Rabbi Shmuel Goldin was once visited by a group of Korean Evangelical ministers. At the conclusion of the synagogue tour, they turned to him, perplexed.

“Where is the altar?” they inquired. “In order to achieve atonement for sin, does the Bible not instruct the Children of Israel to sacrifice to God upon an altar?”

“That was only in the Holy Temple,” was Rabbi Goldin’s response.

“So, how do you achieve atonement now?” they asked him.

הַמִּזְבֵּחַ עֵץ שָׁלֹשׁ אַמּוֹת גָּבוֹהַּ וְאׇרְכּוֹ שְׁתַּיִם אַמּוֹת וּמִקְצֹעוֹתָיו לוֹ וְאׇרְכּוֹ וְקִירוֹתָיו עֵץ וַיְדַבֵּר אֵלַי זֶה הַשֻּׁלְחָן אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵי ה׳ פָּתַח בְּמִזְבֵּחַ וְסִיֵּים בְּשֻׁלְחָן רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן וְרֵישׁ לָקִישׁ דְּאָמְרִי תַּרְוַיְיהוּ בִּזְמַן שֶׁבֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ קַיָּים מִזְבֵּחַ מְכַפֵּר עַל אָדָם עַכְשָׁיו שֻׁלְחָנוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם מְכַפֵּר עָלָיו.

רש”י: שולחנו מכפר עליו—בהכנסת אורחין.

“The Altar, three cubits high, and its length two cubits, was of wood, and so its corners, its length, and its walls were also of wood, and he said to me: ‘This is the table that is before the Lord.’” The verse began with the word “Altar” and ended with the word “table”! Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish both explain: When the Holy Temple is standing the Altar atones for a person; nowadays a person’s table atones for him.

Rashi: One’s table atones for him when he hosts guests.

Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish offer a powerful answer to this profound question: In the absence of the holy Altar in the Beis Hamikdash, our dining tables atone for our sins!

How does that work? Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin suggests that while the holy Altar effected immediate atonement, the atonement of your dining table is dependent upon how you use the energy of the food that you ingest. If you utilize your nourished and strengthened mind and body to serve Heaven, then you’ve achieved the atonement offered by the table in your home.

Rashi, however, has a different solution, which, like the holy Altar, takes effect immediately. Says Rashi: To achieve atonement from your table, invite guests to break bread with you!

Rabbi Yaakov Sakili clarifies that the ideal guests who bring atonement are needy visitors. In the Holy Temple, the blood was offered on the Altar, and the Menorah was a source of light for the entire world. When you host the needy, it is considered as if you “offered the blood and kindled the lights.” Take note of his twofold description: your table has the wherewithal to atone both for the service of the blood and the service of the lights. How so?

There are materially needy people. But there are also spiritually and psychologically needy people. The materially needy require your physical sustenance; their very blood depends on your kindness. And the spiritually and psychologically needy require the kindling of their souls. From a material standpoint, they may appear to be well-off and not lacking for anything. Nevertheless, your dining table has so much more to offer than mere physical delicacies. For some you are able to nourish them with the sustenance of Yiddishkeit, and there are others for whom simply sitting at your table in the company of nice people will itself provide nourishment. Maybe it’s the young single man who sits behind you in shul. Maybe it’s the older couple whose kids don’t really keep in touch.

Now that you know you have a home altar, just make sure you are always approaching it with holiness. Are you washing your hands properly before partaking of the bread? Are you making the right brachos over the food? Are you bentching every day of the week? Are words of Torah being discussed at the dinner table? (Tip: “The Transformative Daf” is a good daily discussion!)

It’s tempting to read Rabbi Yochanan’s and Reish Lakish’s teaching and think: They’ve just come up with a comforting thought to help us through our long galus (exile). How could our tables actually be like the Altar in the Holy Temple? The truth is, however, it was always the case. When we imagine sacrifices, we think of the kohanim in the Beis Hamikdash sprinkling the blood and offering up the animal to God.

That was indeed the case for many of the sacrifices, but not all of them. Think about the Korban Pesach. Each year we would gather in the Temple, slaughter our sacrifices, and then take them home to eat on our dining tables! In fact, it has been suggested that the smearing of the blood of the original Korban Pesach on the doorposts of our homes in Egypt symbolized the sprinkling of the blood upon the Altar that would later take place. Only in the case of the Passover sacrifice, the blood of atonement protected the home. If the Altar of the paschal lamb is the table, then the Torah’s message is that we’re inviting God to “dine” with us at our table!

What Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish have added is that, nowadays, we needn’t wait until Pesach to invite Hashem to join us for dinner. He has a seat at the table—breakfast, lunch and dinner—every day of the year!

In Temple times, if you sinned, you had to travel for days to reach Jerusalem and offer a sacrifice upon the holy Altar. Nowadays, all you need to do is invite guests to your holy altar! May you achieve atonement every day of your life!

Rabbi Dr. Daniel Friedman is the author of “The Transformative Daf” book series.