What Distinguishes the Chatat and Asham/2
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What Distinguishes the Chatat and Asham?
Exegetical Approaches
Function of the Offering
While the Chatat is first and foremost a purification offering, the Asham is a reparation offering.
Sources:R. David Zvi Hoffmann, modern scholars
Meaning of חטאת – According to these sources, the root "חטא" means to purify, as proven by the many verses where it is clearly mentioned in the context of purification (sometimes being parallel to the root "טהר") including Vayikra 14:52, Bemidbar 8:7, Bemidbar 19:19 and Yechezkel 43:23-26.1
Chatat: common denominator
What does the Chatat pufiry
Where the Chatat is brought and blood sprinkled
Meaning of Asham
Asham: common denominator
Animals brought?
"בְּעֶרְכְּךָ"
Severity of Sin
While both the Chatat and Asham serve an atoning role, they do so for different types of sins.
Asham More Severe
The more severe offenses necessitate an Asham offering rather than a Chatat.
Asham Less Severe
Less severe sins are expiated with an Asham rather than a Chatat.
