I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy. The holiness call is grounded in the Exodus: the God who brought Israel out of Egypt brought them out for a purpose — to be their God, which requires that they be holy as He is holy. The Exodus is not only a liberation from slavery but a liberation for holiness. The freedom from Egypt's ways is freedom for the covenant's standards. The dietary laws that seem burdensome to the outsider are the covenant community's participation in the holiness of the God who freed them. Leviticus 11:45 is one of the most concise theological statements in the Torah.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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