Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Day 62 Deuteronomy 14-16


            Only eat animals that have cloven hooves and chew their cud, or have undivided hooves and do not chew cud, but not animals with only one or the other.  There are some birds you can eat and some you can’t.  Also, bats are a kind of bird.

            Tithing according to Moses is taking ten percent of your crop to the temple and eating it there with God.  At least that’s what the passage sounds like to me, my commentary casually mentions that it goes to the priests but doesn’t really back that up with anything.  A quick scan of a couple websites yields that the tithe was supposed to come in the form of a big feast, but you had to go to the temple for your tithe feast and include the priests.  Ten percent of your crop for the entire year makes for a huge feast, so I guess the excess probably went to maintain the temple too, or something.  Every third year your tithe went to the Levites and the needy staying in Levite towns.
            Every seventh year you have to cancel all the debts you hold against other Israelites.  There are a lot of rules here for taking generous care of the poor and helping out others when they fall on hard times, but it’s all only for other Israelites.  It sounds like you can do pretty much whatever you want to foreigners, like they’re completely outside the social contract.  Likewise for slaves.  If an Israelite sells himself to you in servitude, you can only keep him for six years before letting him go, but foreigners are yours forever. Classy.

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