“One shallow babe,” is how we might describe our god in this parsha (were we not so respectful). She lays out the rules for the kohenim, or priests, of Her temple — rules which have no spiritual or moral requirements whatsoever. YHWH’s priests just need to be high gloss. Having established that, She takes Her merry Hebrew band on the road (are we interpreting it too literally?) Then, the half-Egyptian son of an Israelite woman commits the Torah’s first case of BLASPHEMY. There was no specific law against blasphemy at the time, but YHWH swiftly declares one, for which the punishment is… three guesses.

SHABBAT SHALOM! – a & s