[CousinX]

Originally Posted by Tinman

This is absolutly incorrect.

According to the Torah there have been only 2 places where sacrifices Jews were permitted to bring sacrifical offerings.

One was The Mishkan (the tabernacle) the jewish people carried with them through the desert. The other was The Temple.

It's also important to note that only the Kohanim (a subset of the priests - Levites) were premited to acctualy preform the sacrifices.

This is also compleatly wrong. The 'ritual slaughter' of an animal in kosher food preperation is no more a sacrifice that any other jewish ritual. For example the 'ritual washing of hands before eating'.

Well, I'm neither Jewish nor a Kabbalist, so I can't say for sure, but my understanding (and Wiki backs me on this) is that "Korban, in Judaism, is the term for a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah. Such sacrifices were offered in a variety of settings by the ancient Israelites, and later by the Jewish priesthood, the Kohanim, at the Temple in Jerusalem.[...]"

So it's apparently not "absolutely incorrect," though it may be at odds with the strain of Judaism that you're referencing. In other words, YMMV.

Originally Posted by Bruno

There's Judaism according-to-the-book and then there's Judaism as actually practiced, which in a significant portion of communities still involves some animal sacrifice.

Exactly. As I said, I'm an expert in neither "according-to-the-book" nor "as-actually-practiced" Judaism, but my understanding is that sacrifice has been historically very important in the faith, and remains theologically important among certain groups.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It's explicitly not a sacrifice, but described as more of a symbolic sin offering.

They are always careful to define it as not being called "sacrifice", however. The distinction might not be literally meaningful, but it is symbolically and thaumaturgy is about symbolism.

Point well taken ... that's probably the most relevant perspective to take, when it comes to answering, "What should be effective in Kabbalistic magic?"