EXOD316 See [[EXOD312]] Exodus 19:3 Jacob SEFER xxxi

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EXOD317 Scripture tells us that the world and everything in it belongs to God. (Psalms 24:1). Therefore, in a literal sense, no human can own anything in the world. At the very moment that He designates the Jewish people for a special relationship with Him, God tells us that the entire world belongs to Him.

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EXOD318 The body belongs to God. For Judaism, God, as creator of the world, owns everything in it, including our bodies. God loans our bodies to us for the duration of our lives, and we return them to God when we die. Consequently, neither men or women have the right to govern their bodies as they will; God, as creator and owner, asserts the right to restrict how we use our bodies in ways articulated in Jewish law. Some of God's rules require us to take reasonable care of our bodies, just as we would be obliged to protect and clean an apartment that we rent. Rules of good hygiene, sleep, exercise, and diet in Jewish sources are, therefore, not just words to the wise designed for our comfort and longevity, as they are an American thinking; they are, rather, commanded acts that we owe God. So, for example, American ideology in law would permit me to eat a half gallon of ice cream every night of the week; I might be stupid to do so because I will look and feel terrible and endanger my life, but that is my choice. In Jewish law, though, I do not have that right, because I have a fiduciary duty to take care of my body since it belongs to God. Just as we are commanded to maintain good health, so we are obligated to avoid danger and injury. B. Shabbat 32a; B. Bava Kamma 15b, 80a, 91b; M.T. Laws of Murder 11:4-5; S.A. Yoreh De'ah 116:5 gloss; S.A. Hoshen Mishpat 427:8-10]. Indeed, Jewish law views endangering one's health as worse than violating a ritual prohibition. B. Hullin 10a; S.A. Orach Hayyim 173:2] Conservative, Reform, and some Orthodox authorities have thus prohibited smoking as an unacceptable risk to our God – owed bodies. Judaism also teaches that human beings do not have the right to commit suicide, for doing so obliterates something that belongs not to us but to God. In contrast, the laws of most American states permits suicide (although most prohibit aiding and abetting a suicide).

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EXOD319 "The Law" is first cultic (the so-called apodictic laws), and what will become the casuistic are originally the jurisprudence of the community. Through their narrativization, however, they both accede to the category of the prescriptive. And the intertextual relation of the narrative framework with the prescriptive content shores up the covenantal nature of the whole. Thus, for example, the Decalogue's "introduction" is its indispensable characterization: "I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt…" Within the consciousness of herself as being in intimate relationship with God, Israel integrates the prescriptive. It is second to a primordial situation that creates the raison d'être and the conditions for the law, namely, the berit. The import of this is immeasurable.

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EXOD322 The Purpose of Israel is to teach mankind the oneness of God: [this verse]. Though the entire human race is doubtless precious to me, constituting the goal of creation, you will be more precious to me than all others. "But you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests." Your being a "treasure" consists in the task you assume, to be a "kingdom of priests"-dedicated to comprehend and then teach the entire human race to worship the Name of the Lord and to serve Him in serried ranks. This purpose will be fulfilled by Israel in time to come. [Seforno commentary on this verse].

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EXOD323 There is a misconception among many Jews and non-Jews that because Jewish people are a "chosen people," this implies that Jews must be superior to non-Jews and that non-Jews are inferior. The sources will reveal that nothing could be further from the truth. What, then, does the word "chosenness" mean? It implies that the Jewish people have a role in the world that is different from that of every other nation. While the Jews have 613 commandments to observe Makkot 23b non-Jews were given only seven Commandments to observe Sanhedrin 56b. The Seven Commandments of Noah are prohibitions against murder, adultery, stealing, eating a limb from a live animal, cursing God, idol worship, and the obligation to establish a system of laws and courts. A non-Jew who observes these, according to Jewish law and philosophy, is given a complete share in the world to come and is called by Maimonides a "righteous Gentile." Hilchot Melachim 8:11 There is no other organized religion besides Judaism that grants complete "salvation" to people who do not believe and do not practice that religion.

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EXOD320 … the Torah does not portray the Israelites themselves as all that pious or moral. On the contrary, it makes clear that God's choice of Israel for this task is not based on any rational grounds. It is not because of Israel’s greatness that God chose Israel for this task, for Israel is among the smallest of peoples. It is also not because of the people Israel’s goodness, for they stubbornly persist in their evil ways. (Deuteronomy 7:7). Indeed, shortly after entering into the covenant at Mount Sinai, that people abandoned God for the Golden Calf, and they sinned again in not trusting God to take them into the Promised Land after ten of the twelve spies report the difficulty of the task ahead. (Exodus 32-34 and Numbers 13-14. See also Deuteronomy 9:5). In both cases, God seriously considers destroying the people forthwith and starting over again with Moses leading some other people; But Moses, using a series of lawyerly arguments, prevails on God to retain His ties with the people Israel. Thus Israel’s size, piety, and goodness are not the reasons that God chose it as His people; it is rather because of God's love for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; His promises to them; and His need for a model people that He agrees to continue His relationship with their descendants, no matter what. The Jewish people, though, are to be what the Moabite seer Balaam described as “a people that dwells apart, not reckoned among the nations.” (Numbers 23:9; Deuteronomy 32:12, 33:28, Jeremiah 49:31, Micah 7:14).

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EXOD321 See [[EXOD912]] Exodus 24:7 do DORFFDRAG 62-3

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EXOD327 The priestly hero–image was included in the Bible, but it was also transcended. Moses announces his intention of founding a "Kingdom of priests and a holy nation" [this verse]. Every Jew is to share in the glory of priesthood, shunning "the unclean" and periodically cleansing himself from "all their defilements." While the priestly prophet Ezekiel seems to say that the priest alone must not eat unclean and improperly slaughtered meat (nevelah uterefah) [Ezekiel 44:31], the Torah ordains this law for all Jews.

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EXOD329 What is it that a Jew may not do on Shabbat? The Torah simply says that melachah is prohibited. This word is often mistranslated to mean work. It cannot be the intention that work, manual labor, is prohibited since the Hebrew word for manual labor or work is avodah and not melachah. What, then, is melachah that is prohibited and what does it symbolize? The word melachah is found in the Torah in only two contexts besides Shabbat. One is at the end of the creation story. Genesis 2:1-3 God finished all the melachah and rested from His melachah. This, it is clear that melachah is that activity that God did during the first six days of the world, that is, creation or creative activity. This, then, is what is prohibited on Shabbat, and not work. ... The only other Torah reference to melachah is the building of the Tabernacle. Exodus 31:3-4. This, too, is related to creative and purposeful activity, and the building of the Tabernacle has been compared to a microcosm of the original creation itself. Thus, the thirty-nine categories of forbidden creative activity are derived from those activities performed in building and maintaining the Tabernacle. Shabbat 49b

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