It is unbelievable that someone could actually follow all the laws of the Levitical code.  It is no wonder that when Jesus came to the Jewish people he stated “Man is not made for the sabbath, but the sabbath is made for man”  (Mark 2:27) .  The Jews in their effort to be holy by following the law came to worship the law rather than the one that created the law.

It is also interesting that some of these laws- particularly relating to sexual behavior- are pulled out for obedience in our modern times, but the other 600 or more rules are “out of date.”   I believe that the relationship with God is meant to be a lively and dynamic, changing thing and we box in God when we think we can become holy by following a set of rules.

Still the lines can be our friends and the best part of the Jewish Talmudic law is the order that it gave to God’s people.  It set them apart from other nations who, say,  ate pork or were not circumsized.  It gave God’s people an identity and a liturgy of worship — literally the words of holiness to know God.

According to a commentary, “Leviticus rests on two crucial beliefs: the first, that the world was created “very good” and retains the capacity to achieve that state although it is vulnerable to sin and defilement; the second, that the faithful enactment of ritual makes God’s presence available, while ignoring or breaching it compromises the harmony between God and the world.”

For the Jews the world and all of life was worth working on, treasuring, and being a good steward of.  To this day, the most active change agents and workers of social, political and environmental justice are Jewish people.  Unlike some Evangelical Christians who “felt their true home was in another heavenly rhelm” or “did not want to be contaminated by the sinful world,”  the Jews believed this world was God’s crowning achievement and worth fighting for.

the law also was the ritual that makes God’s presence available.  This is key to understanding Judiasm.  The law and the laws were the way to know God, to please God and to honor God’s covenant with his people.  It was their way of keeping up their end of the bargain.

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