Holiness in the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures signifies being "set apart" for God, rooted in His divine nature as perfectly pure and unique. It is a central theme, especially in Leviticus 11:44, 19:2, and 20:26, commanding Israel to be holy because God is holy. This holiness demanded separation from sin and pagan practices. 👆 It’s caused a lot of problems for Israel and the a Jewish people in general. Antisemitism rose because of this very thing. Get away from us - you all don’t belong here. Strange way of rejecting what the Jews were called to portray to the rest of the peoples - nations. Monotheism grounded in a relationship with the only One and True G-d - Creator - Redeemer. TADA - drum roll - religions enter the world and created even more division and exclusiveness, because that’s what humans do. Now the Jews can be seen and treated as the bad guys. Jews are seen as flawed as everyone else is so how dare they set themselves apart from the rest of us. If you all are so holy - chosen - then why are you still here? 🤣 It can be missed in the document chronicling the history of Israel and the Jews in general theirs, our - human - failings - failings of all humanity are mirrored in that Book along with hope and forgiveness and great stories of victory. When Yeshua came He destroyed “religion” - The letter of the Law without the Spirit of the Law. Yet religious people pick it up again and use it to cause divisions, condemnations and arguments. We are just funny people that way. We decide who can be forgiven and who cannot so we are justified in who we persecute.