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Moral, liturgical, ritual and legal laws regulating the life of Israel according to the ideal of holiness Lev.19:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Lev.19:2. make known to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, “Be holy, for holy am I the Lord your God.” An indication of the fundamental law of life for Israel and its individual members: the assimilation into one’s own possession of that holiness that in an unconditional sense belongs only to God (cf. Lev. 11.44), the sanctification of the life of Israel by following the institutions and decrees of God, which embraced the entire life of the people of God. The laws of clean and unclean symbolically expressed this idea of ​​Israel's sanctification. Lev.19:3. Fear every one his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Among the laws, the commandments of the Decalogue are primarily recalled: about honoring parents (cf. Exodus 20:8, 12) and about keeping the Sabbath (cf. Exodus 31:13, 14) - commandments expressed in a positive (and not in a negative, like all the other commandments of the Decalogue) form. Lev.19:4. Do not turn to idols and do not make cast gods for yourself. I am the Lord your God. Prohibition of idolatry (cf. Exodus 20.4–6). The idols are called elilim, nonentity (cf. 1 Cor 8.4), and cast gods. Lev.19:5. When you offer a peace offering to the Lord, offer it to gain favor for yourself: Lev.19:6. on the day of your sacrifice and on the next day you must eat it, and what remains on the third day you must burn in the fire; Lev.19:7. if anyone begins to eat it on the third day, it is vile, it will not be favorable; Lev.19:8. whoever eats it will bear sin, for he has desecrated the holiness of the Lord, and that soul will be cut off from among his people. Repetition of the laws about the peace offering, namely the consumption of its meat (cf. Lev. 7.15–18), for guidance in the personal religious life of everyone. Lev.19:9. When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the edge of your field, and do not gather what is left of your harvest. Lev.19:10. and you shall not strip your vineyard clean, and you shall not gather up the berries that fall in the vineyard; leave it to the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God. Verses 9–18 give some rules regarding justice, honesty, mercy, and love for others. In the first place, the right of the poor is protected, with whom the aliens - strangers living among Israel - are compared. With great humanity, the legislator demands that these people are not forgotten by the owners and owners when collecting grain, grapes, of course, and other products of the earth (cf. Lev. 23.22; Deut. 24.19–21). The size of the portion given to the poor - the edge of the unharvested field (peah), left or forgotten in the field and vineyard, was left to the discretion of each, generosity and compassion. In the Mishnah, where an entire tract is devoted to this point. “Pea”, the minimum of the mentioned donations (in particular of the unharvested land) is determined at 1/60 of the owner’s total property. Lev.19:11. Don't steal, lie or deceive each other. Lev.19:12. Do not swear falsely by My name, and do not dishonor the name of your God. I am the Lord [your God]. Lev.19:13. Do not offend your neighbor and do not rob. The mercenary's payment should not remain with you until the morning. The 8th commandment of the Decalogue is recalled, and crimes against it are warned - the appropriation of someone else's property in all types of this sin: secret theft, obvious with violence (robbery), cunning deception with a false oath, unjust delay of payment to a day laborer (cf. Deut. 24.14-15; Jer. 32.13; Mal. 3.5; Jas. 5.4). Lev.19:14. Do not speak evil of the deaf and do not place anything before the blind to cause him to stumble; fear the [Lord] your God. I am the Lord [your God]. Lev.19:15. Do not commit untruth in court; do not show partiality to the poor and do not please the person of the great; judge your neighbor with righteousness. Mockery and anger against persons with serious physical disabilities - deafness and blindness - reveal the lack of fear of God in man and the consciousness of God's omniscience; Moreover, the countless offended were deprived of the opportunity to seek retribution for the offenders. Therefore, the formidable curse of God (see Deut. 27.18) against the offenders was supposed to protect the helpless. On the other hand, in relation to the weak, such as the poor, any partial indulgence is prohibited (cf. Ex. 23.1-3.5-8), which is unacceptable in relation to the strong. Lev.19:16. Do not act as a bearer among your people, and do not rebel against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord [your God]. Lev.19:17. Do not be hostile to your brother in your heart; reprove your neighbor, and you will not bear sin for him. Lev.19:18. Do not take revenge or have malice against the sons of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord [your God]. The law of love and benevolence towards one's neighbor, commanded here (Lev.19:18), is preceded by negative regulations: 1) do not slander your neighbor and generally not contribute to the death of your neighbor (cf. Exodus 23.7) or (according to the interpretation of Jewish authorities) even avoid not providing assistance to him in view of his impending death (Lev.19:16); 2) not to be carried away by a feeling of revenge against one’s neighbor, to avoid especially secret malice against him, preferring to open accusation of him (Lev. 19:17; Vulg.: non oderis fratrem tuum in corde tuo, sed publice arzge eum). Directly following the prohibition of “revenge” is the positive “royal law according to Scripture” (James 2.8) - the law of loving one’s neighbor as oneself. From a comparison of Art. 18 from Art. 34 it is clear that not just a fellow tribesman is named after a neighbor, but also a person in general, for example, a stranger who has settled among the Jews. Nevertheless, the national exclusivity of the Jews early on prompted the limitation of the obligatory nature of this commandment within the boundaries of their own people only (Grotius: proximum hic, ut et in omnibus Mosis legibus, Israelitam solum, aut extraneum legi subjectum intelligunt Hebraei). Lev.19:19. Keep My statutes; Do not mix your cattle with another breed; You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seeds; Do not wear clothes made of different threads, wool or linen. Without a direct connection with the previous one, a decree is given to preserve the “statutes” of God - during creation, certain boundaries of different types of being, and together with the moral laws of God. It is precisely forbidden (cf. Deut. 22.9–11) to artificially combine heterogeneous things (Heb. kifaim - the title of an entire treatise of the Mishnah, developing the thought of this verse, Lev. 19.19): 1) breeding bastards of livestock; 2) sowing one area of ​​the field with different seeds and 3) preparing clothing from fabrics of dissimilar threads (schaatnez - Egyptian or Coptic word) - not only a chemical (according to the interpretation of the Jewish tradition), but also a mechanical combination in one clothing of wool and flax (cf. Deut. 22.11), the main materials of clothing for the Jews. In addition to respect for the laws laid down by the Creator, this decree could arouse horror in people towards the abominations mentioned in Lev. 18.22–24; understood in an allegorical sense, it could protect Jews from mixing with pagans (Blessed Theodore, question 27). Lev.19:20. If someone sleeps with a woman, and she is a slave, betrothed to her husband, but not yet redeemed, or freedom has not yet been given to her, then they must be punished, but not by death, because she is not free: Lev.19:21. let him bring to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting a trespass offering, a ram for his trespass offering; Lev.19:22. and the priest will make atonement for him with the ram of trespass before the Lord from the sin that he has committed, and the sin that he has sinned will be forgiven him. Victim of guilt for seducing and desecrating a betrothed slave (if she were free, the death of the seducer would have been required, Deut. 18.25–26, or also the seduced one, Lev. 18:23–24). Lev.19:23. When you come to the land [that the Lord God will give you] and plant any fruit tree, then consider its fruits as uncircumcised: for three years you must consider them as uncircumcised; you must not eat them; Lev.19:24. and in the fourth year all its fruits should be dedicated to the feasts of the Lord; Lev.19:25. in the fifth year you may eat its fruit and gather for yourselves all its produce. I am the Lord your God. The law, like some others (Lev. 14:34, 23:10, 25:2), had to come into force only after Israel entered Canaan and with the beginning of sedentary life itself. Once a fruit tree is planted, the law regulates the use of its fruits by dividing the life of the tree into the following 3 periods: 1) for the first 3 years, its fruits are forbidden to eat, as something uncultured, “uncircumcised” - unclean (cf. Isa 52.1; Jer 6.10); 2) in the 4th year, the entire collection of the fruits of the tree should be dedicated to Jehovah, as thanksgiving (hitlulim, Vulg.: laudabilis, slav.: “praiseworthy”) for the fertilization of the tree - like the firstfruits of its fruits; 3) from the 5th year, the fruits of the tree were the property of its owner, and he, for strict compliance with the law, was promised “profit” (glor.; Heb.: lehosiph - for adding) fruits (LXX: πρόσὕεμα ὑμῖν τὰ γενήματα). The basis and significance of the law is not so much agricultural and practical (the benefits of proper tree care, eliminating the harm of eating raw, immature fruits), although the law could have had this in mind, but religious and theocratic - the dedication to Jehovah of the first works for the sanctification of the entire integrity of objects used by man for his own benefit: quite similar to the dedication of the firstborn of livestock (Ex 13:12, 34:19). This article was developed by the Talmudists into a whole treatise “Orla” (“uncircumcised”). Lev.19:26. Do not eat with blood; don’t tell fortunes or tell fortunes. Lev.19:27. Do not cut your head round, and do not spoil the edges of your beard. Lev.19:28. For the sake of the deceased, do not make cuts on your body and do not inscribe writings on yourself. I am the Lord [your God]. Lev.19:29. Do not defile your daughter by allowing her to commit fornication, so that the land does not commit fornication and the land is not filled with depravity. Lev.19:30. Keep My Sabbaths and honor My sanctuary. I am the Lord. Lev.19:31. Do not turn to those who summon the dead, and do not go to wizards, and do not bring yourself to the point of being desecrated by them. I am the Lord your God. The prohibition of certain superstitions that existed in the cult and life of the Egyptians and other peoples with whom Israel came into contact in one way or another: 1) eating meat with blood (Lev.19:26, cf. Lev.7.26), according to the explanation of the rabbis, from a still living animal - probably a generally superstitious custom associated with belief in the special power of blood; the reading of the LXX is different: ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρέων (glav.: “do not eat on the mountain”), it may indicate the custom of the pagans to slaughter their victims on the mountains; in this regard, 2) all kinds of divination (Heb. nachasch; LXX: οἰωνίζεσθαι , Vulg.: augurari - fortune telling by the flight of birds) and fortune telling (Lev.19:26, cf. Lev.20.6); 3) cutting the hair on the head and beard (cf. Jer. 9.25, 26) for pagan-superstitious purposes, as, for example, the ancient Arabs, according to Herodotus 3:8, shaved off the hair on the temples in honor the god Orotal, whom the Greeks related to Bacchus; 4) mutilation of the body with cuts in honor of the dead (cf. Deut. 14.1), in particular tattooing: both were in great use among the peoples of the East, as it remains to this day among savages, for example, in the Caroline Islands (cf. Jer. 16:6, 41:5, 47:5; 1 Kings 18.28). ); 5) religious (for example, in honor of Astarte-Melita, cf. Gen 38) prostitution, which would defile the earth and the sanctuary of Jehovah; 6) summoning the dead and magic in general (LXX: ἐγγαστρίμυθοις, glav.: “uterine fables” - ventriloquism; cf. Blessed Theodore, question 29). Lev.19:32. Stand up before the gray head and honor the face of the old man, and fear the [Lord] your God. I am the Lord [your God]. Lev.19:33. When a stranger settles in your land, do not oppress him: Lev.19:34. the stranger who settles with you, let him be to you the same as your native; love him as you love yourself; for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Lev.19:35. Do not commit unrighteousness in judgment, in measure, in weight and in measurement: Lev.19:36. May you have faithful scales, faithful weights, faithful ephah, and faithful hin. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Moral and social instructions: a) about respect for the elders (by zaqen the rabbis arbitrarily mean only wise men), in which it is commanded to honor divine authority (Lev.19:33–34); b) love for neighbors (Lev.19:18) should also extend to foreigners who settled in the land of Israel and accepted its laws (cf. Exodus 22:21, 23:9); c) strict justice and honesty in court, in trade and throughout society - “in court, in measure, in weight and in measurement.” Lev.19:37. Keep all My statutes and all My laws and do them. I am the Lord [your God]. The exhortation to the strict observance of laws and regulations, the sanctity of which is protected by the authority of Jehovah, is repeated. You might be interested in: