Laws and Rituals

 Although Leviticus is named for the Levites, it has little to do with them  It concentrates on Aaron and his descendants with priestly functions.

 Guidelines for proper sacrifices of animals or grains  Instructions for high priests, the individual, and the community

 Aaronites (priests)  The priests’ world view saw mutually exclusive categories with boundaries that should never be crossed  Don’t mix things  Wool and linen  “clean” and “unclean”

 Women’s biological functions considered “unclean” (not suitable to mix with other bodily fluids)  Strict rules about women after childbirth  Leviticus forbids a liaison with the wife of a brother (Deuteronomy says exactly the opposite)

 “scapegoat offering”  Two goats prepared for sacrifice  One killed, the other the ‘scapegoat’ and sent carrying the weight of sins into the desert  Azazel  Is Azazel the desert, a place?  Or is Azazel a demon of the desert that destroys the sinful goat?

 Any innocent person who suffers for the crimes of others  It is expressed also in Isaiah “On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed” By taking away the people’s collective offenses, the scapegoat ceremony places them “at one” with their God.

 Laws that Israel must observe to acquire a holiness appropriate to Yahweh’s people  Despite focus on animal sacrifice, the “P” authors believe sacrifice is no substitute for honorable behavior.

 Mixed in with detailed regulations  The only command in the Pentateuch to “love your neighbor” is in Leviticus “You must neither be partial to the little man, nor overawed by the great; you must pass judgment on your neighbor according to justice...”

 Scholars note similar passages in Leviticus and in Ezekiel  Some date Leviticus to as late as the 5 th or 6 th century BCE  The Prophet Jeremiah said none of the sacrificial directives originated in the time of Moses