Leviticus 19
09 Aug 2026 - Theology
The Holiness Code
Modern Bible scholars and rabbis agree that chapter 19 of Leviticus is the key to understanding the covenant of ancient Israel. Many modern scholars believe that one priest composed chapters 17 to 26 of Leviticus. They call these chapters “the Holiness Code”, and call the priest the H source.
Bible scholars generally agree that the Holiness Code was completed before the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC. This means that when the Holiness Code was written, the Israelites were no longer in the desert, but were already living in the land of Israel.
Leviticus 19:2 - “…Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.”
This is the message of the Holiness Code and the heart of the Torah. But what does it mean to be holy? And how can we, as mortals, be holy like God?
Kadosh, holy, means “distinct” or “set apart.” The idea is that by being distinctive in their behavior, Jews testify to God. The people of Israel, though they live in the world, are to stand at a calibrated distance from it. This is to exemplify how God stands outside the natural universe, though He acts within it.
They are to do this by setting an example of self-restraint, acting on spiritual principles over physical desire, and knowing when to say enough. This is what separates man from beasts (see Genesis 3). Sigmund Freud held that the mark of civilization was the ability to defer the gratification of instinct. That is precisely how the sages understand the idea of holiness in human behavior.
“Being holy” is more than just following the law. This is because the law (for the most part) only regulates a person’s actions, not a person’s thoughts, desires, or motives. A person could follow the law even though they might hate it. You can keep all the dietary laws, and still be a glutton. You can drink only kosher wine and still be a drunkard. You can be faithful to the laws of marriage and still be a sensualist. The law itself points to something beyond the law. There is a dimension of the moral and spiritual life that can not be specified with precise legislation.
To be holy, for Nahmanides or Maimonides, is to undergo an extended process in character formation or moral growth. We can not learn all aspects of holiness from rules, but only from experience and example. The Talmud speaks of the “foolish” Jews of Babylon who “stand in the presence of a Torah scroll but not in the presence of a great human being.” For example, the best way to learn about leadership is to study other leaders (in life, or through their biographies) and see how they behave.
1 John 2:3-6 (NIV) - “We know that we have come to know him [God] if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”
The Holiness Code
The Holiness Code starts by repeating all of the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20, Exodus 34), putting them in a new order and sometimes in new words. It places them beside laws that speak about farming, sacrifice, rituals, and the way we should treat strangers, neighbors, and family. The Holiness Code speaks about things everyone can understand: everyday life.
There are a few laws in this chapter that I’d like to highlight:
Care for the Poor:
Leviticus 19:9-10 - “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.”
This is not charity, the giving of a willful heart, to the poor or outsider. Rather, the Lord is saying that the poor and outsider have a right to be taken care of by the community (it is a command).
Fair Legal Decisions:
Leviticus 19:15 - “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.”
The Holiness Code reminds judges that the rich and the poor are the same, and all decisions must be fair.
The Golden Rule:
Leviticus 19:18 - “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.”
This is what is called the “Golden Rule”: to love your neighbor as yourself. When Hillel was asked to sum up everything in the Torah in one rule, he said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.” Rabbi Akiba stated that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is “the great principle of the Torah.”
Galatians 5:13-14 - “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
The Golden Rule here would not be complete without its second half: “I am the Lord.” What makes loving our neighbors a holy way to behave is knowing that the Lord loves all human beings equally. We become more like the Lord when we believe and act with the understanding that all humans have value, as they are created in the image of God.
Simon May writes: “The widespread belief that the Hebrew Bible is all about vengeance and an eye for an eye, while the Gospels supposedly invent love as an unconditional and universal value, must therefore count as one of the most extraordinary misunderstandings in all of Western history. For the Hebrew Bible is the source not just of the two love commandments but of a larger moral vision inspired by wonder for love’s power.”
We see here in Leviticus 19 the call to love God and our neighbor. But there is a third love as well, a little later in the chapter: love for the stranger, the one who is not like you (33-34).
References
- The Hebrew - Greek Key Study Bible (KJV Version)
- The Torah Portion-by-Portion by Rabbi Seymour Rossel (2007)
- Covenant & Conversation, Volume 3: Leviticus, the Book of Holiness
- Holiness Code - Wikipedia
- Humility