Shabbat Acharei Mot & Kedoshim: Morality
For many of us reading the third Book of the Torah, Leviticus( Vayikra), is not a particularly inspiring or easy exercise.
It deals with the priesthood, sacrifices, purity (not to be confused with cleanliness, although too is important), diseases, laws of sexual behaviour, and what one can and cannot eat. For good reason, the book is called in Latin Leviticus, from the term Levites, and in other sources, it’s called the Book of Purity. In our tradition, it is simply named after the first word of the book, which means that God has called us to give a guide to how to live a good and spiritual life.
But when we get to Chapter 19 in the section known as Kedoshim, Holiness, we have a range of laws that I think everybody would accept as being the most amazing statement of ethical standards required of everybody then and today. It starts with the emphasis on how one has respect for one’s parents and then it goes on to talk about the importance of giving charity and helping the poor and the indigent. And on to such basic ethical rules, “don’t steal, don’t deceive, don’t lie to each, don’t oppress your neighbour, don’t rob, don’t refuse to pay workers on time, don’t curse a deaf person or put something in the way of someone who is blind, don’t abuse justice or be corrupt, judge all people honestly and fairly, don’t go around telling tales, don’t stand by when your neighbour is suffering, don’t hate your neighbour in your heart, don’t take revenge against your neighbour but love your neighbour as yourself”( Leviticus 19:2-18).
But how does this beautiful expression of ethical obligations (rather than of rights) fit in with the rest of this book? The great anthropologist Margaret Mead who wrote a great deal about Vayikra discovered parallels throughout that explain this. The ancient world was concerned with order. Each culture was regulated in its own way. The Torah is also concerned with order, a holistic approach to life that includes the spiritual and the physical. It is a template of the complete life, in which one finds room for a way of life that connects with God through ritual and behaviour.
In our case, the universal sacrificial system soon fell away. Instead, we have focused on the laws that make up halacha. How we behave day-to-day and how all our actions should be predicated on forethought, consideration, and a value system. It then talks about purity which involves taking care of one’s physical life, the way we catch diseases or neglect our bodies, the interaction between our physical health and our mental health, sexual self-control, what we should and should not eat, atonement, and the celebration of festivals. All of this underlines a life that involves forethought, consideration, and self-control.
Which is why it is all connected to an ethical system. Because if religious behaviour does not improve one’s morality or behaviour towards others it is failing. We are exhorted to be holy because God is. Holiness in the Torah means being other but also better. Not automatically through birth or who we are, but rather what we do, and how we behave. When we say be holy because God is holy, we’re not describing God. We may disagree as to what is good and what is bad, what is fair and what is not, and whether there is a God and to what extent God controls our lives. But, in the end, we should live a life of consideration and respect for ourselves as well as for the rest of humanity.
Leviticus 16-21
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.`
