Day 26 Exodus 28-30

            Priests have to wear special clothes.  They are very ornate and God is very specific about how they are to be designed.

            Very specific.

            Priests also have to be dedicated through a ceremony where they ritualistically kill a bull and a couple rams, and then a bunch more animals over the next week.  These are all sons of Aaron’s going through this, which is interesting since all of the Israelites are supposed to be a nation of priests.  Maybe Aaron’s line is supposed to supply the high priests or something, or maybe this goes back to the Israelites being afraid and electing a delegate to talk to God for them, like that was their one chance to have this relationship as an entire nation and they immediately just gave it up.  That’s kind of sad.

            Plans are also laid out for an altar for incense, a washing basin for Aaron and his priests and tithing/taxation systems for getting money, incense and oil for rituals.  The special oil and incense for anointing and purifying things they’re just supposed to sort of come up with, but actual rules are given for donating money to the tabernacle.  I suppose donating is the wrong word because it’s compulsory for every man over 20.  My NIV Bible calls it a ransom.  Every time there’s a census, every man has to pay one fifth of an ounce of silver; the rich do not have to pay more and the poor do not have to pay less.

            Regressive taxes obviously favor the rich heavily, but only if it’s for at least a moderate amount of money.  If everyone in America had to pay a dollar for example, that would be a regressive tax, but it wouldn’t really be that much of a problem for anybody.  If everyone had to pay a thousand dollars, then that would be trivial for some, but very difficult for many others.  I have no idea how much a fifth of an ounce of silver amounted to relative to the cost of living for the Israelites.  I’ve heard this tax in Exodus used as an argument in favor of regressive, or t least flat taxes, since it’s the first tax handed down by God, it must be the best kind of tax and we should not be taxing the rich more heavily than the poor as we often do.  Silver prices fluctuate a lot and I guess right now is actually a good time for silver in the commodities market.  It’s more than doubled in price in the last year.  Of course I don’t know what the silver market was like in the ancient middle eastern world, but even with that incredible growth we’re seeing now, it’s still not much more than $20 an ounce today.  One fifth of that would be $4. So yes, the first tax was a regressive tax, but it doesn’t sound like they had to tap into their life savings to come up with it.