By Kobi Bordoley
The Parsha this week, K'doshim -- Leviticus 19:1 - 20.27, performed by God (ft. Moses), is a certified banger, including beloved hits such as...
"You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God."
"You shall not defraud your fellow. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning"
" You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God: I am the Lord."
...and many more!
Unfortunately, this Parsha also includes some embarrassing duds, including but not limited to...
"A man or a woman who has a ghost or a familiar spirit shall be put to death; they shall be pelted with stones — their bloodguilt shall be upon them"
"If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing; they shall be put to death — their bloodguilt is upon them"
"If anyone insults his father or his mother, he shall be put to death; he has insulted his father and his mother — his bloodguilt is upon him."
YIKES! This Parsha really is a mixed bag...what do we make of it? How can we follow a set of laws that on one hand tell us to fight for fair wages (shout-out to March for Minimum Wage) but on the other tells us to police sexuality and stone people to death? Should we throw the whole law out
the door in retaliation towards its unprogressive nature, or pick and choose what we believe, forgetting the less than savory laws? Neither answer seems like a whole lot of fun. The first is drastic, and the second seems hypocritical.
Luckily, Jews have been struggling with these issues for a long time, and we can look to our past for some guidance. Let's take a peek, for example, at a piece of Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (spoiler alert!) and a corresponding Talmudic response:
"If a man has a way-ward and defiant son, who does not heed his father or mother and does not obey them even after they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the public place of his community. They shall say to the elders of his town, "This son of ours is disloyal and defiant; he does not heed us. He is a glutton and a drunkard." Thereupon the men of his town shall stone him to death, thus you will sweep out evil from your midst: all Israel will hear and be afraid"
Seems harsh. The response?
There never has been a stubborn and rebellious son and never will be. Why was the law written? That you may study it and receive reward (Tosefta Sanhedrin 11 :6; Tahnud Sanhedrin 71a).
Basically, Talmudic sages re-read the law, found it silly, and realized that it was only worth studying for the sake of being a scholar/winning your local bible trivia contest.