Can you please explain what difference it makes if a person brings a male sheep or a female sheep as atonement for a sin? When people read the Maimonides' rationale for the sacrificial service superficially and conclude that the sacrifices were residual evolutionary remainders of our pagan ancestry, can they explain what significance the details have? Without a proper understanding of the meaning of the details, an objective reader would rightfully conclude that the multiplicity of minutiae were intended specifically to drive people out of their minds. If it is not a phobic obsessiveness, how can the meticulous adherence to detail in the performance of Mitzvahs be explained?
Fortunately, our forefathers faithfully transmitted to us not only the detailed description of how these holy actions must be done, but their significance as well. When you see a person gesticulating wildly, you look to see with whom he is trying to communicate. Likewise, when you see a Cohen jumping nimbly around the courtyard of the Dwelling of Divinity, you should assume he is interacting with something we cannot see. Modern science is slowly coming around to admit that there are forces they cannot measure with technical instruments. Ancient cultures were familiar with these forces and they had ways of tapping and using them. Unfortunately, they considered the forces divine and worshipped them in most cultures. Avraham Avinu set out to refute this attitude, but he never meant to repudiate their existence.
A person picks up a phone and dials a number. If one digit is off he might reach a completely different destination. If he is calling long distance, he might even get the wrong country. In performing Mitzvahs, we should have the same attitude. What does a person do when he wrote the wrong address on a letter and dropped it into the mailbox? He must retrieve the letter and send it again to the right destination. This is the function of sacrifices. They are means of directing spiritual forces in the direction we want them to go. When a person sins, he must rectify the damage he has done. At times he must go to extreme efforts to bring back the letter he sent, especially if it might have dire circumstances in the wrong hands. With this perspective, we can now learn the systematic "zip codes" and "street names" that go along with the sacrificial service.
Adapted from Rabbi Vali's book on Vayikra. Questions and subscriptions can be mailed to: the Yeshiva