An ongoing project I’ve been working on, one that contributes something tangible and useful to the Messianic world, is the Greatest Commandments Project.
The idea is simple: take all the commandments in the Torah and map them in a visual hierarchy, each one deriving from another. It’s inspired from Yeshua’s statement about how the two greatest commandments in the Torah are to love God and love neighbor, and that all the Torah hangs on them.
The result of my labor is this: (Use your mouse wheel to scroll in, click to zoom in.)
Sad-but-true-reality time: I’ve been busy this year; I’ve largely neglected this project. Not only this commandments project, but the commandments themselves I’ve neglected. I hardly study on my own time, because my own time is almost non-existent. I’m always tired, and what little remaining time I have now is spent letting my tukus cells bond with cushioned furniture beneath while I veg out to prime time American television. Sad but true.
Good-intention-will-to-change time: My life is out of order, and my priorities are out of alignment. God told his people that his commandments should be on their lips, on their minds, on their hearts, day to day. In an effort to force my life to move into proper alignment, I’m going to take the weekly Torah portion my congregation is studying and add those commandments to the Greatest Commandments hierarchy. This way I am forced to spend time studying the light-in-the-darkness that is God’s word. And as an added bonus, my Greatest Commandments pet project sees progress.
Amein, amein, give me strength and the will to change, Lord!
Ok.
So with all that weepy telling-you-like-it-is out of the way, let’s get on with it. The Greatest Commandments!
My congregation is on the 4 year Torah cycle. We take breaks from the Torah for special readings, for guest speakers, and so forth. That means we’re not too religious about which bit of Torah we’re on, as long as we’re studying the Torah, we’re good.
And this week we’re on Leviticus 27. This bit of the Torah deals with consecrating people, lands, houses, to God. And putting a monetary value on that consecration.
In Rambam’s famous listing of 613 commandments in the Torah, he finds 12 commandments contained within Leviticus 27. We map most of them now.
Begin!
Treat everything consecrated to God as holy
Hierarchy path: Love God with all your being > Keep all God’s commandments > Treat everything consecrated to God as holy.
Scripture:
But nothing that a person owns and devotes to the LORD—whether a human being or an animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD.
-Leviticus 27:28
Commentary: Of the 6 commandments Rambam finds in Leviticus 27, 3 of them come from a single verse, 28. In this commandment, Rambam interprets in a very general way: “Carry out the laws of interdicting possessions.” That’s a very general interpretation; so general, it is meaningless without some description. Moreover, Rambam finds 2 other commandments regarding selling and redeeming objects devoted to God all within this verse. In light of this, I’ve opted for a more specialized interpretation, one that remains faithful to the text, derived from the last bit of verse 28: everything consecrated to God is to be treated as holy.
No selling anything consecrated to God
Hierarchy path: Love God with all your being > Keep all God’s commandments > Treat as holy everything consecrated to God > No selling anything consecrated to God.
Scripture:
But nothing that a person owns and devotes to the LORD—whether a human being or an animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD.
-Leviticus 27:28
Commentary: Part of the “treat as holy” bit is the idea that if something is consecrated to God with money (as we’ll see momentarily), that thing can’t be sold; it’s consecrated to God. Rambam literally interprets the commandment as “No selling the charem”, which refers to a Kohanic gift irrevocably given over to the Lord.
No redeeming anything consecrated to God
Hierarchy path: Love God with all your being > Keep all God’s commandments > Treat as holy everything consecrated to God > No selling anything consecrated to God > No redeeming anything consecrated to God.
Scripture:
But nothing that a person owns and devotes to the LORD—whether a human being or an animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD.
-Leviticus 27:28
Commentary: This bit of Scripture seems contradictory. I’d like help understanding the bit about nothing being sold or redeemed, considering the verses preceding describe commandments explaining how to redeem something consecrated to the Lord. Even so, Rambam interprets this Scripture likewise, “Not to redeem the cherem.”
Price a person’s vows to the Lord by age and gender
Hierarchy path: Love God with all your being > Keep all God’s commandments > Treat as holy everything consecrated to God > Price a person’s vows to the Lord by age and gender.
Scripture:
Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate a person to the LORD by giving the equivalent value,
The value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel.
The value of a female, set her value at thirty shekels.For a person between the ages of five and twenty, the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels;.
For a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a female at three shekels of silver.
For a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels.
If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.Leviticus 27:2-8
Commentary: Western pseudo-morality has this unspoken yet untouchable law that every human being is worth essentially the same as every other human. Of course, western actions – and CEO salaries – suggest otherwise. Even so, it’s noteworthy that God says if a person devotes himself to God by giving a special vow of money to the priests, the value of that person differs by age and gender. Even though it does not speak about the ultimate worth of a person, it is still noteworthy that vow value is tied to age and gender.
Furthermore, it’s foreign to many believers to tie dedication to God with money. But here we have it in the Torah, in God’s own commandments, that a person can make a special vow dedicating themselves to the Lord. How? By giving money to the priests. We’d better not let the televangelists know about this one. (Good thing they ignore the Torah!)
Rambam interpreted this commandment as the utterly politically-incorrect statement, “To estimate the value of people as determined by the Torah.”
Estimate the value of houses consecrated to the Lord
Hierarchy path: Love God with all your being > Keep all God’s commandments > Treat as holy everything consecrated to God > Price a person’s vows to the Lord by age and gender > Estimate the value of houses consecrated to the Lord.
Scripture:
If anyone dedicates their house as something holy to the LORD, the priest will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, so it will remain. If the one who dedicates their house wishes to redeem it, they must add a fifth to its value, and the house will again become theirs.
Leviticus 27:14
Commentary: There are really 2 commandments here: For priests to estimate the value of a consecrated house, and to add a 5th of the house’s value to its redemption price. Even so, Rambam interprets this as a single commandment, “To estimate the value of consecrated houses.”
Estimate the value of animals consecrated to the Lord
Hierarchy path: Love God with all your being > Keep all God’s commandments > Treat as holy everything consecrated to God > Price a person’s vows to the Lord by age and gender > Estimate the value of animals consecrated to the Lord.
Scripture:
‘If what they vowed is an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the LORD, such an animal given to the LORD becomes holy. They must not exchange it or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one; if they should substitute one animal for another, both it and the substitute become holy. If what they vowed is a ceremonially unclean animal—one that is not acceptable as an offering to the LORD—the animal must be presented to the priest, who will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, that is what it will be. If the owner wishes to redeem the animal, a fifth must be added to its value.
Leviticus 27:9-13
Commentary: Unclean animals were apparently acceptable as a vow for the Lord. From where I stand, this seems almost unthinkable in the Messianic world! Yet the text is pretty clear that ceremonially unclean animals were allowed as a vow to the Lord, and the priest would set the price of the animal accordingly. The commandment regarding adding a fifth of the value to the redemption price is likewise skimmed over by Rambam, who interprets this as “To estimate the value of consecrated animals.”
Well guys, you know that free time I was talking about? Well, it’s already 12:00am. I have to wrap it up for tonight. But I am happy I have finished most of the commandments of Leviticus 27. I hope you enjoyed this commandments hierarchy installment! You’ll be seeing more of this on the Kineti blog as I get back into the light-creating, God-recommended act of studying Torah.
My life is out of order, and my priorities are out of alignment. God told his people that his commandments should be on their lips, on their minds, on their hearts, day to day. In an effort to force my life to move into proper alignment, I’m going to take the weekly Torah portion my congregation is studying and add those commandments to the Greatest Commandments hierarchy.
ReplyDeleteMore than anything you have said, I like this part. I wish more bloggers in the world of religion would admit to being human rather than paragons of virtue and flawlessness. I'd rather listen to one person who isn't perfect, admits it, and continues with the struggle up the mountain of God than 10,000 high-and-mighty "look-at-me-I'm-so-cool-with-God" religious pundits who claim never to make mistakes and to understand the Bible exactly as God intended it.
Hahah, exactly. Sincerity trumps feigned righteousness any day. :-)
ReplyDeleteIf demonstrating my love for HaShem is in His commandments, give me more commandments.
ReplyDeleteBravo, Judah. What a worthy project, what a holy occupation.
Amein!
ReplyDeleteKeep an eye out for another installment this week. My congregation is on Number 1, however, the Rambam finds zero commandments within the first few chapters of Numbers!
So in the coming weeks, I'll be examining the additional commandments within Leviticus 27 and possibly 26.
Thanks for the encouragement.