R. David Kasher on Parashat Kedoshim: Codes in Conversation

Ta Shma

The style and content of Parashat Kedoshim remind us immediately of an earlier reading: Parashat Mishpatim—back in the Book of Exodus, just after the revelation. Both parashiyyot are composed almost entirely of dense legal code: one law after another, for chapter after chapter. And both open with a framing statement naming a value category that characterizes the laws that follow.

With this structural similarity, the Torah places the two primary values named by the two codes—justice and holiness—into dialogue with one another. We see this in our parashah, whose initial focus is on holiness, but very quickly veers into justice. But the reverse process we can already see in Parashat Mishpatim, which begins with principles of justice, but eventually turns to holiness, with language that will anticipate Parashat Kedoshim.