The Laws and Orders of God

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Contents

PREFACE.............................................................................ixINTRODUCTION........................................................................xiDIETARY LAWS........................................................................1LAWS OF PURIFICATION................................................................25A MANUAL OF MORAL INSTRUCTIONS......................................................38LAWS BEARING ON IMMORALITY..........................................................45LAW OF THE BAN......................................................................47THE LAW OF THE NAZARITE.............................................................48SPIRITUAL PURPOSE OF THE LAWS (Leviticus 11:44-47)..................................52THE LAW OF JUBILEE..................................................................53THE LAW OF HOLY DAYS................................................................61THE TEN COMMANDMENTS................................................................67REGULATIONS CONCERNING PRIESTS AND THE SANCTUARY....................................76LAW OF RECONCILIATION WITH ONE ANOTHER..............................................80REGULATIONS FOR THE PASSOVER FESTIVAL...............................................85CIVIL, CEREMONIAL AND CRIMINAL LAWS CIVIL LAW: CIVIL LITIGATION.....................88THE LAW OF LOVE.....................................................................96THE LAW OF FINANCES.................................................................100THE LAWS OF MOURNING................................................................103THE LAWS OF MARRIAGE................................................................106THE LAWS OF SACRIFICES..............................................................109LAWS OF PAUL'S CONCERNS.............................................................122BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................131

Chapter One

Among the Laws of purity, first place is given to the subject of food, because the daily diet intimately affects man's whole being. God brought Israel out of Egypt to be a holy people, a consecrated people, a people apart, distinguished from all others by outward rites which in themselves helped to constitute holiness. Outward consecration was symbolically to express an inner sanctity. This thought of being a holy people, a light supernaturally kindled, lest darkness should become complete, a witness to God's sovereignty and purity, lest He become utterly unacknowledged in the world He had made, a kingdom of priests, sanctified in themselves, and sanctified for the rest of the world's sake, this sublime thought would be daily impressed on their minds by those commandments which separated them from other nations. These would furthermore, prevent that close and intimate association with heathens, which would result in complete absorption. The Dietary Laws have proven an important factor in the preservation of the Jewish race in the past, and are in more than one respect, an irreplaceable agency for maintaining Jewish identity in the present.

Modern research recognizes that certain animals harbor parasites that are both disease-creating and disease-spreading. Their flesh is consequently harmful to man. Such animals are excluded from the Hebrew dietary, as it is in the blood that the germs or spores of infectious disease circulate. Thus of all, animals must be thoroughly drained of blood before serving for food. This is most effectively done by the Jewish method of Shechitah, and especially by the traditional koshering of the meat before it is prepared for food.

Statistical investigation has demonstrated that Jews as a class are immune from, or less susceptible to certain disease, and their life duration is frequently longer than that of their neighbor. Although much remains to be discovered to explain in every detail the food-laws in Leviticus, sufficient is known to warrant the conviction that their observance produces beneficial effects upon the human body (Leviticus 18:5). The supreme motive of the Dietary Laws remains Holiness, not as a regulating principle in the everyday lives of men, women and children.

The Dietary Laws train us in the mastery over our appetites. They accustom us to restrain both the growth of desire and the disposition to consider pleasure of eating and drinking as the end of man's existence. Whosoever eats forbidden foods become imbued with the spirit of impurity and is cast out the realm of Divine Holiness. Rejection of the Dietary Laws has at various times been considered as equivalent to apostasy.

It was the duty of the Priests to put a difference between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean (Leviticus 10:10).

Whosoever parteth the hoof – instead of enumerating the animals which may be eaten, the general rule is given by which the individual species could be tested. The animal must possess three characteristics: (1) it must divide the hoof, (2) it must be wholly cloven-footed and (3) it must chew the cud.

Cud – food forced up into the mouth from the first stomach of a ruminant and chewed over again.

Camel – at the bottom of the camel's hoof there is an elastic pad or cushion on which the camel gets its foothold in the sand. This pad prevents the hoof from being wholly divided.

Rock-Badger or Coney – this animal and likewise the hare have the habit of working the jaws as though they were masticating food.

Swine – the aversion of the pig is not confined to Israel. The primary abhorrence was caused in all probability, by its loathsome appearance and mode of living.

In the water – the characteristics given in the Law of the permitted animals, chewing the cud and divided hoofs for cattle, and fins and scales for fish, are in themselves neither the cause of the permission, when they are present, nor of the prohibition when they are absent, but signs by which the recommended species of animals can be discerned from those that are forbidden. In general, the Law forbids every kind of shell-fish, which is disease-breeding, especially in hot countries.

Living creatures that are in the water – this alludes to the sea animals which do not come under the category of fish, such as seals and whales.

Detestable thing – the forbidden species are described as unclean, not only uneatable, but the touch of their carcass is defiling with fish this was otherwise. They were detestable and disallowed as food, but they were not defiling by touch.

Fins nor scales in the water – as long as they have the fins and scales, when in the water, they are edible.

Unclean Birds – the birds prohibited all belong to the class denoted as birds of prey, and also those that live in dark ravines or marshy land. But since the Law adds the words, after its kind, the Rabbis enumerated various criteria by which a clean bird may be distinguished in detestation.

Great Vulture – the Hebrew word translated eagle, but it is very probable that the griffon vulture is intended it is the most powerful of the bird of prey (Deuteronomy 32:11).

Osprey – possibly the sea-eagle is intended.

Raven – the species including the crow, jackdaw and rook.

Ostrich – "daughter of wailing", this bird is represented in the Bible as living in dreary ruins (Isaiah 8:21), and...