Within the laws about the Tabernacle is a collection of laws that modern scholars call the “Holiness Collection” because of its persistent concern for holiness. While it includes further rules about the Tabernacle and the priests, it extends the concept of holiness to the people as a whole. It charges them to become holy like God and incorporates ethical and social laws into the regimen for achieving holiness, such as the requirement to love one’s fellow as oneself (Leviticus 19:18) and laws against incest (Leviticus 18 and 20), as well as a comprehensive calendar of holy days (Leviticus 23) and the sabbatical and jubilee years (Leviticus 25). It concludes with a long list of blessings for obeying God’s laws and curses for disobeying (Leviticus 26).
The parting was not long in coming. My father died two months before I turned six.
To this day, I go to him at difficult times. Mostly to complain that he abandoned me. The handful of memories that he…
“But what is dayenu? What is sufficient for us?” asks the Wise Daughter.
Dayenu
If Eve had been created in the image of God
and not as helper to Adam,
it would have sufficed.
Dayenu.
אִילוּ נוֹצְרַה…
Scribes writing lists, Nimrud, late eighth century BCE. Two Assyrian scribes, standing side by side, make lists of booty as it comes in. One writes on a clay tablet and the other writes on a scroll.