You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you. – Leviticus 1:4

Today's Scripture Reading (October 29, 2021): Leviticus 1

A study has been conducted that reveals that spending money is actually a painful experience. In the study, people were monitored as they made various purchases. The study found that when we lay cold, hard cash on the counter, what registers in our brain is something very similar to when we experience pain. And the higher the cost and the more money that we have to lay down to make the purchase, the greater the pain we feel.

But the study also examined what happens when we use other methods of purchasing things. For instance, when we pay for something using a credit card, one that requires that we sign something, the experience still registers as pain, but the pain is of a lower intensity than when we use cash. If we pay using a card that requires us to input a code to finalize the purchase, the amount of pain involved in making the purchase is still lower. And if we use the tap option for making a purchase, the pain barely registers on our brain.

Recent technological developments make it possible to purchase items with even less contact with our brains. Merchants are currently experimenting with a procedure that would allow you to sign up with a credit card and a picture of yourself. Then you could walk into a store, and various cameras would follow your journey. They would note which items you pick up and then charge you when you leave the store for everything you have in your possession. No one would have to tell you how much everything costs; the money would simply be automatically removed from your bank account or added to your credit card bill. And I can't imagine a more painless way of shopping.

But that is also the problem with moving into a cashless society. As long as what we purchase makes us feel pain, we are more careful about the things we buy. If we don't even have to have our purchases totaled by a cashier, it seems that debt would become an even bigger problem than it already is. There is a reason why budgeting systems often argue that we need to use cash more often. Because if we use cash, we spend less.

In the sacrificial system of the Tanakh, it would have been easy for worshippers to distance themselves from the sacrifice, except that the law mandated that the worshipper identifies with the sacrifice. It was not enough that the animal died; the one receiving the atonement had to place their hands on the sacrifice, recognizing that the animal's death was due to the person's sin. "By means of this gesture the person offering the sacrifice identifies himself as the one who is offering the animal, and in a sense he offers himself to God through the sacrificial animal" (Rene Peter-Contesse and John Ellington). It brought the pain created by the sacrifice for the one who offered it to its highest level, in the hope that this moment of sacrifice would become a moment of sincere reflection about the sins that had brought the worshipper to this moment in time.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 2