30: Kedoshim
Welcome to TLDR Torah: a synopsis of the weekly parsha based on Robert Alter’s translation, plus a question to spur your Shabbat dinner (or any!) conversation.
Parsha Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1-20:27)
TLDR:
This parsha provides instructions about how we can be holy, like God. Kedoshim has the Golden Rule like “love your fellow Israelite as yourself,” the origins of the tattoo “can’t be born in a Jewish cemetery” myth, and a repeat of the sexual prohibitions shared in last week’s Parsha. It pays to read closely!
Moses, speaking to the entire community, shares a series of things the people should and should not do to be holy.
The “should” list (positive commandment) includes every parent’s favorite 5th commandment, keeping shabbat, and “loving” strangers who live among the people.
The “should not” (negative commandment) list is more extensive, but mirrors many of the same moral lessons in the should list.
For example, paired with the positive commandment to love strangers is “you shall not wrong them” — and the people are told to care for the needy by not picking their field or vineyards bare. In this context, the negative commandments crystalize how to live by the positive ones.
There are a few lesser-known negative commandments that persist culturally to this day, such as the prohibitions against (1) “rounding off the side-growth of your head”, i.e. long side burns (2) “incise any marks”, i.e. stigma against tattoos (3) mixing different cloths or seeds, or the laws of “shatnez”, which is currently marked by the “Seal of the Kosher Trust” lab. See here.
There are a series of rules about how to treat newly planted land and trees; for three years the fruit can’t be eaten, on the fourth year it goes to God, and only after five years can the fruit be enjoyed.
And lest you had any ideas this weekend, do not practice divination, worship the deity Molech, or start believing in ghosts.
Question:
The parsha outlines moral laws and social taboos, with much talk about obligations and little about rights. Browsing Sefaria’s commentary, I happened on a passage written by renown Chinese translator Yan Fu in 1895 describing the differences between the “West” and China:
'China values the Three [family] Bonds most highly, while the Westerners give precedence to equality. China cherishes relatives, while Westerners esteem the worthy. China governs the realm through filial piety, while Westerners govern the realm with impartiality. China values the sovereign, while Westerners esteem the people. China prizes the one Way, while Westerners prefer diversity . . . In learning, Chinese praise breadth of wisdom, while Westerners rely on human strength.'"
In short, the two societies apply different moral frameworks and emphasize certain values over others (see the MIT moral machine game to test your own!). In a close reading of this parsha, how would you describe the Torah’s moral framework relative to China and the “West”?