This episode focuses on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) ritual. Unlike many popular commentaries teach, this important Old Testament ritual was about “resetting” the tabernacle/temple sanctuary, its priesthood, and the Israelite people to the state of ritual purity (holiness) evident when the entire Levitical system and the Tabernacle was originally sanctified in Leviticus 8. The episode reviews the nature of “atonement” language discussed in earlier episodes, the matter of the goat “for Azazel,” and the conceptual meaning of the “mercy seat.”
This episode covers Leviticus 12-15, chapters that speak to the ritual impurity of women after childbirth, skin diseases (commonly referred to as leprosy), and loss of bodily fluids. The episode discusses the theological and worldview rationale for the laws about ritual procedure to restore individuals falling into these categories to ritual purity.
This chapter of Leviticus describes the categories of clean and unclean animals allowed or disallowed for food. The Israelite “food laws” have long puzzled scholars. This episode overviews the various approaches to discovering a coherent rationale for these laws.
Leviticus 10 describes the deaths of the priests Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, for offering “strange fire”. The nature of their transgression and other admonitions from God to the priesthood are discussed in this episode.
Leviticus 8-9 describes two distinct but related ceremonies: the consecration of the altar and Tabernacle, and the consecration of Aaron as High Priest (vv. 6–12) and his sons as priests. This episode focuses on some of the objects worn by the high priest (ephod, gold plate) and the enigmatic Urim and Thummim.
