Q. My son’s Bar-Mitzvah Parsha is all about animal sacrifice. What relevance would this have in today’s world?

A. Here’s one idea. There’s a beautiful Chassidic insight based on an interpretation of the Alter Rebbe, founder of Chabad, that aside for the physical animal (and especially nowadays without the Temple) one would have to make a “personal sacrifice” of one’s own “inner-animal”. Each of our “animals” are different. Some of us have temptations and desires that are bullish, aggressive and passionate. Others are sheepish – lazy and apathetic to that which we ought to do. But whatever our animal, we need to make a personal sacrifice – dedication – and fire it up passionately in the appropriate, positive and holy context.