OT Notes. Lev. 19:1-2, 9-18

Since this book is on ritual, we  rarely use it in Protestant circles.Obviously some of our reading is similar to the Decalogue, so it is a sort of commentary on it, just as the one Jesus gives in the Sermon on the Mount.

2) Holy usually means to be set apart for a special purpose. God's holiness q was of such a distinction and power that mere mortals could not approach the divine presence. Something more has to be going on as the Decalogue commandments are shared by most people, so I do not see how this renders the people to be in  a new classification. Look at how social life dominates this description of holiness. Why?

at. 9, look at the concern for the poor, and please notice the concern for the stranger,the ger, the traveller, the alien. What analogies could we draw to our current economic practices?

3 At 13, look at how the command to not steal expands into defrauding. Then look at the issue of a day's pay for a day;'s work to be immediate. Why would this be important? How could we draw an analogy to the suggestion to try the old populist approach of postal banks?

4) disability demonstrates flaw in creation, no? How does respect for hte disabled get connected to reverence (fear) of God?

5) v. 15 on justice offers the empirical assessment of justice toward the poor in our time as well, both where it is honored and in the breach.

6) The question was posed to Jesus, who is the neighbor? Here it seems to be the general form of all of those groups and people one encounters in the course of everyday life.Look at the grammar of the love your neighbor line. doesn;t it say more along the line of love to/for the neighbor, but my grammar is insufficient to do more than wonder about it.While I am at it, the o word love does not appear all that frequently in the OT. What an interesting choice of a word after all of the injunctions toward social honesty.
 What does it mean to you to hate in the heart?

v. 18 stands against the stupid stereotype of the OT as primitive violence. Like many law codes, it is trying to keep feuds from escalating. To what degree do stand your ground laws turn against this idea? To what extent do victim impact statements try to influence vengeance in the hands of the state for victims, instead of a general evenhanded approach to justice?