Scapegoating

Everybody needs a scapegoat, right? Sometimes you just need someone to blame. Well God’s people have had a wonderful tradition to channel this desire into an annual event called Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement): Once a year Aaron shall put both of his hands on a goat’s head and confess over it all the evils, sins, and rebellions of the people of Israel, and so transfer them to the goat’s head. Then the goat is to be driven off into the desert by someone appointed to do it. The goat will carry all their sins away with him into some uninhabited land.
Wonderful thought…

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Leviticus 19:1-18

Today’s Reading is Leviticus 19:1-18.
This chapter is central to the so-called Holiness Code. The motto is; “Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” The Hebrew word for “holiness,” “kedushah” (Hebrew: קדושה‎) has the connotation of “separateness”. So since God is separate from the world so his people are supposed to be special. There is some religious and cultural stuff listed but that is mostly common-sense or general moral practice. A couple of things really stick out though:

Verse 10: “Do not go back through your vineyard to gather the grapes that were missed or to pick up the grapes that have fallen; leave them for poor people and foreigners. I am the LORD your God.”
- God’s people know they were slaves in Egypt once. Hence they have a special responsibility towards their poor.

Verse 18: “love your neighbors as you love yourself.”
- Asked about the most important commandment Jesus quotes this verse, echoing the teaching of the school of Hillel.

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