Thursday, February 10, 2011

Rational Basis

We have rules. Traditional rules.

From Leviticus 10:6

Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD hath kindled.

From Leviticus 11:7-8
And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.

From Leviticus 11:10-11
And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.

From Leviticus 16:29
And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:

From Leviticus 19:16
Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.

From Leviticus 19:18
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

From Leviticus 19:18
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.

From Leviticus 19:31
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

From Leviticus 20:9
For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

From Leviticus 20:10
And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

From Leviticus 20:13
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

From Leviticus 20:27
A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

From Leviticus 24:16
And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.

From Leviticus 26:1
Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it

From Deuteronomy 22:5
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment:

From Deuteronomy 22:11
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.

From Deuteronomy 22:22
If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

From Deuteronomy 22:28-29
If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

Can anyone tell me on what rational basis Traditional Values folk pick and choose among those laws and many others? Let me add that the Jewish Religion has evolved since those days so long ago. There is currently no effective murder penalty in Jewish law except for genocide.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

6 comments:

Sara (Pal2Pal) said...

We were taught in Sunday School that God provided two ways to salvation, strictly follow "the law," such as laid out in Leviticus and thru Christ, who sacrificed himself as the offering and took our sins (failure to follow God's law) upon himself for our salvation.

As to picking and choosing, other than eating shellfish, my all time favorite food, I don't see what would be so hard to follow, if one were of a mind to and it would be even easier if everyone in the community was living the law as well, which, of course, never happens.

We were always taught that the one sin that could not be forgiven was murder, since forgiveness requires restitution and there is no way to restore the life. Works for me.

What is ironic is that I've often heard gays say that nowhere in the Bible is homosexuality actually forbidden, that it is all some religious interpretation by the fundamentalists, but I don't know how much clearer you can be than Lev 20:13. Just sayin'

RavingDave said...

This is a variation on the "Have you stopped beating your wife?" question.


To answer it at all is to accept a false premise.

Micha Elyi said...

For starters, Leviticus contains instructions for Levites regarding the duties of their preistly office. You're making the error of quoting Scripture verses out of context, M. Simon.

M. Simon said...

Micha,

Deuteronomy

Dave,

The beatings have not stopped.

Sara,

Do the conditions which obtained 4,000 years ago still apply (imperfect knowledge)? Or is our knowledge better these days? If so perhaps we have a rational basis for ignoring the old laws and coming up with laws that better fit our age and understanding.

=====

I do find Old Testament Christians amusing though. The very thing the J. man railed against. Stuck in legalisms without love in their hearts.

When I was growing up "Love thy neighbor as thyself" was emblazoned on the front of my orthodox synagogue. Old Testament Christians and New Testament Jews. Hilarious.

Unknown said...

I just stumbled across your blog, so I don't know your background - you say you went to orthodox synagogue growing up, are you still 'frum'?

I'm curious because while I agree Judaism has evolved, all of these laws are very much "on the books". Meaning under Jewish law the adulterers etc get capital punishment. Sadlt, Jews are not able to exercise many aspects of Jewish law since the secular law overrides in these fields, but these laws are still the law. True in Israel they only really have a death penalty for genocide, but that is Jews applying a common law legal system, not a Jewish law system.

As for the practicality of convicting and executing, see the end of the 1st perek in makkot. Turns out the death penalty debate is quite old.

Unknown said...

I just stumbled across your blog, so I don't know your background - you say you went to orthodox synagogue growing up, are you still 'frum'?

I'm curious because while I agree Judaism has evolved, all of these laws are very much "on the books". Meaning under Jewish law the adulterers etc get capital punishment. Sadlt, Jews are not able to exercise many aspects of Jewish law since the secular law overrides in these fields, but these laws are still the law. True in Israel they only really have a death penalty for genocide, but that is Jews applying a common law legal system, not a Jewish law system.

As for the practicality of convicting and executing, see the end of the 1st perek in makkot. Turns out the death penalty debate is quite old.