Victimless Crime? A lesson from a ramp, a challah cover and Parshat Yitro

We often hear about victimless crimes. I think at the end of Parshat Yitro, the torah raises the bar and quite possibly does away with this category completely. We are told that when the kohanim offer their sacrifices, they use a ramp -because if they took steps, they would inadvertently "flash" the stairs and that would be disrespectful.

Of course we know of other instances where we impute feelings to inanimate objects, most famously Friday nights where we don't want to offend the bread by drinking wine first. This isn't the pathetic fallacy referred to by literary theorists, or mumbo-jumbo spirituality. It's pretty clear that this is an exercise in what an HR department would term sensitivity training.

We don't care about a purported victim, because there is none. We practice because it helps US to have this sensitivity, even as some rabbis explain the goal of charity is as much to keep ourselves attuned to the needs of others as it is to pass on actual help.