These are the Words...

Asham
אשם

Definition

The Hebrew word asham means "offering for reparation for negative consequences". It is often translated as "trespass offering" or "guilt offering".

It is related to ashaym, earned negative consequences.

The asham allowed someone to escape the negative consequences of offenses. Someone who had done wrong would not "reap what they had sown".

Meaning in Ancient Israel

A asham was a legal transaction, accepting a merciful offer from God to allow people to escape the consequences of their wrongdoing. It could be done by someone unaware of any offenses who wanted to be secure in their safety from reaping suffering. Note that being forgiven and escaping negative consequences are spiritually two very different things. We may be forgiven, but still reap consequences for wrongdoings we have sown (as happened to King David in the twelvth chapter of Second Samuel.)

The asham required anyone who had been wronged to be generously compensated for their offense or injury before the offering took place. Unlike the chattat, this offering is not a kofer that simply hides an offense from view with covering-atonement: with the asham the offense needs to be actually and fully resolved.

The asham (and chattat) were completely new ways to worship, unknown before the Tabernacle. It is not mentioned until Leviticus. As an offering, it involved blood splashed on the sides of the altar.

In the sequence of offerings at the Tabernacle/Temple, the asham happened before or with the chattat, after the olah and michah but before the sh'lamim. It normally made use of the same animal that was used for the chattat, or even the same flour if the person was too poor to afford anything better. Even when a part of a household's sequence of offerings at the Tabernacle/Temple, each individual was responsible for his or her own asham.

A distinct asham that was not simultaneously a chattat is needed to remove guilt from someone who has unintentional guilt regarding holy things (5:15), or has intentionally violated a commandment (Leviticus 5:22 (6:3)). This special offering functions as both a normal asham and a kofer: its meat (always ram) is given to the priests as in a chattat (7:6-7) and it provides covering-atonement in the same way a chattat normally does (Leviticus 5:15-18, 19:22).

Meaning in the First Century

During the first century the asham was still being used in more-or-less the same way, until the Second Temple was destroyed.

However, during the first century the Temple operated differently than as described in Torah.

First, families no longer brought offerings as a household. Instead, the women would watch from the "Women's Court" while men went to an inner court and brought the offered animal to a priest. (Women in a household without men would ask a guard at a gate of the "Women's Court" to bring their offerings to a priest.)

Second, most scholars agree that the people making the offering brought their share of the animal's meat outside the Temple complex before eating it, rather than the sequence of offerings cumulating in the family sharing a meal with the priest and God at the altar (the sh'lamim).

Third, some scholars believe the offerings were most often brought individually, not as the entire sequence of offerings. It may have been that people could come to the Temple just to offer an asham.

Meaning for Messianic Jews in Modern Times

The asham teaches us that intentionally violating commandments is an especially big deal! A more expensive offering is required, and the name of this special offering shows that its roles of reparation for negative consequences is more significant than its role of hiding the offense from view.

Within Yeshua's covenant, the asham serves as a reminder that there are still severe effects in This World from intentionally rebelling against God, and rewards in the World to Come based upon our faithfulness in serving God.

Within private devotions, the asham reminds us that part of the sequence of offerings was each individual's responsibility, even when a part of a household's sequence of offerings. We should individually be grateful that our evil inclination has been judged and its strength broken. We should individually commit today to reckoning it dead.

Within the liturgy (as in the Tabernacle and Temple offering) the chattat precedes the asham. We first repent and restore a clean slate before God, and only then consider the secondary concern of deliverance from our troubles.

Within the moadim, the asham relates to Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is called Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpet Blasts, a day when God zachar ashaym (actively remembers to distribute negative consequences). It foreshadows the eschatological Day of Judgment when all postponed consequences will happen. It is odd but sensible that the asham (associated with Rosh Hashanah) happens after the chattat (associated with Yom Kippur) in the sequence of offerings at the Tabernacle/Temple and in the order of service: individuals need a clean slate before God relationally before they can deal with consequences of their actions. However, in the prophetic order of moadim this order is reversed: when dealing with the entire world instead of individuals, God deals with consequences before starting anew with a clean slate.