The Torah warns in Parashat Re’eh (Debarim 12:13), “Guard yourself, lest you sacrifice your burnt-offering anywhere…” This verse establishes the Biblical prohibition against offering sacrifices outside the Bet Ha’mikdash. In the next verse, the Torah commands, “Only in the site which Hashem will choose…there shall you sacrifice your burnt-offerings” – adding an affirmative command to offer sacrifices exclusively in the Bet Ha’mikdash.
The reason for these commands is that Hashem wished for us to have a single location where sacrifices are offered and where we come to experience G-d’s presence, so that this site will be sacred and a place where G-d bestows His blessing. Additionally, the Sefer Ha’hinuch writes, such a site will have an emotional impact upon the people, inspiring them to regret their wrongdoing, repent, and commit to improving. If it was permissible to offer sacrifices anywhere, people would not be impacted the way they are by a site which is the exclusive location for sacrificing to the Almighty.
These commands are binding upon both men and women, and apply in all places, wherever a person offers a sacrifice. They are applicable even nowadays, when we do not have a Bet Ha’mikdash; if a person today offers a sacrifice somewhere besides the site of the Bet Ha’mikdash, he transgresses these commands.