concerns (we) Jews have that separate us from the Gentile world.” It is true that Jews saw these very commandments as tantamount to the entire law, for it was through these social laws that Jews expressed their commitment to the law—similar to the way in which some Christians see their giving of a tithe to their local church as a vibrant witness to their total submission to God and so turn it into a commandment of massive consequences, to the point that those who do not tithe are seen as either spiritually