Is The Sacred Wasteful?

Wine that’s spilled into the ground as a libation; animals that are wholly burnt on the altar; Chanukka candles that are to be “looked at, but not used [for seeing]”—these are but a few examples of the common idea that the profane is what’s useful and the holy what is useless, excessive, wasteful.

Of course you can make a utilitarian case that such “wast…