How Israel Is Set Apart From the Nations in Every Deed

Rabbi Levi opened: "You shall be holy to Me" and so forth (Leviticus 20:26). Rabbi Yudan in the name of Rabbi Hama bar Hanina, and Rabbi Berekhiah in the name of Rabbi Abbahu taught: had it said "and I will separate the nations of the world from you," the nations of the world would have had no standing. Rather it says "and I have separated you from the peoples to be Mine" (ibid.). This is like one who picks out the good from amid the bad: he picks and goes back and picks again. But when one picks out the bad from amid the good, he picks once and does not pick again. Rabbi Levi said: in all their deeds Israel are distinguished from the nations of the world: in their plowing, in their sowing, in their reaping, in their gathering of sheaves, in their threshing, in their granaries and winepresses, and in their counting and reckoning. In their plowing, "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together" (Deuteronomy 22:10). In their sowing, "You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed" (ibid. 22:9). In their reaping, "You shall not gather the gleaning of your harvest" (Leviticus 19:9). In their gathering of sheaves, "And you forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back" and so forth (Deuteronomy 24:19). In their threshing, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it threshes" (ibid. 25:4). In their granaries and winepresses, "You shall surely furnish him out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress" (ibid. 15:14). And in their counting and reckoning, that the nations of the world count by the sun and Israel by the moon, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months" (Exodus 12:2).