My thanks to everyone who was so kind about my essay on being a rabbi. Before I start writing about Torah, I have a story for you.

When I moved into my current home, the neighborhood was only partly built. I thought no one knew who I was. One day my dog slipped out of his collar, and I walked through the neighborhood, calling him. (It’s a little embarrassing when you adopt a dog named Houdini; even worse when you wander around calling, “Houdini! Where are you?”).

A block away, I heard a voice yelling “Rabbi, Rabbi!” and looked up to see a woman waving wildly at me and gesticulating at the missing Houdini. When I caught up to them and thanked her, she said, “I wasn’t sure exactly which house you live in, but I certainly know who you are.” I had no idea who she was; we’d never met. So much for anonymity.

…..

The book of Leviticus is so complex, convoluted, and downright difficult, that my rabbinical school offered a class called Learning to Love Leviticus. Which I never took.

But this week as I read the last few chapters, I realized that it is quite simple. It is all about being in relationship with God. That’s it. That’s what God wanted, and that’s what God told us how to do in this book of the Bible.

There are two sets of rules in Leviticus, each demonstrating how to be in relationship with God. One method was through animal sacrifice. We have left that method far behind, replacing animal sacrifice with communal prayer.

The other path, the one we attempt to walk today, is to take care of each other. To be kind, thoughtful, careful about doing potential harm. It tells us to do things like leave the corners of our fields so that poor people can glean food. It teaches us to not put a stumbling block before the blind. It lists the various people with whom we shouldn’t have sex (mainly family members).

It teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves.

This pathway to God reminds us that every person is made in the image of God. You, me, everybody. The implication is that if I’m like God, then I must behave like God. And if you are like God, then I must behave with respect towards you.

Central to Leviticus is the Holiness Code. It reminds us, again and again, that God is holy and therefore we should be holy.

To be in relationship with God is to be in relationship with other humans. It is so simple, and so vital. But it is not simplistic. Leviticus painstakingly details many behaviors, both desirable and objectionable.

I heard a pastor say recently that the solution to antisemitism is for everyone to love their neighbor. That, I believe, is overly simplistic and not especially helpful.

But maybe, just maybe, the world would be a much nicer place if we each remember to see holiness in others.

It’s not always easy. It is especially difficult in a week when a gunman killed two young people leaving an interfaith gathering.

Why he thought that murdering people who he identified as Jews would help the Palestinian cause is beyond me. He couldn’t see their humanity, their spark of God, their holiness. Now it’s our turn, to try to see it in him. If we believe that is impossible, then I have little hope for humanity.

And I have a great deal of hope for humanity. Just as I know that Houdini will eventually reappear when he wanders away.