Some sacrifices must be slaughtered where the burnt-offering is slaughtered. The recurrent formula is “In the place where the burnt-offering is killed shall X be killed.” For example:
in the place where the burnt-offering is killed shall the sin-offering be killed (Leviticus 6:18)
בִּמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר תִּשָּׁחֵט הָעֹלָה – תִּשָּׁחֵט הַחַטָּאת. (ויקרא ו', יח)
Searching for that location leads to Leviticus’s opening: a burnt-offering from the flock, rather than the herd, is slaughtered on the altar’s north side (Leviticus 1:11). All sacrifices referring to the burnt-offering’s place likewise come from the flock. Herd offerings contain no such direction; the straightforward understanding places no restriction beyond slaughtering inside the courtyard.
Why not simply say that flock offerings are slaughtered in the north? Why repeatedly refer at length to the burnt-offering’s place?
I propose a speculative direction, combining biblical hints about the north and slaughtering sheep in the Exodus context. Slaughtering flock offerings specifically there may symbolically declare separation from Egyptian sun worship and devotion to the LORD who rules nature. Three main lines illuminate this:
- Egypt’s attitude to sheep and the meaning of sacrificing them.
- The north’s symbolic meaning in the Bible and ancient world.
- The Tabernacle’s structure and relation to the sun’s direction, and the implications for the north.
The Exodus story says Egyptians abhorred shepherds (Genesis 46:34), and the flock animal offered for Passover was Egypt’s abomination: “lo, if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?” (Exodus 8:22). Sacrificing it on the eve of departure was therefore a religious declaration against Egyptian values.
Baal-zephon is mentioned as the place opposite which Israel encamped before the sea parted (Exodus 14:2). The reference to north, “tzafon,” seems deliberate, indicating wider symbolic significance in the Exodus.
Ugaritic writings dating to around 1200 BCE regard Mount Zaphon, Jebel al-Aqra, also called Mount Sapan or Cassius, as the gods’ dwelling, especially the storm god Baal’s.
Several biblical verses echo the north as a divine place. Psalms 48 calls Mount Zion, the LORD’s dwelling, “the sides of the north”:
A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised, In the city of our God, His holy mountain, Fair in situation, the joy of the whole earth; Even mount Zion, the uttermost parts of the north, The city of the great King. God in her palaces Hath made Himself known for a stronghold. (Psalms 48:1–4)
שִׁיר מִזְמוֹר לִבְנֵי קֹרַח: גָּדוֹל ה' וּמְהֻלָּל מְאֹד – בְּעִיר אֱלֹהֵינוּ הַר קָדְשׁוֹ.
יְפֵה נוֹף מְשׂוֹשׂ כָּל הָאָרֶץ – הַר צִיּוֹן יַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹן קִרְיַת מֶלֶךְ רָב.
אֱלֹהִים – בְּאַרְמְנוֹתֶיהָ נוֹדַע לְמִשְׂגָּב. (תהילים מ"ח, א-ד)
Isaiah supplies another example, describing the fall of Babylon’s king, who claimed divine powers and sought to dwell with the gods “in the uttermost parts of the north”:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, That didst cast lots over the nations! And thou saidst in thy heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, Above the stars of God Will I exalt my throne, And I will sit upon the mount of meeting, In the uttermost parts of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.’ (Isaiah 14:12–14)
אֵיךְ נָפַלְתָּ מִשָּׁמַיִם – הֵילֵל בֶּן שָׁחַר / נִגְדַּעְתָּ לָאָרֶץ – חוֹלֵשׁ עַל גּוֹיִם.
וְאַתָּה אָמַרְתָּ בִלְבָבְךָ – הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶעֱלֶה / מִמַּעַל לְכוֹכְבֵי אֵל – אָרִים כִּסְאִי,
וְאֵשֵׁב בְּהַר מוֹעֵד – בְּיַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹן / אֶעֱלֶה עַל בָּמֳתֵי עָב – אֶדַּמֶּה לְעֶלְיוֹן. (ישעיהו י"ד, יב-יד)
Egypt’s chief god was Ra, the sun god, hinted at several times in the Exodus story. Locusts cover “the eye of the land,” alluding to the sun being covered and losing control over earthly events. Pharaoh’s “see ye that evil is before your face” (Exodus 10:10), Hebrew “ra‘ah,” may threaten them with Ra harming them if they enter the wilderness.
Like Egyptian temples, the Tabernacle followed the sun’s east-west axis. Tent and courtyard entrances faced east; the tent and its inner Holy of Holies stood west. Traveling east to west, the sun inclines south. North is the only direction it never reaches during the day, remaining untouched by its influence and symbolizing the LORD’s exclusive sovereignty.
Slaughtering Egypt’s abomination in the north, where the LORD dwells and Egypt’s sun has no control, thus continues the polemical act on the eve of the Exodus. As sacrificing sheep then openly severed Egyptian faith, Tabernacle sacrifices express devotion to a God who rules nature rather than belonging to it or being subject to it.
This may partly fit Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, arguing that the sacrifices’ concealed purpose was confronting ancient pagan reality. Emphasizing that dimension could impair their exalted status as sacred worship in their own right. The Torah therefore leaves the polemical dimension in the background rather than explicitly presenting it. Perhaps this also explains alluding to the quintessential flock offering’s slaughter-place, the burnt-offering, rather than repeatedly specifying north.
