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Joel Baden

@JoelBaden

30 Aug

#Leviticus 16:20-22

The goat for Azazel

Did the biblical authors believe in the following: divine beings aside from YHWH? various demons and other supernatural beings? spaces not controlled by YHWH? dumping grounds for sins where they wouldn’t bother anyone?

Yes to all.

When we get hung up on the identity of Azazel, we miss the point (in this case, what’s actually happening in the ritual). Was Azazel a goat demon? Maybe! Probably, even. Is the identity of Azazel important here? Not so much, actually.

The question should be: if Aaron has just purified the sanctuary with the purification offerings, even brought inside the inner sanctum, all the way to YHWH’s seat, then what sins are left for hm to be placing on this goat?

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Joel Baden

@JoelBaden

29 Jul

#Leviticus 11:29-38

Impurity from mice (basically)

So there you are, about to make dinner, and you pull out your nice clay cooking pot, and horror! There’s a dead mouse inside! Truly, even today I’d have trouble ever using that pot again. Just chuck it and get a new one.

This section is about the impurity caused by dead mice (and equivalent small animals). This isn’t about anything you’d eat - but nor is it really about some inherent ickiness to these animals (icky though you may find them).

These get a special section because they appear in a different area of life. No one has ever found a dead camel in their soup bowl. You don’t run across the horse that just happened to crawl into your oven and die there. Dead mice and lizards, though? All the damn time. Still!

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Joel Baden

@JoelBaden

28 Jul

#Leviticus 11:24-28

Impurity! (Part one of many)

The laws of Leviticus 11 aren’t only, or even mostly, about what you can eat. Here we turn our attention to what animals create impurity, and how to remove it. And understanding impurity is central to understanding P.

So let’s start with what creates it. In this case, it’s physically touching the carcasses of certain non-kosher animals. But it isn’t their non-kosher-ness that makes them transmit impurity, since kosher carcasses do too (see 11:39). We’re just starting with these.

The animals at stake here are the large land animals that aren’t kosher, but that an Israelite might be likely to touch the carcass of. That is, mostly, domestic animals: donkeys, camels, dogs, cats. Because they’re common, touching them while alive is totally fine.

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Joel Baden

@JoelBaden

10 Jun

#Leviticus 4:3-35

The “sin” offering. But we’re not calling it that.

We know the malady: unintentional sin. Now we get the treatment. It comes in four flavors, but the underlying procedure and concept is the same. And it’s absolutely crucial to understanding P’s system.

I’m going to start with flavor 4: the normal person who commits an unintentional sin. Since, after all, most of us are normal people. And so were most of the Israelites, too. (Kingdom of priests my ass.)

First things first, you have to know you screwed up. Did you unwittingly violate the sabbath? The moment that you realize what day it is, you’re obligated. Or the moment someone yells out the window “Dude, it’s Saturday!” That’s when you’re on the hook.

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Joel Baden

@JoelBaden

9 Jun

#Leviticus 4:2

Here's the introduction to the second major category of sacrifices in Leviticus (and P), and where P goes off into its own little priestly world. Welcome to the involuntary sacrifices. Here we get what you have to offer when you screw up unintentionally.

"How do you screw up unintentionally," you might ask. Well, I'll tell you: when there's a divine commandment not to do something, and you do it without meaning to or without knowing that you did. So says Lev 4:2.

But, you say, give me an example so I know what you mean! Uh...

In pretty classic P style, we get here detailed instructions for a scenario that essentially doesn't exist in reality yet. Because while there have been lots of laws in E to this point, in P...not so much. YHWH hasn't actually given any prohibitions to violate yet.

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Joel Baden

@JoelBaden

8 Jun

#Leviticus 4:1

At this juncture, it’s worth stepping back a second and talking about the major groups of sacrifices in Leviticus, since we’re transitioning from one to the other here.

(There’s obviously nothing worth saying about this actual verse.)

What we’re about to enter into are the sacrifices that are generally described as involuntary: they’re required in certain situations, and the text lays out what those situations are (at least in general terms and for the most part).

What we just read in Lev 1-3, then, is generally described as the voluntary offerings: ones you can bring whenever you like. And this is true! While the next ones tell us the conditions under which you must offer x, what we’ve read so far just says “if you want to offer x.”

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