Israel as counter-culture.”11 Thus the refrain throughout the Levitical code—“I the LORD, I who sanctify you, am holy” (21:8; cf. 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:26; 21:15, 23; 22:9, 16, 32)—translates into a call for Israel to be a holy people. Yet this means, at least when the Pentateuchal scheme of things is read from a normate perspective, an understanding of God as the One who is without blemish, and an associated understanding of all blemishes and diseases, as well as the people who have them, as being