The Tanakh Podcast

Today we address four dimensions of Kiddush and Hillul Hashem - the Sanctification and Desecration of God's name.

The priests, the kohanim, have special rules about their marriages, haircuts, mourning practices, impurity. They can also be disqualified from active service due to a variety of physical disfigurations.
Today we attempt to lend some explanation to the unique role and rules of the Kohanim.

What is the prominence of idolatrous warnings in our chapter?
Why do we hear - twice - a list of abhorrent sexual practices?
And how does this relate to "Hukot Hagoy" - the notion of the ambient culture of Canaan.
Today we explain the unit of ch.18-20 and what it seeks to say about the Torah's ethical lifestyle in contrast to the degenerate ways of the Canaanite nations.

Today we discuss the structure and form of chapter 19 as well as the famous dictum, "Love your Neighbour as Yourself."

In this podcast we discuss Rav David Zvi Hoffman's division of Vayikra into two halves, each with a particular language and a very different orientation.