Leviticus 17: 11
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
The prohibition against eating blood (verses 12 - 14) seems to me to be grounded in a double sanctity. First, blood is a symbol of life itself, which is sacred, and whose sacredness - even in a world where we survive by eating the flesh (animal or vegetable) of other living things - must not be forgotten. Second, blood is inextricably bound up with the sacred concept of the atonement - the sacrifice of an embodied God to bring about the potential for a healing of the rift between God and man. "It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
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