Musar su Esodo 21:23

The answer may be that all other acts of מצוה performance originate outside ourselves, such as the building of a סוכה or the purchase of a לולה, and most of the other 248 positive commandments. When it comes to the offering of an animal sacrifice, however, the person offering it is the עובד, or better עבד, servant, so that the service which an עבד, servant, performs is accurately called עבודה, service. One may view the servant as the "service." We know that such an animal sacrifice is an expression of the mystical dimension נפש תחת נפש, "One life-force in exchange for another life-force," such as in Exodus 21,23 et al, and that when the guilty party slaughters the animal he is keenly aware that his own life should have been offered to G–d in expiation of his sin. The same applies to what the guilty party feels when the blood of the animal is sprinkled on the altar. The owner confesses his sin and resolves not to repeat it. When all this, including the burning of the flesh of the animal on the altar, is the result of animal sacrifice, then the servant has truly become the "service." The first time this happened was when Abraham slaughtered the ram on the altar after G–d had told him not to slaughter Isaac in Genesis 22,12. [In the case of Isaac, he had not been personally guilty; hence how could his death expiate for a crime of his? Ed.] As a corollary, other sacrifices such as wine, bread, oil, etc., accomplish a similar function; they substitute for man offering his own body to G–d, because all the products mentioned are forms of nourishment that keep the human body alive, and therefore are able to serve as a substitute for the human body. In spite of the fact that this service involves an external object, i.e. the animal in question, the thought behind it is strictly internal. The external object enables the sinner to look inward into his own personality. עבודה is called קרבן because the person offering the animal sacrifices his own personality to G–d who in turn has entrusted him with the keeping of his body. When this service is performed according to הלכה, the person offering the sacrifice experiences an elevation of his soul; he approaches ever closer to G–d.