Many people who have not read the Torah law codes in the Hebrew and in historical context do not realize how progressive these laws actually were. D’varim’s Torah (Deuteronomy) supports a scientific view over “dark ages” ignorance, embracing ethics and rejecting pseudoscience by established national laws. And D’varim’s Torah is the oldest known societal attempt at constructing a socialist democratic nation, where responsibility for preventing the perversity of poverty and injustice is mandated upon all citizens at all times. For those who doubt or are unfamiliar with the Torah of D’varim, I will demonstrate this ANE Deuteronomist position here in this post.
If you’re Jewish – and – if you’re not Jewish, you might want to read this post *fully*. I fully believe that both Jew and non-Jew who are not studied in historical Hebrew *will* be surprised by its content! The scroll of D’varim is the original (meaning, earliest) Israeli/Jewish national halacha (mitzvot). From this, the other scrolls were slowly redacted together by scribes from ancient Jewish traditions and arranged as the scrolls that come before the scroll of D’varim, with D’varim now acting as a progressive summation of the ever changing through the generations laws that ANE Jews communally lived by.
The D’varim version historically *precedes* the national canonization of the later added Horeb/Sinai theophany myths of Jewish nationalization (which was a separate Jewish mythic tradition of origins – there are distinctly three Jewish Torah traditions interwoven together into a multivoiced often conflicting singular narrative five scroll Torah that is attributed to Moshe). Unlike other Jewish mythic world views, D’varim has “God” as a transcendant and directly not experience-able god-King/divine-Landowner, and the national Law code is given purely from the prophet Moshe (Moses) – some laws of which he ascribes directly to “God,” and some of which are his reasoned laws – all established for national observance.
Further, in the D’varim original Torah, the national covenant with YHWH god was made fully and only in the land of Moab (eastern side of the Dead Sea, known as Jordan today), and this and only here is where the people of YHWH god became an established nation. It is from here that the kingdoms of Israel and Judea were formed on the western side of the Dead Sea (historic Palestine of today), with the kingdom of Moab remaining on the eastern side.
The entire laws of D’varim’s Moshe, prophet of YHWH god, are presented below. All other laws of Torah tradition are from other covenant stories that were added to the Jewish national narrative at *later* periods of time, resulting in the multi-voiced, highly conflicting, singular mythic Jewish Torah narrative of today. And, technically, these D’varim -only laws are the only Torah laws that an observant Jew must be shomer halacha, being that they are the original established covenantal laws between YHWH god and YHWH’s people – with the rest being shomea halacha (unless, you’re following Rabbinic halachah, which fully developed during the historical CE “Middle Ages” and wrestles with the conflicting applicability of all Torah covenant traditions, while adding further Rabbinic additions … oy vey!).
The first national covenant/constitution of D’varim (12-18:15,18:23-26) is as follows:
12:2-3 “You will destroy the sanctuaries made for gods that are not YHWH god, no matter where these places are within the land.” (Meaning, only synagogues and mosques are allowed in the land, for both are dedicated to the Shema.) “You will destroy the altars, monument, symbols, images, and names of these foreign gods (gods that are not “YHWH, aka Elohim, aka Allah”).” – Note: This law applies to a theocratically governed Israel, such as the kingdoms of Israel and Judea, and does not apply in the present modern constitutional democracy nation-State of Israel. Further, the Christian demiGod/trinity is an idol that is foreign to the YHWH god (of any version) of Torah tradition, having been invented by 4th century CE gentiles who idolaterized Jewish apocalyptic texts, then claimed their Christ idol to be “superior to the YHWH god of the Jews” and that Jews are “followers of Satan” – thus, by this D’varim law, any representations of Christianity (like other pagan religions) must be destroyed, as well, within the kingdoms of Israel and Judea (and, in the ANE, would have quickly been destroyed by the priestly caste of Torah).
12:4 “You will *not* tear down the sanctuaries and altars to YHWH god (the god-King that possesses ownership of the Levant portion of land and, specifically, possesses ownership of the kingdoms of Israel and Judea – and whose laws must be obeyed by all within this land).”
12:5-7,17-18 “You will bring your peace offerings, crime offerings, taxes, vow offerings, and donations to the place that YHWH god will choose for you.” (In kingdom times, several existed – Shechem, Shiloh Moriah, Jerusalem, Elephantine Island. In modern times, the local synagogue of a Jewish community is this communal place, and the civic place for most Jewish public actions.) “And in this place you will communally eat together, rejoice in your endeavors, and rejoice in your household numbers.” “You will not eat your offerings, taxes, and donations within your city/community, you will eat them only in the YHWH god chosen place for you.”
12:15-16 “All within the kingdoms/communities will eat from what is provided for eating. However, you will not eat the blood of creatures, you will spit the blood on the ground like water.”
12:21-25 “If the chosen place to gather is distant from you (in our times, the nearest synagogue), if it is too far to travel to, make your offerings and eat in your city communally. All within your community shares in the eating. But, do *not* eat the blood, for in the blood is the breath-of-life (meaning, the breathed “soul” of Elohim creator-god), and you shall not eat the breath (the coporeal “soul”) within the flesh. You will spit it on the ground like water, so that doing so will be good for you and your family before the eyes of YHWH god.”
13:1 “You will be careful to do all I say for you to do, you shall neither add to it nor subtract from it.”
13:2-6 “If there arises a prophet or seer among you and he/she gives to you what appears to be a magical sign or wonder that happens, and he/she entices you to honor another people’s/religion’s god (other than YHWH god – for example, the demiGod Jesus Christ of the gentile religion Christianity, aka Yahshua/Yeshua), you will not heed the words of that prophet or seer – for YHWH god is testing your loyalty to the covenant between YHWH god and YHWH’s people/nation.” (In other words, better to be an atheist Jew, than to be a Jew that engages in idol worship and, through doing so, cuts off his/her descendants from the Jewish people.) “That false prophet you will put to death, so idolatry does not spread within YHWH’s people.” (Note: In ANE period, priests would have required this capital punishment within the kingdoms of Israel. In modern times, most Jews either do not believe ANE and Rabbinical halacha is required by YHWH god, or do not believe that gods actually exists beyond human social imagination – thus, rendering capital punishment unnecessary, for we can publicly reject the false prophet’s words and signs and effectively “put to death” his or her deceptive message.)
13:7-12,13-19 “If anyone within your realm of social experiencing (family, friends, neighbors, strangers, etc) proselytizes another people’s god to you (Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, etc. – in place of Yahwism, aka Judaism), you will reject his/her words, you will have no pity and no mercy towards him/her, nor will you shield him/her from his/her fate. For his/her act of proselytizing you to engage in idolatry, you will put your hand on him/her first to kill him/her and, afterwards, the hands of all YHWH god’s people.” (Note: In the ANE Jewish period, this is how evil proselytizing to a Jew appeared to Jews, and the priests codified it with capital punishment. In modern CE Jewish period, we publicly reject all proselytizers’ words, thus effectively “killing” his or her deceptive message openly and publicly (even if/when that means death to do so, as often has been done to Jews since the rise of gentile Christianity in this world 1,600 years ago). – If ONLY Christians understood this, how much YHWH god *and* Jews hate your proselytizing!)
14:1 -2 “You will not cut yourself nor make yourself hairless for the dead (which was an ANE mourning ritual for the dead).”
14:3-8 “These are the animals that you *may* eat: ox, lamb and kid, gazelle, deer, antelope, ibex, chamois, bison, and giraffe. Every animal that has a split hoof and has a hoof cloven into two hoof sections and chews the cud among the animals, you may eat. But, you will not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those that have the split hooves – for example, camel, hyrax, and hare, for they chew the cud, but do not have split hooves. As well, the pig, because it has a split hoof, but does not chew the cud.”
14:9-10 “Of all that lives in the waters, these you may eat: all that have fins and scales. All other water-dwellers, do not eat.”
14:11-18 “You *may* eat every bird except: eagle, vulture, ossifrage, osprey, the kite after its species, every raven after its species, ostrich, owl, gull, the hawk after its species, falcon, ibis, bat, pelican, magpie, cormorant, stork, heron and its species, hoopoe, and atalef.”
14:19 “Every flying insect is unclean for you; they may not be eaten.” (According to later Torah added traditions, locust are a permitted food source, though some may look upon them as insects, too.)
14:20-21 “You will not eat any carcass. You *will not* cook a kid in its mother’s milk.” (Note: Never slaughter the mother and her offspring together, and eat them! Respect the need for the sustainability of life, aka our world – our environment – and ensure this!)
14:22-29 “You will pay taxes through all the seed crop that you produce, year by year. The same with the first born of your animal slaughters. If the travel to the place that YHWH god chooses to for you to deliver these blessings for survival is too far for you to travel, then you will exchange locally this crop/slaughter for money, and you will bring this money to the nearest chosen place (synagogue, in our times). You will purchase your offerings in the chosen place, and ensure that the one without has a livable portion, too (the priest, the homeless, the orphan, the widow, the poor, and the elderly who are within your cities). Doing so, you will be blessed in the work of your hands.” (Note: Yes, Yahwism – aka Judaism – is human-supporting-human *socialism* – which is very different from elite-and-slaves, top-rich poor-down, “Capitalism” and “Communism”!)
15:1-3 “Every seven years, Jews who lend money to Jews will release their borrowers from these loan debts, he/she will no further require payment. From the non-Jew, you *may* continue requiring repayment.” (This law prevents loaning beyond a Jews ability to repay, long-term debt induced hardships, and respect for the sanctity of Jewish socialist communal life.)
15:4-6 “There will be no needy among you, for all that you societally/communally need is already provided in nature for you!” (This law demands that we find ways to ensure all within the community are able to sustain a livable social standard of living – home, food, living wage occupation, medical care, and needed education/reeducation that remains in balance with the present costs of social living, so that there are *none* within the society/community that is trapped below the poverty line.)
15:7-11 “You will lend to your brother, to your poor one, and to your needy one in your community, sufficient for his/her needs, to which he/she is lacking.” (Again, the repetitious Torah focus upon living a socialist societal/communal lifestyle that all can find opportunity and justice within!)
15:12-18 “If a Jew purchases a Jew who was sold into slavery by the court for the crime of theft, you will release him/her from this slavery on the seventh year. You will ensure that he/she is set free with all that is needed to restart his/her life in society/community from *your* resources/wealth. You will not be angst when you send him/her free from you, for twice as much as a hired servant, he/she has served you for six years.” (Note: In the ANE period, Jewish laws on owning slaves emphasized the ethical/moral responsibility for ensuring the health, safety, resting, and freeing of slaves. In modern times, slavery in any form has become an abomination and, thus, is *not* engaged in, period.)
15:19-23: “Every firstborn of your cattle and flock, you will sanctify as a sacrificial offering in the communal place chosen for you, and all within your household will eat from it. If it has a blemish, you will eat it within your city, instead. However, you will *not* eat the blood, you will pour it on the ground as water.” (In our modern Jewish period, we sanctify all firstborns by bringing money to the synagogue, to be used for tzedaka (charity, aka justice) purposes. Also, an increasing number of Jews, both non-religious and very religious, are choosing vegetarian diets, over that of ethical/moral omnivore diets – because industry has made almost all forms of meat eating within society immoral through its production methods. Non-human species share the same breath that humans share, and must be treated with an awareness of their inherent sanctity as a living breathing-creature upon this planet. Hence, why Torah requires Jews to avoid *all* unnecessary suffering – for example, being caged for fattening, not given rest on Shabbat, eating both mother and her young, causing a painful death through method of slaughter, etc.)
16:1-8 “Keep the month of spring by making the sparing/protecting offering (pesach). You will slaughter the sparing offerings in YHWH god’s chosen place. You will not eat leavened foods with it, for seven days you will eat unleavened bread with it (matzot). You will have no leavened foods within your borders for the seven days, and eat all your slaughter of the day on that day. You will eat the offering communally each day, then return to your dwellings. You will not do creative work (jobs, cooking, lighting fires, etc.) on the seventh day.”
16:9-12 “You will count seven weeks from the first cutting of the omer (harvesting), then you will give donation and peace offerings in the chosen place from what you can afford to give. You will rejoice together with the priest, stranger, widow, and orphan (the poor!).”
16:13-15 “You will make an outside booth for the festival of booths at the harvest’s ingathering. You will dwell and celebrate together with the priest, stranger, widow, and orphan in your cities for seven days.”
16:16-17 “Three times every year – the festival of matzot, the festival of weeks, the festival of booths – all males will gather will all that they can afford to donate, and will not appear empty-handed.”
16:18-20 “You will establish judges and law enforcers in all your cities to judge righteously. You will not pervert justice, you will not show favoritism, you will not take a bribe, for these blind the eyes of the wise and pervert just words (judgments, rulings). Justice, justice will you pursue, that you may live!”
16:21-22 “You will not set up idolic symbols around the altar to YHWH god.” (Again, a reminder, that the kitchen of Jewish homes and synagogues have replaced the ANE temple altar.)
17:1″You will not sacrifice a blemised ox or sheep for offering, for this is an abomination to YHWH god.” (This translates in modern times to, if you’re going to slaughter for a communal festival meal, then choose the healthiest animal. Again, many Jews are leaning more and more towards vegetarian diets, over ethical concerns about slaughter.)
17:2-7 “By the mouth of three witnesses will an accused be sentenced to death. If there be a man or woman who commits idolatry amongst you, and investigation finds this witnessed by three, he/she will be publicly stoned to death for idol worship.” (Again, this is how absolutely vile it is to YHWH god for a Jew to ever worship an idol – for example, like the Christian’s “Christ,” aka “Yeshua.” In modern times, we publicly kill the proselytizing message, not the deceived heretic who can still tshuva at any time from this evil against YHWH god. Better to be an atheist Jew, than an idolater!)
17:8-13 “If there are civil and ritual legal disputes between you, you will go to the priests and judges, and you will do exactly as they rule in judgment regarding these matters!”
17:14-20 “If you wish to be led by a national king, you will choose only from within your national brothers your king. He will not enrich himself with property, wives, and money, so as not to enslave his people to his gains. While on his throne, he will write two copies of this law teaching (torah) from the scroll (D’varim) held by the levitic kohanim (priests). He, the King, will read this Torah every day of his life, so that he learn to keep its statutes – to perform them, so that he do right by his people and prolong the kingdom.”
18:1-8 “The priest class will have no land inheritance in Israel-Judea. The people of Israel will support their livelihood through the donation and peace offerings. The priests will mediate the relationship with the landowning king-God, YHWH god, and YHWH god’s subjects, the Jewish people.”
18:9-14 “No one of YHWH god’s people will engage in idolic rituals, soothsaying, divining, omen interpreting, sorcery, snake charming, channeling the dead, nor necromancing.” (Yes, ANE Jews were already embracing rational scientific living and rejecting pseudoscientific cyclical-logic ways of living and understanding life, and this is why Jews are historically so focused on the subjects of law and sciences to this very day!)
18:15 “You will listen to the prophets of Torah, like me (Moshe/Moses, and like Mirriam and Aaron), that YHWH god chooses among YHWH god’s people.”
18:20-22 “If a prophet among your brothers arises and speaks wantonly, and what is said to you is not found true, do not listen to him. If a prophet intentionally speaks in my name falsely or entices you to other gods, then that prophet shall die.” (Publicly denounce and kill the message of a false prophet or idolater, and ignore the message of a legitimate prophet who spoke wrongly to the people.)
19:1-10 “If a man/woman kills a fellow by accident, you will provide for him her a refuge city to live in, so that the family of the accidentally slain is not enticed to commit murder in response.” (Note: Murder and killing are not the same thing. Murder is an unlawful killing, that is usually done in hate, malice, or greed.)
19:11-13 “If a man/woman murders a fellow and flees to a refuge city, the elders of the city will return him/her to the avenger of this murder, so that the murderer is put to death.”
19:14 “You will not move your neighbor’s landmark to increase your inheritance, this is theft.”
19:15 “One witness of a crime will not testify to this crime, by three witnesses will a crime be confirmed.”
19:16-21 “If someone gives false testimony against another and it is discovered to be an intentional accusation, the priests or judges will punish the false witness according to the penalty of the accusation.”
20:1-4 “When you go to war against your enemies, the priest will give a rally speech to not be timid, afraid, alarmed, or terrified by the enemy.”
20:5-9 “In selecting which citizens will go to war, the military officers will send home those who have just built a house and not yet lived in it, those who have planted a vineyard and have not donated its firstfruits to the community yet, those who have just married and not produced a child, and those who are too timid and fearful to fight.”
20:10-15 “Before waging war against a city, you will propose peace with them first. If they agree to peace and align as tributes, you will spare them. If they reject peace and wage war against you, you will lay siege of the city. To the victor go the spoils of war.”
20:16-18 “You will utterly destroy the cities of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivvites, and Jebusites, sparing no one.” (Note: Such ethno-religious peoples ceased to exist in the ANE period, and this YHWH god law is not actionable.)
20:19-20 “When laying siege to a city, you will not cut down the food producing trees, only eat from them. Trees that produce no food, you may cut these down to fortify your defenses.”
21:1-9 “If a citizen is found slain and it is unknown who killed/murdered him/her, the elders of the city will testify to the priests/judges on this, so the blood of the slain is atoned for.”
21:10-17 “If you take captives during war and desire a wife of one of the captives, you may marry her, but you will give her a month under your roof to mourn the loss of her past life before intimacy. If you turn to despise her, you may set her free. You will not sell her to another, nor enslave her in your home.” (Note, for the ANE period, this would be considered a progressive stance on the sanctity of a woman. In modern times, this law is both unethical and immoral, thus we do not make property of those who were captured during a war.)
20:18-21 “If parents who have a disobedient child who will not be corrected by chastisement, they will bring the child to the elders and testify, and the men of the city will put this child to death.” (Note: Another immoral/unethical law for our modern times, which is not acted upon. Instead, the community shares the burden of raising this child into a responsible citizen within life.)
20:22-23 “Those who are sentenced to death for their crime will be publicly impaled after the sentence. But, they must be removed and buried before nightfall on this same day.” (Note: Another problematic law for our times, hence why the Talmud rabbis made rulings that make it near impossible to sentence someone to death among YHWH god’s people.)
21:1-4 “You will not ignore the lost items of your neighbors. You will take them back to your neighbor after finding them. If your neighbor is not home, you will hold these items, until your neighbor comes looking for them. This includes animals of your neighbors, who you will assist when lost or struggling under a load.”
22:5 “The garment of a manly man (a warrior/hero type) a woman will not wear, and the cloak of a woman a manly man will not wear.” (Note: This law refers to two specific items, one only worn by males and the other usually worn by women. This law does not prohibit crossdressing in general, and this is why crossdressing is permitted and often seen during the Purim festival.)
22:6-7 “You will not take both the mother bird and her eggs to eat, only the eggs, so that it will be good for you.”
22:8 “You will build guardrails on your house to prevent accidents, so blood is not spilled in your house.”
22:9 “You will not sow in the same plot of your garden mixed fruits/vegestables (grapes with wheat, for example) that are used ritually in offerings.” (Note: This law does not prohibit mixing complimentary species together in a plot, for such gardening methods only increase the health and productivity of your garden.)
22:10 “You will not plough with an ox and a donkey together.”
22:11 “You will not wear a mixture of wool and linen that are woven/combed together.” (Note: This law does not prohibit wearing mixed items, except the wearing of these two items in this manner.)
22:12 “On covering garments that have four corners, you will make for yourself twisted threads to attach to each corner.” (Note: This was an ANE way of making every indigenous citizen a social equal (aka, a royal – yes, that “socialism” thing), for tzitzit was reserved for only royal families in other ANE cultures.)
22:13-21 “If a man defames his wife and it be found untrue, he will be forced to recompense to her family for this lie. If it turns out to be true, the woman will be punished for her adultery.” (Note: In the ANE period, women generally didn’t have say on who they marry and/or have sex with. In our modern egalitarian times, this law would have to be applied both ways – so, it is no longer enforced.)
22:29 “If a man, whether single or married, and a married woman have sex and it is discovered, both are to be put to death for adultery. If he raped her, then only he is put to death. If the woman is not married, then they will marry.” (Note: The rabbis of Talmud have made capital punishment near impossible, so other punishment remedies are considered instead.)
23:1 “A man will not have sex with his father’s wife, nor with his father.” (A similar double law passage occurs in the Leviticus scroll, wherein a man is prohibited from having sex with his mother(s) and with his father. This law supports the observation that only two types of homogenital behavior are prohibited in ANE Torah Jewish culture – a man having sex with his father, and a man having sex with a married man on the bed of his wife (also found in Leviticus twice, once with punishment). Be wary, for the Greek influenced rabbis changed or expanded the meanings of these two laws that address male homosexual behavior (exclusively!). No where in Torah is homosexuality or homosexual relationships itself banned, whether between women or between men.)
23:2-7 “A man who genitals can not procreate is not permitted to marry a Jewish woman (thus, cannot join the community as a member). A bastard is not permitted to marry into the Jewish community. Both Ammonite and Moabite are not permitted to marry into the Jewish community.” (Note: This is an ANE law, and most Jews have suspended its enforcement. But, still, many Jewish communities highly discouraged intended infertile marriages – while, instead, encouraging child adoption or divorce by reason of infertility.)
23:8-9 “You will not despise an Edomite/Idumean, for he is your brother. You will not despise an Egyptian, for you lived in his land. In the third generation of Judean-Israeli kingdom sovereignty, they may marry into Jewish families.” (Question: Why is this law in Torah? The answer: The ANE Edomites/Idumeans were a Levantine Semitic people of what is now Jordan today. They were *literally* a brother people of the Jewish people, Judean kingdom, during the ANE and early CE periods. But having been fully conquested, during the Middle Ages CE period, by Islamic caliphates of Arabia, they are now known as “Arabs” today, albeit with the Jewish lighter skin color. Prior to the Semitic Idumean forced assimiliation into the Jewish people during the Greek-Roman occupation of Judea-Israel period, they were the Semitic people who continued to worship all the gods and goddesses of the Canāanite pantheon (El/Elohim, Asherah, Baal, Yahweh, and their national god was Qaus (קוס)) up until the Hasmonean rebellions, while Judea-Israel had settled long ago onto henotheistic worship of one particular god (YHWH god, who usurp the position of Elohim in Torah myths, courtesy of scribal redactions). A modern day equivalent to the ANE Judean/Edomean (Jewish/not-Jewish) family ties are today’s Levantine Jews (aka, Palestinian Jews) and the Samaritans who also never left Judea-Israel/Palestine.
The Egyptians, too, were a Levantine Semetic people that migrated down to more fertile grounds between the Arabian and Cush empires (Cush is known as Ethiopia, South Africa, today) and these Levantines produced the mighty Egyptian dynasties of North and South Egypt. After the Roman Empire’s occupation, during our CE period, Egyptians admixed enough with South Africans that they developed a skin color as dark as many Arabs. The Egyptian Semites were also conquested by Islam, and were forcibly turned Arab and Muslim in ethnic and religious identities, respectively.)
23:10-13 “While in the field as an army, you will set up a place outside the camp for those who become exposed to ritual impurity. They will dwell there until evening, bathe, and then return into the camp boundaries.” (Note: This law addresses specifically accidental emissions of semen, which in the ANE period cannot be near the cultic mishkan and its courtyard at the center of the camp, less the mishkan be infected with impurity.)
23:14-15 “You will carry a stake with you along with your weapons, and you will dig a hole outside camp boundaries to relieve yourself, cover it, and then return.” (Note: A continuation of 23:10-13.)
23:16-17 “You will not return a runaway slave to his/her master. He/she will reside among you, wherever he/she chooses within any of your cities, and you will not oppress him/her!”
23:18-19 “No daughter of Israel will be a prostitute, and no son of Israel will be a prostitute. You will not bring a fee for prostitution to sanctuary as an offering, for this is abhorent!”
23:20-21 “You (Jews) will not apply interest against your borrowing (Jewish) brother/sister, interest on money, interest on food, nor interest on any item for which interest is taken. You *may* apply interest to a gentile borrower.”
23:22-24 “You will fulfill the vow you make on YHWH god’s name, or you will be guilty of a crime against YHWH god who demands that you fulfill it, or do not make the vow. Observe and do what is spoken from your lips as a pledged offering to YHWH god.” (Note: It is impossible to make a vow of this sort in the late BCE and in this CE period of human history, for the vowels of YHWH god’s name have been lost to time. Therefore, no one can intentionally make a vow to YHWH god, and know that the name he/she pronounced is actually YHWH god’s name, and this renders such a vow empty of commitment.)
23:25-26 “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat from his/her vines by handpicking grapes until satiated, but you will not place grapes into a vessel for transporting. When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pick ears with your hand, but you will not chop his/her grain with a sickle to carry off.” (Note: Again, the socialism lifestyle emphasis of ‘we are *all* in this life together, helping each other to survive.’)
24:1-4 “If a spouse believes that his/her marriage is defiled by an immorality and is granted a divorce, he/she may not attempt to remarry again the former spouse that he/she divorced, for this is an abomination.”
24:5 “A newly married man will not have anything to do with the military until one year after. He will remain with wife and home.”
24:6 “One who loans to another will not take food preparation items as a security collateral for the loan.”
24:7 “If a person kidnaps any person among YHWH god’s people, treats him/her as a slave, sells him/her, this thief will die!” (Note: In the Ten Proclamations (Commandments) in the Horeb/Sinai myth is this very same law of “Do not kidnap!”.)
24:8-9 “Be careful not to hide your leprosy blemishes, so that the priest can decisively determine how long you must be isolated, before being declared clean of infection.” (Note: Modern medicine has replaced the ANE priest of this responsibility.)
24:10-13 “One who loans to another will not enter the borrower’s home to take a security collateral. He/she will wait outside the home for the borrower to bring out the collateral. If the borrower is poor, the collateral will be return by evening to prevent suffering.”
24:14-15 “You will not withhold the wages of a poor/destitute hired worker, citizen or non-citizen. You will pay him/her on the day of work, before sunset, so that this worker not suffer and you not commit a crime.”
24:16 “Each individual will pay for his/her own capital crimes, no one else will pay for the criminal.”
24:17-18 “You will not hold back justice that is due a poor person, and you will not take a widow’s garment for a collateral.”
24:19-22 “You will not take all the fruit of your wheat, olives, grapes (your harvest), but leave some for the stranger, the orphan, the widow (the poor, the homeless).”
25:1-3 “When two stand before a judge, and one is found guilty and the other innocent, the guilty one will be punished only as is commensurate with the crime, so as not to degrade one in front of the other.”
25:4 “You will not muzzle your domesticated animals while working them.” (Note: It is a cruelty to do so.)
25:5-10 “If brothers reside together and one dies without a son, the living brother will marry his deceased brother’s wife so that she will be with child. If the living brother refuses to marry, the elders will witness this refusal, and he will be known among the people for not continuing his deceased brother’s line of inheritance.” (Note: This is the ANE approach to family inheritance. Jews of the modern period follow either halachic or civil laws regarding the remarrying of widows.)
25:11-12 “If two men are fighting and one man’s wife grabs and injures the other man’s scrotum, you will cut off her hand and show no pity.” (Note: It was believed in the ANE period that a man’s semen is the reason for women becoming pregnant, being without knowledge that a woman has eggs and, without her egg, his semen is wasted and impotent within her. Thus, this law to protect semen, thus a family inheritance line, is no longer observed.)
25:13-16 “You will have full and honest weight and volume measurements, so that your days will be prolonged. For whoever does an injustice is an abomination.”
25:17-19 “You will remember what the oppressors have done to you, how they harmed your numbers, and you will obliterate any good memory of their names upon this earth!”
26:1-11 “You will put the firstfruits of your fruit and grain harvests into a basket and bring it to the chosen place, and perform the remembrance ritual of who we were oppressed by and gifted with freedom from.”
26:12-19 “When you finish seperating the taxes of your produce in the third year of the shemittah cycle, you will give it to the priest, the orphan, the widow, the stranger (the poor and homeless) so that they can eat to satiety in your cities. You will do this and perform the ritual of acknowledging your citizen role in taking care to ensure that poverty is removed from your land.” (Note: Again, Torah is about socialism, and *not* capitalism/communism.)
Post Note: The whole purpose of “giving” – taxation, donations, offerings – is to ensure social justice within the land! It is to ensure that all humans within the land are assured the sanctity of their life through: honest measurements, equal justice, elimination of poverty, rejecting slavery, protecting the food sources, and respecting the animals we domesticate. It’s about realizing that, without socialism, Capitalism is Communism – the injustice of the minority wealth at top, and the majority poor oppressed by society. It’s about realizing that the model nation is the one without poverty, racism, and classism – the seeds of injustice – within its midst!
יוסף פרקשדי
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