Sunday Sermonette: Deja vu all over again

I must warn you: the four remaining chapters of  Exodus, and all of Leviticus, are tedious beyond description. They have almost no relevance to Christians, and limited relevance to contemporary Jews. Even orthodox Jews take only a few principles from this, such as not eating pork or shellfish. The narrative stops and instead we are given long, very specific lists of rules. There isn ' t any evident underlying or organizing ethical philosophy behind this.Some of the rules have to do with how God wants to be worshiped. This has been a particular emphasis in Exodus and it ' s largely the focus on which the book concludes. Leviticus has a whole lot about what you can and cannot eat, what is and is not " unclean, " what we would classify as civil and criminal property law, familial obligations, what we would classify as medical diagnosis (although rather than treatment, the response is likely to be exile), sexual morality . Some of it has a perceivable practical basis, some of it we can speculate about, some of it seems arbitrary or preposterous. It describes a patriarchal, strongly hierarchical and rigidly organized society. And as I say, nobody alive observes more than a small percentage of it.About Exodus 37, which we reproduce today, I have nothing really to say. God has given these instructions already (twice!) and now we hear the whole thing again, framed as Bezalel actually carrying them out, with some additional small details added, of no evident import. Since Jews ar...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs