above II. B. 6, no. 43) contain numerous liturgical directives and diverse explanations of the purpose of the cultic order. The fundamental distinctions between pure and impure, on the one hand, and holy and profane, on the other, serve to organise space and time, even to the details of daily life 
, and consequently social and individual living is regulated. Ritual activity includes multiple purifications to re-integrate the impure into the community. 165 Inside the circle of purity, another limit separates the profane (which is pure) from the holy (which is pure and also reserved to God). The holy (or the sacred) is the domain of God. The liturgy of the “Priestly”(P) source also distinguishes “holy” from “Holy of Holies”. Holy places are accessible to priests and Levites, but not to the people (“laity”). Sacred space is always set apart. 166
Sacred time restricts profane employment (prohibition of work, the sabbath day, sowing and reaping during the sabbatical year). It corresponds to the return of the created order to its original state before it was delivered to mankind. 167
Among the pre-exilic prophets, we notice one prominent feature – repeated condemnation of liturgical sacrifices 173 and even of prayer itself
Space, persons and sacred things must be made holy (consecrated). Consecration removes what is incompatible with God, impurity and sin, which are opposed to the Lord. The cult includes multiple rites of pardon (expiations) to restore holiness, 168 which implies that God is near. 169 The people are consecrated and must be holy (Lv -45). The purpose of the cult is that the people be made holy – through expiation, purification and consecration – and be at the service of God.
The cult is a vast symbolism of grace, an expression of God’s “condescension” (in the patristic sense of beneficent adaptation) towards human beings, since he established it for pardon, purification, sanctification and preparation for direct contact with his presence (kabod, glory).
The collections of the Law (cf
47. Prayer and cult in the Prophets. The book of Jeremiah contributes a lot to the appreciation of prayer. It contains “confessions”, dialogues with God, in which the prophet, both as an individual and as a representative of his people, expresses a deep, interior crisis about election and the realisation of God’s plan. 170 Many prophetic books include psalms and canticles 171 as well as fragments of doxologies. 172
174 The rejection seems radical, but these invectives are not to be interpreted as an abrogation of the cult, or a denial of their divine origin. Their aim is to denounce the contradiction between the conduct of the participants and the holiness of God which they claim to be celebrating.
Prayer and cult in the other Writings. Three poetical books are of immense importance for the spirituality of prayer. First Job: with a sincerity equal to the art, the protagonist expresses all the states of his soul directly to God. 175 Then there is Lamentations, where prayer and complaint are mingled. 176 And, of course, the Psalms, that constitute the very heart of the Old Testament. In fact, the impression given is if the Hebrew Bible has retained so few developments on prayer, it is to concentrate all the beams of light on one particular collection. The Psalter is the one irreplaceable key to reading not only the whole life of the Israelite people, but the whole of the Hebrew Bible itself. Elsewhere, the Writings contain little more than vague general principles 177 and some samples of more or less elaborated hymns and prayers. 178
