Temple Adat Torah blog

One of my most favorite portions in the Torah is Kedoshim, part of which is known as the Holiness Code. (Chapter 19 of the Book of
Leviticus) It shines through the repetitive minutiae of the sacrifices, drawing a glorious image of the society that was to be built in the Land. What I love about it is, of course, the compassion and the fairness that is dictated by law, but it also combines practical and enforceable law with a framework for an ideal society that the
community, together and individually, needs to strive to attain.

Last week, an editorial appeared in the NYTimes (November 5, 2017) called “Are Christians supposed to be Communists?” It was written by David Bentley Hart, a fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study and the author of The New Testament: A Translation. The article discusses the early Church’s focus on communally shared living and on its condemnation of the accumulation of personal wealth and property. He contends, with abundant proof from the Gospels and early Christian writers, that local Christian churches of the Roman
world were essentially small communes in which resources were shared according to the needs of believers. These communities
(koinonia - perhaps kehillot?)not only based their structure on the recommendation that its adherents give up their possessions to
the community and to be generous and supportive of others, but on an imperative to lead “a very specific form of communal life
(which) encompassed a radically different understanding of society and property.” They  believed they were living in a kind of “counter-empire within the (Roman) empire, one founded upon charity rather than force - or, …, a kingdom not of this world but present within the world nonetheless” The author posits that remnants of that early,
almost radical, militancy about the evils of wealth and privately owned property are still seen in the simple, spiritual, and materially
impoverished lives lived by monks and nuns. But as time passed, Christian communities became less isolated from general society

and became more assimilated to the common social and economic practices of the established order.

So why did this editorial strike a chore with me? It is because parashat Kedoshim was on my mind. As I wrote it, it became clear to me that the values that dictated the life style of the early Christians are some of the
very same communal and societal values that are commanded in the Torah. This, of course, comes as no big surprise, given the identity and background of the early Christians, but the plan for Israelite society
outlined in Torah and the accounts of the life led in early Christian communities are close mirrors of each other. True, Israelite law did
not reflect a total rejection of the notion of individual accumulation of wealth, but Torah law does demand that everyone recognize and act upon their responsibility to the less fortunate. The law makes clear that excess wealth and the corruption that it breeds is wrong and it legislates the imperative to “spread the wealth”, but we are not enjoined
to reject the material world.

The differences between the society described in Kedoshim and the more ascetic society of the early Christians are perhaps a function of their different times, but their similarities illustrate the same lofty ideals and values. They combine the pragmatic with the aspirational, the real with the ideal, and reflect a desire to create a good, fair and just
world.