How often were animal sacrifices made in Old Testament times?

Answer 1

The Temple made official sacrifices on behalf of the community daily, with extra sacrifices made on the Sabbath and on other designated holy days. In addition, individual Jews were commanded to bring sacrifices after atonement and restitution for sin, as a form of taxation (the tithe, of which only a token portion was burned while the rest went to the priests), and as Thanksgiving offerings. For some sacrifices, the donor was allowed to substitute a meal offerering for the animal, but the total number of animals slaughtered in front of the altar would have been quite large. On Passover, for example, each and every Jewish family was expected to bring a lamb. Only a few bits of that lamb went up in smoke. The rest was eaten, with most of it eaten by the family that brought it, but the total number of lambs involved must have been in the thousands.