlled and regulated slaughter of one victim at a time."

He prefers Paganism and its controlled, sacred violence to our modern, rational post-Enlightenment civilization. The more rational, the more repressed until the explosion comes. Rubenstein believes that one death is better than six million, so even human sacrifice can be justified.

Mary Douglas sees a pattern in the Torah of warring doublets, in which one is blessed and the other is sent into the wilderness. In Leviticus we have the ritual of the two goats, one is sacrificed (chosen) the other is sent into the wilderness.'* The same pattern appears with the two birds in the cleansing of the leper.'* Douglas then sees a repetition of the pattern with Isaac and Ishmael , one chosen, the other sent into the wilderness, and with Jacob and Esau , also one chosen and the other sent into the wilderness. When one thinks about it, it also applies to Cain and Abel , one is chosen and the other wanders. Perhaps, the murder of Abel is a sacrifice. The pattern may, even, underlie the account of Adam and Eve where a state of chosenness in the Garden of Eden is followed by life in the wilderness. With the goats, one is clearly the scapegoat and bears away the sins of Israel . But in the other cases, it is not so clear which part of the doublet is the scapegoat and which is not. Being chosen does not necessarily mean the chosen one is not the sacrifice.

The name most associated with the scapegoat and sacred violence, as the foundation of religion is Rene Girard . Girard sees sacrifice and sacred violence as a way that a community heals its disorder:

“ Real or symbolic, sacrifice is primarily a collective action of the entire community, which purifies itself of its own disorder through the unanimous immolation of a victim...

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