Summary: God speaks to Aaron (a rarity), and lays down the rules for priests and Levites regarding the tabernacle and other holy objects. He also details how they are to take a portion of each sacrifice for themselves.
God also details the rules for sacrificing a red heifer. The ashes from the sacrifice are used as part of the purification of people (or things) who have touched a dead body. It's not a sin, per se, to touch a corpse, but it does require ritual cleansing afterwards.
Thoughts: Something's made explicit here which is generally more tacit-the priestly class gets the best part of each sacrifice for themselves. Someone more suspicious than I might suggest the whole sacrifice thing is just a scam, whereupon the priests get to live high on the hog for not doing all that much. I'm sure that's not it, though.
The red heifer bit leads to one of great concepts of Judaism-it's a chok. Chok means basically, "law that makes no rational sense, therefore it must be from God." I can't think of a better example of the cultural gulf between me and believers than that idea. Sherman, set the WABAC Machine to 1200 B.C.!
Priest: ...and also, you can't mix meat and dairy.
Me: Why? There's no reason for that.
Priest: Exactly! Thereby proving that it's a divine rule!
Me: What? That doesn't make any sense. Irrationality doesn't define divinity...or if it does, you can include me out.
Priest: Look, do you want to get stoned? Cheeseburgers are off the menu, and that's that.
Chok is sort of the ultimate expression of fideism-the idea that religion is dependent on faith, and that reason is, at best, irrelevant, and at worst, actively in opposition to belief. Perhaps it is best I respectfully pass over this concept, and merely point out that Douglas Adams rather nicely took the wind out of it.
Interestingly, there is today an intense search for a red heifer by these wackdoodles, who view it as a prerequisite to the building of a Third Temple. Okay.
Great quotes: And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are given as a gift for the LORD, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. (Num 18:6) Levites-the perfect gift for the man who has everything.
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