The mitzvot and the religious consciousness

The prohibition of imbibing blood is one of the well-known mitzvot found in our parasha (Vayikra 17:10-11). In it we find the unusual expression, v’natati panai, which is explained by both Onkelos and Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon as “I [G-d] will place My anger.” V’natati panai is found one other time in the Torah, namely, in the Tochacha (Devarim 28:15-68), the admonition to the Jewish people as to what will transpire if we fail to keep Hashem’s mitzvot. Since the expression is used in these two contexts, and the second instance refers to the entire Torah, we may logically deduce that the prohibition against eating blood must be exceptionally important, an idea that is strongly supported by the multiple times the Torah warns against consuming blood (Bereishit 9:4, Vayikra 7:26-27, 17:10-11, 19:26 and Devarim 12:23-24 among others).

The Rambam (Maimonides), as he often did in matters of this nature, adopted an anthropological/historical explanation as to why the Torah forbade the ingesting of blood: