The idea of purity and impurity is the central theme in today’s reading from Leviticus and serves to provide guidance for the people of Israel to follow. After reading these chapters of Leviticus, I would say that purity represents order and cleanliness while impurity represents chaos and dirtiness. Another distinction between purity and impurity is that purity represents God’s blessing, while impurity lacks God’s blessing. In her article, Mary Douglas shows how God is primarily trying to create order, which is maintained through purity and cleanliness. She also references how when we do not follow God’s rules and expectations we are being impure because we are doing things that God has not blessed. By acting with purity we are demonstrating our commitment to God and the maintenance of his creations and order.
God’s laws that are laid out in The Book of Leviticus initially seem strange but connect to the purity that we are expected to abide by. Part of the logic of these laws is connected to cleanliness and order. By creating many of these laws and rules, God is demonstrating to humans what is pure and what is impure, and further demonstrating what is order and what is chaos on earth. Specifically, the food laws that God has created signify what parts of an animal have been blessed and what parts have not been blessed and are therefore impure. By not eating all parts of an animal, we are able to avoid dirty and impure parts of the animal and we are able to remain pure in that regard. These laws that God has created are logical in the sense that they help him enforce rules that aim to help humans remain pure and stay away from impurity.
Tommy Gallagher Blog 
I thought that you had a very well thought out and organized response to the question! I agreed with your point about following God’s order of creation. I think that it shows a great amount of commitment to God and his authority by following the very specific regulations that he puts out for his followers. I think it goes along nicely with Douglas’ point that God wants to avoid any “confusion” or “mixing” which disrupts the social order of creation.
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I like how you connected all your answers to the idea of being blessed vs not receiving blessing. I think aside from connecting it to Douglass’s work, it helps bridge this part of scripture with the theme of being blessed we observed during the patriarchal history.
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I like you definition of purity and impurity. You say purity represents order and cleanliness and impurity represents chaos and dirtiness. Also I like your statement of how God’s blessing is only given to the actions that represent purity because purity is God’s holy order.
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