Gashes and Forelocks

“You shall not gash yourselves nor shave your forelocks in mourning for the dead.”  —Deut. 14.1

Old Testament

Book Five:  Deuteronomy

God’s Laws Delivered by Moses (cont’d)

Chapter 14:  Restrictions on mourning custom and diet

Chapter 14 (cont’d):  Tithing and centralization

Now the boredom is setting in, and presumably is here to stay for a long time.  This chapter just repeats everything we’ve heard a hundred times before, about clean versus unclean animals, cloven hooves and chewing cud.  Unfortunately, I stopped reading for so long, I forgot what is going on with the Levites, but there’s a special dispensation for them.  Apparently they had all their property taken away, so the rules say they need to be taken care of with tithing.  That’s actually an uncommonly moral stance for this book.  There’s really nothing else worth mentioning.  The notes are always interesting, about why these rules are here; it’s all about keeping the Israelites separate and urging them to reject Canaan religions.  (What I love is how obvious it is that Judaism is just one religion among many.  There’s nothing interesting or special about it, it’s just that it’s ours not their dirty religion over there.)

—bibletoenail

Quotables:

“You shall not gash yourselves nor shave your forelocks in mourning for the dead.”  —Deut. 14.1

“You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”  —Deut. 14.21