"This is the last chapter of Leviticus, in which God explains to Moshe how priests (Kohanim) can help people make the sacrifices through which they atone for the wrongs they have committed, and the offerings that meshalem — perfect, make whole, fulfill, bring peace to — the human’s relationship with God. For every khet — sin or transgression — there is the option of atoning and making peace with God, and the place to do it is right in the middle of the camp — in the middle of daily life, family life, etc.; not far away or only on a special day.

In this reading, Dr. Wolf talks about ‘stuck-ness’ — the times when it is difficult to keep reading. She uses that as a metaphor for times in our lives when God seems to have withdrawn Himself, when suffering seems endless or pointless. She describes what she views as a flaw in much of modern Western organized religion — its refusal to address sadness, depression, pain, or suffering seriously; its ‘happy face’ dialectics.

Dr. Wolf also points out — spoiler alert — that these slow, repetitive chapters now end in one of the most mind-blowing experiences in the entire Hebrew Bible: after following God’s directions about offerings, the Children of Israel get to see God’s kavod — glory, honor, weightiness — directly; not some of them, not just the priests, but all of them.

Dr. Wolf shows that the RSV mistranslates key sections in this chapter, making it about the priests’ ‘ordination,’ which is not correct, and, far more seriously, mistranslating the last sentence and separating it into two sentences; so that it appears in the RSV that the Children of Israel saw a fire that came out in front of God and consumed the sacrifice, and then that they ‘shouted’ and fell on their faces, as if witnessing a magic trick; whereas in the Hebrew they actually see God within His glory and praise Him. Fascinating mistranslation that, as with these mistranslations throughout the RSV to date, inaccurately raises up the role of the priest and the ‘Church,’ but elides or omits dramatic evidence within the text that humans don’t need organized religion to mediate between them and their Creator — that they can and should encounter YHWH directly — in this case, even face to face."

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