On Wed, 5 Dec 2001 21:33:19 +1100, “Rowland Croucher” <> wrote:

Les’s is an interesting suggestion. Many Christian missionaries do just that – and start with narrative books like Genesis, Ruth, Jonah etc. Two problems for most non-Jewish readers of the O.T.: the levitical laws and genealogies tend to bog ’em down. And the notion of a warrior-God leads ’em to all sorts of questions which are best dealt with at a later stage in their quest.

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Are you referring to the laws contained in Leviticus? They are also a repetition of some of what is commonly called the “Ten Commandments”, or what Jews call the “Asseret Hadibrot” or the “Ten Sayings”.

Leviticus contains the laws of sacrifices. Jewish children start learning Scripture with Leviticus, “because children are pure and the sacrifices are pure”. These laws of sacrifices banish concepts of magic, incantation and superstition and human sacrifice in sacrifical cults and idolatry. It teaches that you can’t be sacrificed for someone else’s sins and that sacrifices must be brought as the completion of repentance, and not instead of.

It contains the laws of morality, and what some have referred to the “Golden Rule in Judaism”, the commandment; “You Shall Love Your Neighbour As Yourself” (Lev 19:18). The fact that Christians don’t read Leviticus explains the reasons why they think that Jesus was the first in teaching it.

The commandments contained in Leviticus are of vital importance and are used to teach important lessons in moral guidance. Or as Proverbs 6:23 put it; “For a commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light”.

We can’t ignore the “Warrior G-d” because it is an aspect of G-d’s exercise of justice. Some wars must be fought in the same way that a G-d of Justice cannot allow wickedness to exist unchecked. It means that although humanity may fail in exercising justice, G-d will not.

All that said, the Hebrew Psalms would have to be the best collection of human emotions confronting life and God in any language. Pity most modern Christian songs only use half of them 🙂 Well there are quite a few. We have a cycle of saying all 150 – some over a year, some over summer. We say certain Psalms for specific life events, calamities, births, deaths, thanksgiving, marriage, sabbath, festivals, etc. My favourite is Psalm 23 sung in Hebrew on a Sabbath. On a summer Sabbath afternoon, when eating the third Sabbath meal, it is marvellously elevating and deeply spiritual.

Les Brown