Acharei Mot – Kedoshim

After the doings of Egypt, where you dwelled, you shall not do, and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do, and you shall not walk in their statutes. Practice My ordinances…

18:3-4

The social aspects of human interaction reflect a nation’s concepts of law and statehood. As a rule, the motives and principles – pure and honest, or otherwise – from which these patterns of conduct are derived are transparently clear and can be discerned from the conditions they are intended to regulate…On the other hand, the individual aspects of personal and family life, and also the ethos that characterizes a nation as one entity, are usually shaped by more or less vague notions concerning the relationship of individuals and nations to God..

Samson Raphael Hirsch (19^th Century)

(The purpose of these laws is to impart holiness to the Jewish people)…There is also no statement which is more fraught with danger in terms of faith. The problem is that this can be interpreted, and has been interpreted – sometimes unintentionally, and other times deliberately – as if the Jewish people, by its nature, has something which imparts to it a connotation of sanctity. This view frees the Jew from responsibility, and makes him feel certain in those areas where one may not feel certain, because they are matters which are an aim and a goal and an obligation and a duty, and they are not given automatically. “Holy” is a task and a duty which the Jewish people is obligated to accomplish, not an innate quality.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz (20^th Century)

This portion can be seen as transitional…Egypt represents the Israelites’ past and Canaan represents its future. More than any other nation, these two nations are likely to have an impact on the character and values of the people of Israel…In the wilderness, the Israelites were suspended between two cultures, and God commanded them to maintain their spiritual independence with respect to both. Severing themselves from the laws of Egypt marks the culmination of the process of redeeming the people from Egypt, and keeping their distance from the laws of Canaan marks the beginning of the people’s preparing to enter the land…

Abraham Walfish (Contemporary)

Yet assimilation failed. It failed because it did not put an end to the anguish felt by the Jewish soul. Assimilation failed because it did not placate the non-Jews, or put an end to anti-Semitism; on certain points, it stirred up heated reactions and arguments once more. Anguish and anxiety still surreptitiously alter apparently free behavior and every Jew remains, in the largest sense of the word, a Marrano…Assimilation seems to have a lead to dissolution…if the Jews do not convert…it is not because they believe in Judaism, but because they no longer believe in anything religious.

Emmanuel Levinas (20^th Century)