You know that old saying "cleanliness is next to godliness?" Well that certainly applies to today's reading (and, in fact, many of the past readings as well). Holiness, as mentioned before, is a state of separation from the "other." One is not holy because one believes in God. Rather, one is holy because one carries out all of God's commandments correctly. That is why the law books are contained within the bible - to show how to be holy in the eyes of God.
In many cases holiness is separation from uncleanliness. Anything that can defile you physically or mentally is to be avoided. You are to have a clean mind and body. The priests (Aaron's sons) must be exceptionally clean, as they act between intermediaries between God - the most holy - and the people - who aren't as holy. Furthermore, the head priest must be the cleanest, most holy member of the priesthood, as he deals the most directly with God. Cleanliness here is quite literally next to godliness.
How do we read these commandments for cleanliness/holiness as literature? There are a number of ways, but today I will analyze the power structures within Israelite religion as the Israelites wander in the desert. These power structures are based on a hierarchy of holiness, which favors certain people over one another, but overall attempts to ensure that all the people of Israel are sufficiently acceptable (holy) in the eyes of God.
The Holiness of Priests: Leviticus 21.1-24
This chapter is comprised of commandments for the priests only.
Priests are to be kept away from death. They defile themselves for coming into contact with anyone but their immediate family: father, mother, brother, son, daughter, and virgin sister. The sister must be a virgin in accordance with a biblical "sex marriage economy," which treats women as property that drops in value with the loss of virginity. A virgin sister would not be married, and therefore is still the property of her father. Her priest brother may therefore bury her. As soon as she is married she becomes the property of another man, and she may no longer be buried by her priest brother.
The priest cannot bury his wife either, and I am inclined to believe this is because she is not necessarily from the same family. The head priest must marry a member of his family (though outside of the ring of incest), but the other priests have no such prohibition. In this case, the wife has roots elsewhere and therefore should be buried by her own family.
As in the last post, priests may not display mourning by cutting their hair, shaving their beards at the edges, or scaring their flesh.
The scripture continues:
They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the Lord’s offerings by fire, the food of their God; therefore they shall be holy. They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled; neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband. For they are holy to their God, and you shall treat them as holy, since they offer the food of your God; they shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, I who sanctify you, am holy. When the daughter of a priest profanes herself through prostitution, she profanes her father; she shall be burned to death.I am going to break this down into two parts. First, notice the two sections marked in red. They essentially say the same thing, right? This is referred to as an inclusio, a narrative unit in which the beginning and end are marked off by a key phrase. It's kind of like envelope structure, though envelope structure can span over many verses, even over a chapter. It might be difficult to tell from the analysis I have given, but actually this inclusio shifts the audience from Moses to Israel as a whole. The opening of the inclusio speaks generally of the priests, but the closing directly addresses the Israelites: "they shall be holy to you." That's some ancient editing you're seeing there. Pretty cool, right?
(Lev. 21.6-9)
Second, notice the appearance of the biblical sex marriage economy. The value of a woman is not monetary, but symbolic. Women who have prostituted themselves or been married or raped are not suitable for priests - their previous sexual experience lowers their value in the economy. Her status as a virgin, however, is not explicated. Furthermore, a priest's daughter is to remain pure, and as the property of her father, she profanes her father through prostitution. The way to rectify this profanity is to completely remove all traces of the daughter through incineration, thereby removing the guilt and the potential for more guilt. No animal sacrifice is required, to expiate the sin that is brought on the priest father, and her death in imitation of sacrifice removes the guilt from him.
The high priest is not allowed to mourn at all for anyone. He shall not encounter a dead body, even that of his mother or father. He shall not leave the sanctuary as he will track in unholiness when he returns. He is to only marry a virgin, the most valuable object in the sex marriage economy. The woman must be of his own kin, presumably so that the priestly line remains pure.
Though Aaron's family receives the meat and grain of sacrifice, not everyone qualifies in making the actual sacrifice to God. Anyone who is blemished may not make a sacrifice to God. That is, these people are not holy enough - not far enough from the common people and not close enough to God. These people may eat the food - indeed, it is their only food source, but they may not approach the altar or make sacrifice. Doing so would profane the sanctuary. Here are the explicit blemishes that will prevent a member of Aaron's family from making sacrifice:
- Blindness
- Lameness
- Mutilated face
- Possessing a limb that is too long
- Broken foot
- Broken hand
- Hunchback
- Dwarfism
- Blemish in the eye
- Itching disease
- Scabs (skin disease)
- Crushed testicles
The Use of Holy Offerings: Leviticus 22.1.16
In order to avoid profaning themselves, the priests must make offerings in a very specific manner. Any unclean person who encroaches upon the sacred donations will be cut off from God's presence. In addition to the prohibitions of sacrifice above, any of Aaron's relatives with a skin disease or a discharge may not eat sacrificed meat or grain until he is clean. Conditions which sully a person for a day - such as contact with a corpse, an emission of semen, or touching an unclean animal or human - require the person to wash himself and wait until the sun sets before eating, when he will be clean. Priests may not eat meat of animals that died of natural causes or that was killed by wild animals. Eating such meat is condoned for laypeople.
Only those in the priest's family may eat of the sacred donations. Laypeople may not eat of the sacred donations, except for purchased slaves. If a priest's daughter marries a layman, she may not eat of the sacrificed food. This is due to her becoming the property of a layperson by the sex marriage economy. Her status is lowered so that she may not partake of the sacrificed food. However, if she is widowed or divorced without offspring, she may again eat of the sacred donations, as she has returned to her original state of property of her father.
If a layperson does eat of the sacred donation unintentionally, he is to add one-fifth to its value and give the donation to the priest.
If a priest profanes the sacred donation, he is required to make a guilt offering.
Acceptable Offerings: Leviticus 22.17-33
The rigid requirements for sacrifices are nearly as stringent as for those who may make sacrifice. And in fact, many of the laws regarding sacrifice parallel laws governing humans.
An offering in payment of a vow or as a freewill offering that is taken and slaughtered and burnt by a priest must be a male without blemish. The animal may be cattle, a sheep, or a goat. It must be perfect. Here are some of the characteristics that would preclude a goat from being sacrificed. Those characteristics shared with humans that cannot make sacrifices are highlighted in red.
- Blind
- Injury
- Maiming
- Discharge
- Itching disease
- Scabs (Skin disease)
- Bruised or crushed or torn or cut testicles
- Animals from foreigners (blemished by their very nature)
These prohibitions of the animals that can be sacrificed parallel the prohibitions of people that may offer sacrifice because the Lord requires a high level of holiness. These are apparently the ways in which unholiness manifests itself.
Another parallel is that an ox or sheep or goat should remain with its mother seven days after its birth. It may be burned on the eighth day. This plays off of the circumcision commandment, in which the child remains in a state of flux for seven days before its circumcision, when it officially joins the covenant that God has established with the Israelites. Likewise for livestock, it is only on the eighth day that the newborn animal may be sacrificed to God.
More rules: The mother may not be slaughtered on the same day as its offspring. Thanksgiving offerings must be eaten on the day of slaughter.
The chapter ends with a reminder to the Israelites of where they have come from and whose commandments they are obeying:
Thus you shall keep my commandments and observe them: I am the Lord. 32You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel: I am the Lord; I sanctify you, 33I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.
(Lev 22.31-33)
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