167 Struggling with Repetition (Deut 14)

Deuteronomy 14
I am getting nowhere with Deuteronomy.
It's not that I'm finding it hard going.
Alright!
Yes I am...
It has been a slog and I think I've run the risk of trying my own patience let alone anyone else who may be trying to follow this blog.
Sigh.
Its sometimes seemingly repetitive nature mixed with my infrequency of getting any sort of text output is causing my brain to become confused.
Not a hard task, but as I strive for consistent and quality with each post, my deliberations have produced the exact opposite.
Poor, sporadic work.
And it has meant reading and rereading and rereading the same passages.

Well, that's my rant over.
On with the food restrictions. Heh heh.
Again, what is the confusing bats for birds?

v18 "...the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat."

As much as hare or camel would not bother me either way, eat or don't. The sound of not been allowed to eat rock badger would be the cause of a mild controlled celebration in the back of my tent.

But what's with the importance of not eating some things and eating others?
As with the last few chapters and also in particular with verse 2, Israel is a nation set apart.
There are sensible health and cultural reasons for not eating some of the animals listed.
But more importantly,

v2 "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth."

The fact that these people are called to be holy and need to follow all the laws of God is critical. There are strong obligations to follow ALL the directions given by God and at the end of the day I'm sure there was not really too much of a problem giving up eating winged insects or vulture.

I guess there is in some ways more importance in the fact that the list is as comprehensive as it is.
God is a god of the small detail as well as the big picture.
There is no ambiguity.
No doubts about what you can and cannot eat.
Clear.
As.
Day.
Which makes it all straight forward.
Of course this is easy to say a few thousand years later after just munching down on some eggplant and fetta pizza followed by fresh fruit salad and ice cream.

Of course if you read the first verse you would realise this chapter isn't just about food.
Behaviour is also addressed.

v1 "You are the sons of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead."

Hence the lack of any of evidence of Israelite emos.