Targum Onkeles defines the word zevach as “a holy slaughtering.” Indeed, the essence of a Korban Shelamim, Peace-offering, is fundamentally different from that of other korbanos. The average korban serves as a medium to serve Hashem. As part of this objective, the animal must be slaughtered, but the slaughtering is not the primary act of hakravah, offering. Unlike other korbanos, the act of shechitah, slaughtering, within the context of a shelamim, has greater significance. A Korban Shelamim is brought by a person who wants to eat mundane food. He wants elevated, consecrated food. When one partakes of a Korban Shelamim,…

The Torah refers to the person who brings the korban, sacrifice/offering, as Adam, which is also the name of Adam HaRishon, to imply that, just as Adam did not bring an offering from a stolen animal (since everything belonged to him), so, too, should we not serve Hashem with ill-begotten goods. Adam HaRishon offered a bull as his korban to Hashem. This primordial bull was different from any other bull that would ever be created. Chazal (Chullin 60a) state: “Adam arose and offered up a bull whose horns appeared before its hooves, as David Hamelech writes (Tehillim 69:32): V’sitav l’Hashem…