EXOD328 The right to privacy is at the core of human dignity. The more our privacy is invaded, the more we lose two central components of our dignity--namely, our individuality and respect we command from others. When our innermost selves become the subject for the knowledge and criticism of others, the resulting social pressure will quickly wear away our individuality... The community does have a right and, indeed, a duty to establish and enforce some norms, but if the community can know and scrutinize absolutely every one of our thoughts and actions, we will inevitably displease the majority in some ways and lose their esteem in the process. Conversely, the very requirement to honor and protect a person's privacy both stems from, and engenders, an inherent regard for that person. Thus by preserving human individuality and honor, privacy contributes to human dignity. Privacy is at the heart of mutual trust and friendship. If you reveal things I tell you in confidence, I will think twice before entrusting you as a business partner, a colleague, or a friend. Privacy also enables creativity to flourish, for it protects nonconformist people from interference by others. Along the same lines, privacy is a prerequisite for a free and tolerant society, for each person has secrets that concern weaknesses that we dare not reveal to a competitive world, dreams that others may ridicule, past deeds that bear no relevance to present conduct, or desires that a judgmental and hypocritical public may condemn. These moral concerns justify the protection of privacy in any society, but a religious tradition like Judaism adds yet other rationales for safeguarding an individual’s privacy. First... the Jewish tradition teaches us that when we reveal a person's secrets we not only defame that person, but we dishonor the image of God within that person and thus God Himself. Moreover, God intends that the Israelites be “a kingdom of priests and a holy people” (Exodus 19:6). Among other things that the Torah requires of Jews so that they might become a holy people... [is that they] protect a person's home, reputation, and communication by forbidding both intrusion and disclosure

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EXOD326 See [[EXOD912]] Exodus 24:7 do DORFFDRAG 62-3

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EXOD324 Among other things that the Torah requires of Jews so that they might become a holy people, it states that a lender may not intrude on a borrower's home to collect on a loan and people may not be tailbearers within the community. [Deuteronomy 24:10-13 and Leviticus 19:16]. Thus a holy people must protect a person's home, reputation, and communication by forbidding both intrusion and disclosure.

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EXOD1074 In all these ways [i.e., preceding discussion/list - AJL], then, Judaism can and does contribute to our moral knowledge and action. There are no guarantees in life--except for death and taxes, as the quip goes--and so religious people may falter and sometimes even misinterpret religion to justify immoral acts. But Judaism provides a multitude of ways to help us know how to act morally and to motivate us to do so. It thus increases the probability that Jews can be the holy people that G-d expects of us: “Indeed, all the earth is Mine, but you shall be to Me a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).

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EXOD330 What makes a Jew? -- is a question that is often asked. The answer--two things: membership of the Jewish brotherhood, and the loyal fulfillment of those obligations which that membership imposes. Most of these ethical duties are enumerated in the 19th chapter of Leviticus, which commands the entire nation to be holy, just as the Decalogue addressed itself to each individual. Here is a brief summary of what this chapter and other pronouncements of the similar nature require of us. To abstain from all things which defile, physically or spiritually; to avoid forbidden food; to shun the heathenish modes of disfigurement over the dead; to bar intermarriage with those of other faiths. The Torah expects us to be learned and proud members of "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" [this verse] in which holiness is not a mystical or an abstract idea but a directive and dynamic principle in daily life.

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EXOD325 Israel's unique status as God's chosen covenant partner theoretically provides a national"mission statement" that would motivate compliance with God's ethical demands. Acceptance of the Sinai covenant confers upon Israel the status of "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" [this verse]. Just as a priest adopts a distinctive lifestyle dedicated to the service of God so he can minister to the needs of the laity, so Israel's mission is to serve that role for the nations. Israel's given status as a "holy people" provides the reason that they should observe the commandments (Exodus 22:30, Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2, 21), while in Leviticus 19 Israel's potential holiness is used to inspire the people to appropriate behavior as "the entire community of the people of Israel" is commanded to "be holy for I the Lord your God am Holy" [Lev. 19:2]. In this case, Israel's status as a holy nation is not an assumption, but rather a goal, arrived at by performing a ritual assortment of ethical demands. (By Elaine Adler Goodfriend, “Ethical Theory and Practice in the Hebrew Bible)

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EXOD335 See [[EXOD118]] Exodus 7:16 let AMJV 198

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EXOD334 See [[EXOD40]] Exodus 2:12 struck DORFFDRAG 33-4

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EXOD336 Thus the Jewish and American understandings of the nature of community and of the status of the individual within the community have some important similarities. In the minds of many American Jews, these mask the significant differences between the two concepts. Indeed, many American Jews want to believe that their Jewish self and their American self fit neatly together, like hand in glove, with no contradictions or even tensions. As we have seen, though, American ideology depicts the community in a “thin” sense, by which membership is completely voluntary and may be revoked by the individual at anytime and by which the purpose of the community is predominantly pragmatic. In contrast, Judaism’s sense of community is “thick,” which means that its members are organically part of the communal corpus and cannot sever themselves from it and that the purpose of community, while partly pragmatic, is essentially theological, to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

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EXOD332 Collective reward and punishment. The context or framework of the commandments assumes God will reward and punish on a collective, national basis. This is a consequence of the collective nature of God's covenant with Israel--that is, Israel as a nation agreed to accept its role as God's covenant partner and thereby become "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" [this verse, Exodus 24:3,7]. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 enumerate the blessings and curses that will come upon the people of Israel as a result of its observance or non-observance of God's laws. Rewards include sufficient rains and plenteous harvests, abundant fertility for their human and animal populations, immunity from foreign invaders, and God's continual and beneficent Presence. More detailed and numerous are the penalties for flouting the commandments: affliction by disease, agricultural infertility, lethal attacks by wild animals, invasions by foreign armies and the resultant food shortages, exile from the land of Israel, and divine rejection. The collective nature of the reward and punishment motivates individual Israelites not only to comply, but, further, to compel their fellow Israelites to observe God's laws and initiate prosecution against those who do not. Deuteronomy in particular repeats the admonition to show no toleration for evil-doers, ("show no pity" and "sweep out evil from your midst"), lest calamity engulf the nation as a whole (13:6, 17:7, 19:19, 21:21). [For author's discussion of "Individual reward and punishment," see [[EXOD684]] Exodus 22:23 your OXFORD 39] (By Elaine Adler Goodfriend, “Ethical Theory and Practice in the Hebrew Bible)

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