NOTES for Lev 19:1-2

The second part of the Book of Leviticus (from chapter 19 to the end; Bible scholars call this second part of the book "the Code of the holiness") begin with God's call addressed to His people: "be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy". This call can seem somewhat routine, but if we think about its meaning and remember, when it sounded, it will be the most real call for spiritual revolution. According to the opinion of most of Bible scholars, the second part of the Book of Leviticus, usually called "the Code of holiness", was written in the IX or VIII s before J.C., at the time of the First Temple.

Accordingly, holiness was also understood in it as it was understood in the priestly yahviste tradition, not in the sense of righteousness as we usually understand this word today. In the priestly tradition, holiness indicated the consecration of man, a special spiritual state, which man obtains at the altar in the presence of God, a state changing not only the heart and the soul of man, but also his body. The early priestly tradition, roots of which stretches back from the period of Moses, did not require from man to dwell in this state constantly. It was just sufficient for man to remain pure, because the notion of purity in the priestly tradition was connected with the possibility of approaching the altar and of being sanctified.

Now, as we see, the bar is placed higher: it is required from man not simply purity, but especially sanctification, which he always has to keep, and not only when he is in the Temple and participates in the mass and in the sacrificial meal. Probably, such a requirement appeared in the light of a new liturgical experiment appeared at the time of the First Temple, when the kingdom revealed itself to the community as a reality, expressing with an evangelic language, "not of this world". Then became clear that one cannot enter this Kingdom, not being sanctified, and thus, it is necessary to be always sanctified: because one does not know, when will come the day of Judgment and of the triumph of the Kingdom! But the means proposed in the Book of Leviticus have proved inadequate to the given task: the book was able to propose to the faithful only the more rigorous and well elaborated standards and rules of the ritual purity.

They included of course also the abstinence from sin, but such abstinence was prescribed also formerly, it was something taken for granted. There is nothing surprising here: the set task was really insoluble before the coming into the world of Christ, but the author of the Code of holiness could not know it yet. The goal was opened to him, but was not yet opened, with Whose help this goal can be achieved. However even a such incomplete revelation gave a spiritual vector over several centuries forward and prepared the people of God for new revelations, by which it will become clear to him not only the goal, but also the means of achieving it.

We have already seen many definitions of holiness in the Book of Leviticus: as dedication to God, as belonging to His people, as religious and moral purity. Today's chapter also begins with a call to holiness: "You shall be holy, for I am holy." But most of the commandments in this chapter we would perhaps call "norms of social behavior" or "signs of civil society." Among them are commandments about mercy to the poor, honesty in trade, peace with neighbors, and care for parents. It turns out that these are not merely "worldly concerns" unrelated to religion, but no less than the path of holiness.

This path is different in that it cannot be walked only alone. It is the path of society as a single whole - a society that begins with our families and ends with an entire country and the world community. Those accustomed to thinking that holiness is each person's private matter should remember that it can also be a work done together - with the whole world.

Chapter 19 begins the second part of the Book of Leviticus, the part biblical scholars have called the Holiness Code. This name is not accidental: in it God's words are repeated like a refrain, "be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy." What, then, does holiness mean here? Today, as a rule, we understand holiness as righteousness, and specifically Christian righteousness. Those who have become models of such righteousness are the ones we usually call saints. Yet in the Book of Leviticus, and especially in its second part, holiness is understood in a sense already not very different from the New Testament sense.

Here holiness means the state of a person's sanctification, the very state a person acquires when he remains in God's presence. A person became such every time he came to the altar and participated in sacrifice, for there at the altar God was completely and really present, and a person, if he was open to Him, changed just as completely and really as a result of meeting Him.

The problem, however, was that after returning to ordinary everyday life, a person again slid back, becoming what he had been before the encounter with God. The state of sanctification, or holiness, was not stable; it was only temporary, although for truly believing people it was regular enough, since such people usually came to the altar no less than once a week.

For a believing Yahwist, purity had traditionally been considered the main thing: the state of purity made a person ready to meet God and to be sanctified. Now, however, the aim of the believing Yahwist's life becomes not purity, but sanctification itself, holiness as an ordinary, everyday state. This was, of course, an immense task: the revelation had been received, but how to carry it out was not yet clear.

New revelations were needed here, and they came through the prophets, those whom biblical scholars usually call the later prophets, beginning with Amos and ending with Malachi. For the moment, however, the Book of Leviticus offers those seeking a full spiritual life and a relationship with God strict and unwavering observance of all the commandments and all the norms of ritual purity. The goal is clear: to live in such a way as to allow no defilement at all in one's life, not even the slightest. It seemed that if one lived this way, the goal would be reached. It took the experience of many centuries to understand that everything is not so simple and that the goal is not reached by this method; but that is another story.