LEV206 … the Pentateuch so often urges Israel to hearken to the chukkim [... which are legislated by authorities both temporal and divine for purposes sometimes known and sometimes unknown ...] as well as the mishpatim [... particular decisions rendered by particular judges embodying abstract concepts of justice that ought to inform all proper judgements ...] , the mishpatim as well as the chukkim. [this and next verses, Leviticus 25:18, Leviticus 26:46, Deuteronomy 26:16-18]. For, as we shall show it is the central theme of biblical religion that God has concluded a historic covenant with Israel which commits her to a national existence, and whose goals are for Israel to become a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation." As such, Israel must observe both chukkim, which express her special relationship to God, as well as mishpatim, which govern the relationships of the people of Israel to each other. This is required because the biblical God, unlike other deities, is vitally concerned with both the moral and the ritual areas. The God who is holy demands that His people be holy; the God who is merciful and kind demands that His people be merciful and kind. Thus, in order to overcome the natural tendency to bifurcate the world of obligation into the social and religious, duties to man and duties to God, the Bible deliberately intersperses the two types of rules, chukkim and mishpatim, so that all can be seen as emanating from the same authority, as equally binding and therefore to be observed with equal diligence.