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There are also differences of opinion as to the reason behind the prohibition. The Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim III:46) says that the prohibition was to counter certain ceremonies of idol worship. The Ramban (as understood by Abarbanel) says that it has to do with the fact that the animal’s blood contains its spirit, and thus it should not be spilled in such a manner. Abarbanel says that each of these reasons applies to a different prohibition. Idol worship is behind the prohibition on slaughtering outside the Mishkan; the soul in the blood is the reason for the prohibition on eating blood.
The Ramban, who says that the p’sukim forbid the slaughter of even non-sanctified animals, explains the rationale of this prohibition being specifically in the desert on practical grounds. In the desert, everyone had easy access to the Mishkan, and so it was reasonable to demand that people would bring a Korban Shelamim, in which they ate the main part of the animal. However, as the Torah stresses in Devarim, when the nation was spread out throughout the Land, the Torah did not expect people to travel to the Mikdash to eat meat.
Rav Hirsch has a philosophical approach to the problem of slaughtering and eating animals in the desert specifically, which picks up on the Torah’s mention of both the practice of slaughtering to the se’irim (Vayikra 17:5) and the spilling of blood (ibid. 4). In the wilderness, what was done "in the field" connected a person to an animalistic state. The spilling of the blood the Torah rejects was not that of the animal, but of the person who might connect to the spirit of the animal he ate in the wilderness. Rather, one had to partake in the eating of the meat in a manner that brought him closer to Hashem, through a Korban Shelamim, not in a way that made him closer to an animal.
Until the day (which we pray is soon) that we will once again be able to bring korbanot, let us concentrate on ensuring that our day-to-day activities, including eating meat, are done in a manner that complements our designation as "a holy nation."
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
