i would go steady on ridiculing Leviticus.
i think we should still be very careful about non-safety checked sea food and pork. bacon is a way of preserving pork so that it is a safe meat, but in a warm climate even that can be unreliable. i have not checked about the reasons for not mixing fibres. i know that on the whole most people don't do it but i don't know why.
but i do know that in it's day Leviticus was radical.
given for a people who had been pastoral nomads, then slaves for 400 years, the old testament "law" is a collection of laws and guidelines and case law (numbers), that was virtually unknown on that scale in a day and age where written law is very very rare and most communities depended on the will of a king, landowner or war lord as the only thing to stand against the law of the jungle.
Leviticus is a brilliant (in my view) and brand new way of regulating priestly power and behaviour so that their actions are clearly limited and cant be used for manipulation and extortion practices.
if wisely followed they ensure
* a ritual role plus a sensible public health role for the priestly caste in society.
(law enforcement is consigned to local community "elders".
defence became run by national "judges").
* they encourage broadly useful food guidelines in making memorable and useful rules (even tho some exceptions carefully researched and carried out wouldnt kill you).
* for contagious conditions the main guide lines for public health (not doctor treatment, two different roles) are quarantine and washing with clean water. using those same two guidelines the french managed to contain the H1N1 out break far more than any other country even though their vaccination programme was an expensive wash out.
* the guidelines for creeping mildew are almost exactly the same as for dry rot in britain currently.
* the forbidden relationships are mainly to prevent various sorts of incest and generational confusion useful for inheritance and social stability as well as moral purposes.
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