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My Dear Students,
In his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon wrote with condescension and
a tinge of anti-Semitism that Judaism was characterized by its "peculiar distinction
of days, of meat, and a variety of trivial and burdensome observances."
Trivia and burden—that is how many people view the third Book of the Torah, Leviticus.
The book is a confusing swirl of baffling practices, peculiar laws, and ornate rituals.
I have heard a number of people commit to reading the entire Bible who sail through
Genesis, glide through Exodus, only to give up after plodding through a few chapters of
Leviticus.
But Leviticus teaches an important lesson, through its dichotomies of holiness and profane,
pure and impure, festival times and secular days, "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not,"
the lesson is that separation is of critical importance.
G-d creates by establishing boundaries between light and darkness, kinds of water, sea and
earth, humans and the rest of the world. Stability is fashioned through limiting creation, imposing
order on chaos through separating.
This teaches us that there are boundaries that should not be crossed and things that
should not be mixed and this is a constant theme of Scripture. Adam and Eve learned,
to their great hurt, that what G-d placed off limits was not to be taken.
How we need this insight today when society embraces the proposition that if something
can be done, then it should be done; that if something is possible, it is permissible.
The pervading ethos is "Just Do It!" Limits and boundaries have been excised from the
vocabulary of many who do not consider that they are trespassing into areas better left
unvisited.
A sign of wisdom is the recognition of boundaries. A relationship can thrive only with an acceptance
of limits. There are words that can be said and others better left unsaid; acts to be
performed and others better left undone.
The foul pole on a baseball field is actually in fair territory. When we are tempted to
call what is fair "foul," and what is foul "fair," we should remember that it
is not a "trivial" matter to accept the "burden" of limits.
Shabbat Shalom