I have searched and surveyed the Books of the Pentateuch and found many Laws that God has set forth in the beginning. God also set the orders. God has placed in order the food diet. Man's most sacred privilege is freedom of will; the ability to obey or d

The Laws and Orders of God

By Gilbert H. Edwards, Sr.

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Dr. Gilbert H. Edwards, Sr.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-0271-5

Contents

PREFACE.............................................................................ixINTRODUCTION........................................................................xiDIETARY LAWS........................................................................1LAWS OF PURIFICATION................................................................25A MANUAL OF MORAL INSTRUCTIONS......................................................38LAWS BEARING ON IMMORALITY..........................................................45LAW OF THE BAN......................................................................47THE LAW OF THE NAZARITE.............................................................48SPIRITUAL PURPOSE OF THE LAWS (Leviticus 11:44-47)..................................52THE LAW OF JUBILEE..................................................................53THE LAW OF HOLY DAYS................................................................61THE TEN COMMANDMENTS................................................................67REGULATIONS CONCERNING PRIESTS AND THE SANCTUARY....................................76LAW OF RECONCILIATION WITH ONE ANOTHER..............................................80REGULATIONS FOR THE PASSOVER FESTIVAL...............................................85CIVIL, CEREMONIAL AND CRIMINAL LAWS CIVIL LAW: CIVIL LITIGATION.....................88THE LAW OF LOVE.....................................................................96THE LAW OF FINANCES.................................................................100THE LAWS OF MOURNING................................................................103THE LAWS OF MARRIAGE................................................................106THE LAWS OF SACRIFICES..............................................................109LAWS OF PAUL'S CONCERNS.............................................................122BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................131

Chapter One

DIETARY LAWS

Among the Laws of purity, first place is given to the subject of food, because the daily diet intimately affects man's whole being. God brought Israel out of Egypt to be a holy people, a consecrated people, a people apart, distinguished from all others by outward rites which in themselves helped to constitute holiness. Outward consecration was symbolically to express an inner sanctity. This thought of being a holy people, a light supernaturally kindled, lest darkness should become complete, a witness to God's sovereignty and purity, lest He become utterly unacknowledged in the world He had made, a kingdom of priests, sanctified in themselves, and sanctified for the rest of the world's sake, this sublime thought would be daily impressed on their minds by those commandments which separated them from other nations. These would furthermore, prevent that close and intimate association with heathens, which would result in complete absorption. The Dietary Laws have proven an important factor in the preservation of the Jewish race in the past, and are in more than one respect, an irreplaceable agency for maintaining Jewish identity in the present.

Modern research recognizes that certain animals harbor parasites that are both disease-creating and disease-spreading. Their flesh is consequently harmful to man. Such animals are excluded from the Hebrew dietary, as it is in the blood that the germs or spores of infectious disease circulate. Thus of all, animals must be thoroughly drained of blood before serving for food. This is most effectively done by the Jewish method of Shechitah, and especially by the traditional koshering of the meat before it is prepared for food.

Statistical investigation has demonstrated that Jews as a class are immune from, or less susceptible to certain disease, and their life duration is frequently longer than that of their neighbor. Although much remains to be discovered to explain in every detail the food-laws in Leviticus, sufficient is known to warrant the conviction that their observance produces beneficial effects upon the human body (Leviticus 18:5). The supreme motive of the Dietary Laws remains Holiness, not as a regulating principle in the everyday lives of men, women and children.

The Dietary Laws train us in the mastery over our appetites. They accustom us to restrain both the growth of desire and the disposition to consider pleasure of eating and drinking as the end of man's existence. Whosoever eats forbidden foods become imbued with the spirit of impurity and is cast out the realm of Divine Holiness. Rejection of the Dietary Laws has at various times been considered as equivalent to apostasy.

It was the duty of the Priests to put a difference between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean (Leviticus 10:10).

Whosoever parteth the hoof – instead of enumerating the animals which may be eaten, the general rule is given by which the individual species could be tested. The animal must possess three characteristics: (1) it must divide the hoof, (2) it must be wholly cloven-footed and (3) it must chew the cud.

Cud – food forced up into the mouth from the first stomach of a ruminant and chewed over again.

Camel – at the bottom of the camel's hoof there is an elastic pad or cushion on which the camel gets its foothold in the sand. This pad prevents the hoof from being wholly divided.

Rock-Badger or Coney – this animal and likewise the hare have the habit of working the jaws as though they were masticating food.

Swine – the aversion of the pig is not confined to Israel. The primary abhorrence was caused in all probability, by its loathsome appearance and mode of living.

In the water – the characteristics given in the Law of the permitted animals, chewing the cud and divided hoofs for cattle, and fins and scales for fish, are in themselves neither the cause of the permission, when they are present, nor of the prohibition when they are absent, but signs by which the recommended species of animals can be discerned from those that are forbidden. In general, the Law forbids every kind of shell-fish, which is disease-breeding, especially in hot countries.

Living creatures that are in the water – this alludes to the sea animals which do not come under the category of fish, such as seals and whales.

Detestable thing – the forbidden species are described as unclean, not only uneatable, but the touch of their carcass is defiling with fish this was otherwise. They were detestable and disallowed as food, but they were not defiling by touch.

Fins nor scales in the water – as long as they have the fins and scales, when in the water, they are edible.

Unclean Birds – the birds prohibited all belong to the class denoted as birds of prey, and also those that live in dark ravines or marshy land. But since the Law adds the words, after its kind, the Rabbis enumerated various criteria by which a clean bird may be distinguished in detestation.

Great Vulture – the Hebrew word translated eagle, but it is very probable that the griffon vulture is intended it is the most powerful of the bird of prey (Deuteronomy 32:11).

Osprey – possibly the sea-eagle is intended.

Raven – the species including the crow, jackdaw and rook.

Ostrich – "daughter of wailing", this bird is represented in the Bible as living in dreary ruins (Isaiah 8:21), and constantly wailing (Micah 1:8)

Night Hawk or Owl – the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain.

Sea-Mew or Sea-Gull, Little Owl – dwelling amidst ruins.

Cormorant – "The Hunter", the bird which hurls itself from a height and snatches fish from the water.

Great Owl – the bird which dwells in twilight, or inhibiter of ruined places (Isaiah 24:11).

Horned Owl or Swan – pelican leading a solitary life in desert places.

Stark – the Hebrew signifies a bird which is kind and affectionate to its young.

Heron or Ibis – hoopoe – an uncertain word. The Rabbis understood it to be a species of grouse.

Bat – named together with moles as being a bird which prefers dark places (Isaiah 2:10).

Winged Swarming Things – insects that multiply rapidly and become a pest to man; go upon all fours – their method of locomotion, and signify that move like quadrupeds.

Jointed Legs – bending hind legs, higher than their other legs.

Locust – every species of Locust to be forbidden, which have four feet without the bending legs; unclean creeping things.

Unclean – prohibited as food, and whose dead bodies are defiling

Gecko – species of lizards.

When they are Dead – unclean creatures do not defile by contact while alive.

Permitted creatures and animals – In Leviticus 12:2, the Torah enumerates the identifying marks of the animals we may and may not eat, and in Deuteronomy 14:4, it lists the names of the permitted animals. Among the domesticated animals there include, cattle, sheep, goats (buffalo, yak), and among the undomesticated animals are the deer family, i.e., stag, moose, hart, elk, antelope, gazelle, and eland.

Clean and unclean fowl – The Torah does not prescribe any identifying marks for birds, instead it enumerates the species that are forbidden – a total to twenty-four according to the reckoning in the talmud. The implication is that those not listed are permitted. The Rabbis of the Talmud, deduced four distinguishing marks of birds that are permitted. A permitted bird has a crop; the sac in the gizzard can be peeled off, it has an extra toe, i.e., in addition to the three front toes, it has another toe in the back, it is not a bird of prey. According to one opinion, a bird that divides its toes when it rests i.e., two toes in front and two in the back, is not permitted. Despite these identifying marks, it has become the accepted practice that only those birds that have been traditionally accepted as permitted may be eaten. They are chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and pigeons.

Fish – The fish that may not be eaten are those that have fins and scales (Leviticus 11:9-10; Deuteronomy 14:9-10). The actual determining factor is scales because every fish that has scales has fins. The scales should be removable by hand or with a scraping instrument without tearing the skin. The scales need not be permanent, if the fish has scales during any stage of its life, and then sheds them, it is permitted. All shell fish are not permitted such as crabs, clams, lobsters, oysters and crawfish.

Insects and Reptiles – The Torah forbids i.e., creeping things (Leviticus 11:20), but it enumerates several species of locusts that are permitted (Leviticus 11:22). The Talmud lists the following distinguishing marks; all that have four legs, four wings, leaping legs, and wings covering the greater part of the body are clean. In western countries, in which I spoke of earlier, the eating of Locust of any kind has traditionally been forbidden on the grounds that we are no longer able to distinguish between clean and unclean locust.

Cheeses and Wines – Cheese is made from curdled milk. Since the curdling agent was rennet, which is extracted from the walls of a calf's stomach, cheese was forbidden as a mixture of dairy and meat. The permissibility of wine is also a controversial subject because it was prohibited of used for libation in idol worship, and anything used in idol worship is forbidden to Jews. The Talmud forbids such wines as a precautionary measure to prevent socializing with gentiles since it might lead to intermarriage or because those who use such wines might be exposed to the religious influence of gentiles and be persuaded to apostasies.

Shechitah – Those animals, beasts, and birds that are permitted must be slaughtered in a prescribed manner called Shechitah. This consists of a highly trained person called a Shohet, equipped with a special kind of knife, cutting both the windpipe (trachea) and the food pipe (esophagus) in the case of animals, and at least one of these in the case of fowl. The use of a special method of slaughtering has been explained as the fulfillment of the commandment of-prevention of cruelty to animals.

The commandment concerning the killing of animals is necessary because the natural food of man consists of vegetables and the flesh of animals; the best meat is that of animals permitted to be used for food. The desire of procuring good food necessitates the slaying of animals. The law enjoins that the death of the animal should be easiest. We are not permitted to torment the animal by cutting the throat in a clumsy manner by pole-axing or by cutting off a limb while the animal is alive (Genesis 1:29).

In Genesis it is written: "And God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed-to you it shall be for food." (Genesis 1:29) Meat is not mentioned here among the foods permitted to man. Only after the flood was Noah told: "Every moving thing that liveth shall be for you; as the green herb have I given you all." (Genesis 9:3) The implication is, that man ideally should not eat meat because it entails taking the life of an animal. Later on there was an effort to limit the use of flesh to sacrifices. How else can we explain in the following biblical passage: "When the Lord Thy God shall enlarge thy border, as He hath promised thee, and thou shalt say: I will eat flesh because thy soul desires to eat flesh, after all the desire of thy soul. If the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to put His name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt slaughter of thy cattle and of thy flock, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat within thy gates, after all the desire of thy soul." (Deuteronomy 12:20-21) The permission to eat meat was a compromise. The eating should at least be controlled by refraining from eating certain parts of the animal, especially the blood, and by special regulation governing the preparation of the meat. The Talmud summarizes the Laws of Shechitah as follows: one may not eat of the slaughtering of any (butcher) who does not know the rules of Shechitah. And these are: pausing, pressing, burrowing, deflecting and tearing.

The Knife – The slaughtering knife must be razor sharp and perfectly smooth, and must have no dents or nicks, since these would tear the flesh and cause unnecessary pain. The knife must be examined before and after the Shechitah to make sure that it is without blemish during the Shechitah. The Talmud prescribes that it be examined with the flesh of the finger and with the finger nail, and that the examination must be of the three edges of the knife, i.e., the sharp edge and also the sides of this edge must be examined. If the slightest dent or nick is felt, it is forbidden to use the knife. The knife should be at least twice as long as the diameter of the neck of the animal or fowl to be slaughtered. The knives used today generally have a twenty-inch blade for sheep and goats, and a five-inch blade for fowl. In the slaughtering of animals and beasts, the cuts should be made horizontally across the throat, severing the trachea and the esophagus, the Talmud prescribes five regulations pertaining to the process of cutting.

(1) Shechitah-pausing or delay. The knife must be drawn quickly across the neck of the animal, beast, or bird without a stop. The smallest delay or pause renders the Shehitah defective and the animal not kosher.

(2) Derasah-pressing. The blade must be applied with a to-and-fro motion, not with a chopping or striking motion.

(3) Haladah-burrowing. The blade must not be inserted between the trachea and the esophagus, and used with an upward thrust, nor may the blade be inserted under the skin in any fashion.

(4) Hagramah-cutting, out of the specified zone, or deflecting. As was explained above, the cut must be made below the Larynx, preferably below the first hard ring of the trachea and up where the bronchial tubes begin to branch.

(5) Sqirah-tearing out. The trachea and esophagus must be cut with the blade and not torn out or lacerated in any way. If the trachea was cut properly, and it is then found that the esophagus was ripped out from the jawbone at the neck, the Shechitah is not valid and the animal may not be eaten. In the case of birds, if one of the tow organs is ripped out after the first is cut properly, the Shechitah is proper, since for birds the severance of only one organ is necessary. After the Shechitah has been completed, the Shohet must examine the carcass to determine whether the greater part of the two pipes, in the case of animals and beasts, and at least on epipe in the case of fowl, have been severed. When beasts or birds are slaughtered, the blood that flows from the cut must pour upon a bed of dust and be covered with dust (Leviticus 17:13). This special attention to the blood is explained in the Bible in Leviticus 17:4, where the blood is identified as the life-giving element in the body. There is no clearer visible symbol of life than blood. To spill blood is to bring death. To inject blood is often to save life. Removal of blood which Koshnett teaches is one of the most powerful means of making us constantly aware of the concession and compromise which the whole act of eating meat, in reality again it teaches us reverence for life.

Rabbi Hertz notes that the prohibition of the consumption of blood also tamed man's violent instincts by weaning him from blood and implanting within him a horror of all bloodshed (Leviticus 17:10). About the covering of the blood he says, "The blood being the symbol of life, it had to be treated in a reverent manner, in the same way that a corpse must not be left exposed. The covering with dust was the equivalent of burial in the case of a dead body (Leviticus 17:13).

The Laws of Terefah

After the slaughtering, an animal, beast or fowl must be examined to determine whether or not it is rendered terefah by certain physical blemishes or pathological conditions. The word terefah originally meant an animal torn by beasts of prey, as in the passage, "ye shall not eat any flesh that is terefah (torn) of beasts in the field" (Exodus 22:30).

(1) Structure of the Lungs

The lungs of cattle have one large and three smaller lobes on the right side, and one large and two smaller lobes on the left side. Each lobe has a distinctive shape. Between the two halves of the lung, slightly toward the right, there is a small additional lobe which rests in a pocket, the infracardiac lobe. Since the most frequent defect or disease in cattle is pulmonary, the lungs must be examined carefully. The animal is cut open at the front, a hand is inserted, and the lung is examined manually for possible adhesions. The lungs are inspected again upon removal from the body cavity. If they are smooth to the touch-i.e., if the hand does not meet any obstructions, and provided there are no other defects in the lungs which would make the animal terefah-the animal is declared Kosher. As will be explained below, some of the adhesions that may be found on the lungs do not affect the status of the animal.

(2) Defects in the Lungs

We mentioned that the lungs are examined for adhesions. An adhesion is a band of collagen fibers arising pathologically from the organization of fibrinous exudates. According to Rashi, an animal with an adhesion on its lung is terefah because whenever there is an adhesion, there is also a perforation which causes the adhesion. Through this perforation, the lung absorbs liquids of all kinds and these, when thickened, ooze through the hole and set thereby forming a membrane which will eventually become loosened. The following adhesions do not make an animal unkosher:

a. Sirkha Teluyah – a pendent adhesion growing out of the lung with the other end not attached to anything provided that the lung is sound (i.e., no swelling) at the place where it is attached.

b. An adhesion between two adjacent Lobes provided that the adhesion is on the half and between the adjacent surfaces.

c. If the adhesion emanating from the lung is attached at the other end to another organ nearby in that part of the chest where no possible movement of the organ might pull the adhesion away. If the adhesion is attached to the spine, or to the fat that surrounds the aorta, or to the trachea, or if the small lobe has an adhesion at its base, the animal is not affected.

In all the preceding cases, no examination is necessary. All other adhesions make the animal potentially terefah. In such cases, the spot where the adhesion occurs is gently massaged. If it fails to come off, the animal is terefah. If it does come off, the lungs are inflated and the spot is tested for a possible perforation; the animal is kosher if a drop of liquid placed on the spot does not bubble.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Laws and Orders of Godby Gilbert H. Edwards, Sr. Copyright © 2012 by Dr. Gilbert H. Edwards, Sr. . Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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