“You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean; and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statues that the LORD has spoken to them through Moses.” –Lev 10.10-11 NRSV
In the introduction to Leviticus in The HarperCollins Study Bible, biblical scholar Jacob Milgrom describes the role of the priest as a pedagogic one; the priest is called not only to carry out the rituals commanded by God, but to teach the people of Israel how to live as God’s holy and chosen people.
This teaching happens not in addition to, but through the ritual acts of the priests; Milgrom points out the connection between ritual and ethics, saying that “the ethical element fuses with and even informs the ritual, so that one may seek a moral basis behind each ritual act” (150). What this means is that there are no simply ritual acts—ritual acts are inherently connected to and informed by ethical acts.
In a very real way, by carrying out the rituals commanded by God, the priests are teaching the people of Israel an ethical lesson, a lesson in how to live. Central to this lesson is the holiness and distinction of the people of God. The rituals described throughout Leviticus distinguish between “the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean” (10.10)—these rituals represent and embody the ways in which the people of Israel are a chosen and holy people, set apart as the people of God. Once again, ritual is inseparable from ethics.
With all this in mind, I have a few questions (and no answers). I invite reflection and dialogue!
1. What are our rituals?
2. (What) do our rituals teach?
3. (In what ways) are ritual & ethics connected in today’s church?
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