18 February

For me, I believe that purity is having a clear mind and soul, and using that mind and soul to put all faith and trust in God. It is hard to maintain purity without a clear mind and soul. On the other hand, I believe that impurity is having something negative or not right on your mind, or not being the person you truly are, and not putting all your faith and trust in God. In Leviticus, God lists various laws/rules and forbidden behavior in order for the Israelites to fully worship him correctly. God also goes on to discuss foods and physical conditions that will make a person “unclean.” Uncleanliness can result from things such as touching a dead carcass, or a bodily discharge, and if a person was unclean, they were to leave the Israelite camp and experience physical cleansing, waiting periods, and religious sacrifices. In terms of Leviticus definitions, purity can be defined as simply growing closer with God and obeying his laws and commands. Impurity can be defined as disregarding the law and God’s gifts. I think that God requires purity because of the whole big concept of order that He follows. Ever since Genesis 1, we saw that God has a specific way he goes about doing things, and that means having specific order to his choices. People maintaining purity is important because then, order will also be maintained in the world and no wars or chaos will break out. If people have order, then they will live a pure and holy life and God will be satisfied. I believe that the logic of the food laws was to maintain the covenant between God and Israel. The Israelites were very aware of the difference between cooked and uncooked food, because cooked food was able to pollute only a certain selected group of Israelites could handle it.