Acharei Mot: Life and the future.
It seems self-evident that we should value human life - our own lives, and those of others - and yet we need to be reminded to consciously choose life. (Dennis Prager on Deut. 30:19: "The commandment to choose life over death must have struck many readers throughout history as strange: If given the choice between life and death, who would choose death?")
Leviticus 18:5 reads: "You shall observe My statutes and My ordinances, which a man shall do and live by them. I am the Lord." This verse affirms that it is the Creator's will that we should value individual human life - but also, taken together with the verses that follow, it highlights the role of the family, and of the sanctity of family relationships, in the propagation and continuation of that life.
In this context, the Hebrew [ הָֽאָדָ֖ם ] might best be read, not as "a man" but as "man" or "humankind": because it is the collective life and survival of the community that is being discussed. And indeed 18:21 warns against destroying the future with child sacrifice. [179]
Leviticus 18:5 reads: "You shall observe My statutes and My ordinances, which a man shall do and live by them. I am the Lord." This verse affirms that it is the Creator's will that we should value individual human life - but also, taken together with the verses that follow, it highlights the role of the family, and of the sanctity of family relationships, in the propagation and continuation of that life.
In this context, the Hebrew [ הָֽאָדָ֖ם ] might best be read, not as "a man" but as "man" or "humankind": because it is the collective life and survival of the community that is being discussed. And indeed 18:21 warns against destroying the future with child sacrifice. [179]