LEV201 The Torah clearly wishes the Jews to keep some distance from the non-Jewish community by explicitly commanding Jews not to copy the customs of the non-Jews [this verse]. What does this commitment precisely mean and how is it performed? Although this verse seems to be referring specifically to the customs of Egypt and of Canaan, two chapters later the same commandment is repeated (Leviticus 20:23-24) without a reference to any specific nation, but with an "explanation" that God has made the Jews different from all other nations. The commentaries have emphasized this general concept and have not restricted this mitzvah to the customs of any particular non-Jewish society. For example, the Sefer Hachinuch (Sefer Hachinuch, Mitzvah #2) explains that one of the main purposes of the brit milah, in the first mitzvah given to all Jews, is to keep Jews separate from other nations, both in name and in physical demarcation. Maimonides (Hilchot Akum 11:1) in explaining the mitzvah of not following non-Jewish customs, says that a Jew should be distinctive from non-Jews through distinctive dress as well as through knowledge and understanding.