Start here · day 9 of 14 · How to live near other people
קָדוֹשׁ
Love your neighbour
Leviticus 19
First, read it
Leviticus 19
Read it before the notes below. They are worth more once you have your own impression of it.
Open Leviticus 19Then, the idea
This chapter opens with the command to be holy, and then tells you what that means. It is almost entirely about other people.
Leave the edges of your field unharvested so the poor and the stranger can eat. Pay a worker the same day. Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind. Do not stand by while your neighbour is in danger. Judge fairly. Do not go about spreading gossip.
And in the middle of the practical detail, one line that two faiths have built on: love your neighbour as yourself. It is not in a sermon. It is in a chapter about paying people on time.
One word of Hebrew
קָדוֹשׁ
kadosh — holy, set apart
Not 'religious' and not 'above other people'. Here it is measured entirely by how the vulnerable are treated when nobody is watching.
And one question
If holiness is measured in wages, harvests and honest speech, how would this week score?
Nobody is marking this. Sit with it on the way to work.