Moishe Halbertal, in a meditation largely focused on the Hebrew Bible and contemporary just-war theory, argues for distinguishing between religious sacrifice and moral-political sacrifice. He formulates the distinction as turning on the difference between “sacrificing to” something (usually collectively) and “sacrificing for” something (usually individually). Thus, we sacrifice to the sacred, but for the nation, to the gods, but for war.

Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, loc. 422