NOTES for Lev 17:1-16
One of the most important prohibitions of the Old Covenant, found as early as the “post-Flood” covenant with Noah, is the prohibition against consuming blood. Both there and in today's reading, it is emphasized that the reason for this prohibition is that an animal's life, its soul, is in its blood. As we know, blood really does play a vital and irreplaceable role in the functioning of the body: disease or loss of blood is tantamount to loss of life. Thus, today we read not simply about some ritual taboo, but about God's declaration of His undivided authority over life and death. Indeed, since He is the Creator and source of life, He is also its master. He alone can permit human beings to kill animals for food, although it was not so in the beginning, just as He forbids the killing of a human being. Meanwhile, every day people quite legally kill thousands of human beings through abortions, executions, and wars, drinking tons of human blood before the Lord. Humanity assimilates this commandment only with the greatest difficulty. When will we all finally understand that we have no right to kill?