Leviticus
ויקרא
Torah Yesharah, translated and edited by Chas. Kahane. New York, 1963
https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_ALEPH001969090/NLI
Leviticus
Chapter 1
The Eternal called to Moses from within the Tent of Assembly, (for while the Cloud dwelt upon it, the glory of the Eternal filled it and Moses could not enter) and, speaking solely to him, said:
Tell the Children of Israel the details of the ritual of the Divine House they have just helped construct. Any man—even a heathen, but not a heretic Israelite—who brings a freewill sacrifice will accompany it with a sincere confession of guilt to the Eternal. He will bring his offering from domestic stock: from healthy oxen that have not killed people, or from healthy sheep or goats.
If he brings an ox as a burnt-offering, he will bring a male with no defect to the entrance of the Tent of Assembly where he will declare that he is bringing the offering of his free will. Only then will it be acceptable to the Eternal.
He will place his hands on the offering’s head, and it will be accepted as atonement for certain of his transgressions.
Either he or his agent will slaughter the ox in the courtyard of the Eternal's House, and the sons of Aaron, the officiating kohanim, will put the blood in a service vessel and throw the blood around the sides of the altar at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly.
He will skin the burnt-offering and carve it into its limbs.
While wandering in the wilderness the fire was put out, therefore, the sons of Aaron, the kohanim, will light a fire on the altar, and arrange wood on the fire.
The sons of Aaron, the kohanim, will arrange the limbs, the head — severed from the body before skinning — and the fats upon the wood of the fire on the altar.
Either a Kolien or a Levite will wash its innards and its legs with water, and the kolien will kindle all on the altar for a burnt-offering, consumed by fire, that is williingly accepted by the Eternal.
If his burnt-offering is from a flock, whether of sheep or of goats, he will offer a male without defect.
He will slaughter it at the northern side of the altar, at the entrance of the Eternal’s House, and the sons of Aaron, the kohanim, will throw its blood around the sides of the altar.
He will carve it into its limbs, which the kohen will arrange with its head and fats on the wood of fire, on the altar.
He will wash the inwards and the legs with water, and the kohen will bring and kindle all on the altar; it is a burnt-offering consumed by fire that is willingly accepted by the Eternal.
If his burnt-offering to the Eternal is of fowl, he will bring his offering from fully-limbed turtle-doves, or from fully limbed young pigeons.
The kohen will bring it to the altar, and cut its head with his thumbnail through the neckbone to the windpipe; its blood will be squeezed out against th wall of the altar; then he will kindle it on the altar.
He will remove its crop (with the undigested food) with the outer feathers, and cast it to the east of the altar, on the ash-heap.
He will split it by hand, but will not divide it completely; the kohen will kindle it, with its feathers, on the altar: on the wood of the fire: as a burnt-offering consumed by fire, that will be accepted by the Eternal as willingly as a larger offering made by a richer man, so long as it is offered whole-heartedly.
Chapter 2
If a poor person brings a cereal-offering to the Eternal, his offering will be of fine flour; he will pour oil over it, and put frankincense upon it.
He will bring it to Aaron’s sons the kohanim. The kohen wall scoop out three fingers-full of its fine flour and oil, besides all its frankincense; and the kohen will kindle this holy part on the altar: an offering consumed by fire, willingly accepted by the Eternal.
What remains of the cereal-offering will be for Aaron and his sons most holy after the fire-offering to the Eternal
If you bring a cereal-offering baked in the oven, bring either matzo cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or matzo wafers'smeared with oil.
If your cereal-offering is fried in a pan, it will be matzo of fine flour mixed with oil.
Crumble it into pieces and pour oil on it; like most ccreal-offerings it needs crumbling.
If your offering is a cereal-offering stewed in a stewing pan, it will be made of fine flour boiled with oil.
You will bring the cereal-offering made of these ingredients to the court-yard of the Eternal, and present it to the kohen; and he will bring it to the altar.
The kohen will take its holy part from the cereal-offering, and kindle it on the altar as an offering consumed by fire, willingly accepted by the Eternal.
What is left of the cereal-offering after the fire-offering will be for Aaron and his sons most holy.
Any cereal-offering you bring to the Eternal will not be leavened, for you will kindle 110 fermentation (symbol of corruption), nor any honey or any fruit sugar as an offering to be consumed by fire for the Eternal.
You may bring them to the Eternal as offerings of first-fruit, but they will not be willingly accepted to be kindled on the altar,
You will season all your cereal-offering with salt, the symbol of purification; and you will not withhold the salt of your Almighty's covenant from your offerings; you will bring salt with all your offerings, whether animal or fowl.
When you bring the first ripened barley-offering to the Eternal, on the second day of Passover, bring ripe barley dried in fire, and barley ground while fresh as the cereal-offering of your first-fruits.
Put oil on it, and place frankincense on it, for it is a cereal-offering.
The kohen will kindle its holy part: some ground grain and some oil with all the frankincense: as an offering consumed by fire for the Eternal.
Chapter 3
When a man brings a peace-offering as fulfillment of his vow or out of gratitude: If he offers it from the herd it may be male or female, but he will offer one with no defect to the Eternal.
He will place his hands on the head of his offering, and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tent of Assembly; Aaron’s descendants, the kohanim, will throw the blood around the sides of the altar.
From the peace-offering he will make a fire-offering to the Eternal: the fat that covers the stomach, all the fat on the intestines,
the two kidneys, and the fat on them — which is near the loins — and he will remove the lobe with part of the liver, near the kidneys.
Aaron’s descendants will kindle it on the altar after the regular morning burnt-offering, on the wood of the fire; an offering consumed by fire, willingly accepted by the Eternal.
If his peace-offering to the Eternal is of the flock he will offer a male or a female with no defect.
If he brings a lamb for his offering; he will bring it before the Eternal.
He will place his hands on the head of his offerings, and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Assembly; and Aaron’s sons will throw its blood around the sides of the altar.
From the peace-offering he will make a fire-offering to the Eternal: He will remove the entire fat of the tail where it joins the spinal column, the fat that covers the stomach, all the fat on the intestines,
the two kidneys, and the fat on them—which is near the loins—and he will remove the lobe with part of the liver, near the kidneys.
The kohen will kindle it on the altar as food for the fire dedicated to the Eternal.
If his offering is a goat, he will bring it before the Eternal.
He will place his hands on its head, and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Assembly; and Aaron's sons will throw its blood around the sides of the altar.
He will offer from it his fire-sacrifice to the Eternal: the fat that covers the stomach, all the fat on the intestines,
the two kidneys, the fat on them—which is near the loins—and he will remove the lobe with part of the liver, near the kidneys.
The kohen will kindle them on the altar as food for the fire, willingly accepted by the Eternal. All this fat will be offered to the Eternal.
Therefore, an everlasting decree for your generations in all your dwelling places, whether in the Land of Israel or outside: Eat no blood or any of these fats.
Chapter 4
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel: If anyone desecrates his soul by sinning unintentionally, violating what the Eternal has commanded not to be done, sacrifice will be offered according to the offender's rank:
If the High Kohen, anointed with the consecrated oil, will sin by handing down an erroneous decision that brings the people to guilt; he must offer a bullock in its third year with no defect to the Eternal as a sin-offering to atone for the sin he committed.
He will bring the bullock to the entrance of the Tent of Assembly before the Eternal: he will place his hands on the head of the bullock, and slaughter it before the Eternal.
The High Kohen will take some of the bullock's blood and bring it into the Tent of Assembly.
The kohen will dip his finger in the blood, and will sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Eternal in front of the holy Partition.
The kohen will put some of the blood on the corners of the altar of fragrant incense, which is in the Tent of Assembly, before the Eternal: He will pour all the remaining blood at the base of the west side of the altar for burnt-offerings, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly.
He will remove all the fat of the bullock-sin-offering from it: the fat that covers the stomach, all the fat on the intestines,
the two kidneys, the fat on them — which is near the loins — and he will remove the lobe with part of the liver, near the kidneys,
as was removed from the ox of the peace-offering. The kohen will kindle them on the altar for burnt-offerings.
But the skin of the bullock, all the flesh, its head its legs, its innards, and its dung,
he will take the rest of the bullock out of the camp to a designated undefiled place where the ashes removed from the altar are poured out, and he will burn it on wood with fire; it will be burned on the place where the ashes are to be poured.
If the entire Supreme Court errs by handing down an erroneous decision, and the public will be unaware of the error; and, following the decision of the Supreme Court, will do any thing the Eternal has commanded not to do, under Divine penalty; and they will later recognize their offense:
When the sin they have committed will be disclosed, the public will offer a bullock in its third year as a sin-offering and will bring it to the front of the Tent of Assembly.
The sages of the Supreme Court will place their hands on the bullock's head before the Eternal, and the bullock will be slaughtered before the Eternal.
The High Kohen will bring some of the blood into the Tent of Assembly.
The kohen will dip his finger in the blood, and will sprinkle seven times before the Eternal in front of the Partition.
He will put some of the blood on the corners of the altar that is before the Eternal inside the Tent of Assembly, and all the remaining blood will he pour at the base of the west side of the altar for burnt-offerings, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly.
He will remove all its fat from it, and kindle them on the altar.
He will do with the bullock exactly as he did with the bullock of the High Kohen's sin-offering; the kohen will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.
He will take the bullock outside the third—the Israelite camp—and burn it as he burned the aforementioned bullock; it is the purification for the public.
If a chief of a tribe sins by doing anything unintentionally the Eternal, his Almighty, commanded not to do; and will later discover his offense:
When he becomes aware of the sin he has committed, he will bring a male goat with no defect as his offering.
He will place his hands on the goat's head, and he will slaughter it at the north side of the altar where the burnt-offering is slaughtered, before the Eternal; it is a sin-offering.
The kohen will take some of the sin-offering's blood with his finger, and smear it on the corners of the altar for burnt-offerings; he will pour its remaining blood at the base of the altar for burnt-offerings.
He will kindle all its fats on the altar, as with the fats of the peace-offering. The kohen will make atonement for his sin, and he will be forgiven.
If any ordinary person desecrates his soul and sins unintentionally by doing anything the Eternal commanded not to be done, and he will commit an offense:
When he becomes aware of the sin committed, he will bring a female goat with no defect as his offering for the sin he committed.
He will place his hand on the head of the sin-offering, and will slaughter the sin-offering where the burnt-offering is slaughtered.
The kohen will take some of its blood on his finger, and smear it on the corners of the altar for burnt-offerings; he will pour all its remaining blood at the base of the altar.
He will remove all its fats, as the fats were removed from the goat peace- offering, and the kohen will kindle it on the altar as an offering willingly accepted by the Eternal. The kohen will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.
If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin-sacrifice, he will bring a female with no defect.
He will place his hand on the head of the sin-offering, and he will slaughter it as a sin-offering where the burnt-offering is slaughtered.
The kohen will take some of the sin-offering’s blood with his finger and smear it on the corners of the altar for burnt-offerings; and he will pour all its remaining blood at the base of the altar.
He will remove all its fats as the fats of the lamb peace-offering were removed, including the tail-fat; and the kohen will kindle them on the altar with the offerings consumed by fire on the pyres set up for the offerings of the Eternal. The kohen will make atonement for the sin he committed, and he will be forgiven.
Chapter 5
If anyone desecrates his soul by sinning: When adjured to testify on action he was witness to by having heard admission of guilt by one of the parties, he refuses to state his testimony, he has committed an offense.
Or if anyone defiles himself by touching any impure thing, either the carcass of an impure animal or the carcass of an impure creeping being, and he enters the Sanctuary or eats Holy Food unaware that he is impure and is committing an offense;
or if he touches a human corpse or comes in contact with any impurity of man, animal, or thing—whatever the impurity that has caused him to become defiled—and he is unaware of it and enters the Sanctuary, and then discovers that he has committed an offense;
or if anyone desecrates his soul by pronouncing an oath with his lips to harm himself or to do good to himself in any way, and he will forget his oath and violate it, and then become aware of his offense—in any of these cases, he will confess his sin,
When he becomes aware of the offense in any of these cases he will confess his sin,
and he will bring his guilt-offering to the Eternal for the sin he committed: a female from the flock, either a lamb or a goat, as sin-offering. The kohen will make atonement for his sin.
If he cannot afford a lamb, he will bring as his guilt-offering for his sin two turtle-doves or two young pigeons to the Eternal: one as a sin-offering and the other as a burnt-offering.
He will bring them to the kohen, who will offer the one brought as a sin-offering first. He will cut off its head at the back of the neck with his thumb-nail, but he will not divide it completely.
He will squirt some of the blood on the wall of the altar, and the rest of the blood will be squeezed out at the base of the altar; it is offered only as a sin-offering.
He will make the second a burnt-offering according to the laws of burnt-offerings; the kohen will make atonement for him for the sin he committed, and he will be forgiven.
If he cannot afford two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, he will bring as his sin-offering for the sin committed one-tenth of an epha of fine flour. He will put no oil in it, nor will he put any frankincense on it, for it is a sin-offering.
He will bring it to the kohen, and the kohen will scoop out three fingers-full as its holy part, and burn that on the altar on any of the pyres set up for the burnt-offerings of the Eternal; it is offered only as a sin-offering.
The kohen will make atonement for him for the sin he committed in any of the above cases, and he will be forgiven. The remaining flour belongs to the kohanim like that of any voluntary cereal-offering.
The Eternal told Moses:
If any person commits sacrilege, and sins by unintentionally benefitting from the things consecrated to the Eternal's Sanctuary, he will bring as his guilt- offering to the Eternal a ram with no defect from the flock, worth two silver shekels of the holy shekels of the Sanctuary.
He will repay what he diminished from the consecrated objects, adding a fifth of the damage to it, and will give that to the kohen. The kohen will make atonement for him with the ram of guilt-offering, and he will be forgiven.
If anyone doubts whether he sinned by violating a commandment of the Eternal whose punishment is korais: Although he is uncertain he is guilty: He has committed an offense.
He will bring to the kohen a ram with no defect from the flock, whose value is that of a guilt-offering: The kohen will make atonement for him for the error he committed, even though he does not know whether he has sinned, However, should he later discover that he had sinned, he will bring a sin-offering and he will be forgiven.
It is a guilt-offering. Although he may not have sinned, it is accepted by The Eternal as a full guilt-offering for the sin-debt he incurred by putting in a situation of doubt.
The Eternal told Moses:
If anyone sinfully desecrates his soul by a breach of faith in the Eternal: If he deals falsely with his fellowman in denying that the latter deposited an article with him for safekeeping, or lent him money, or was robbed by him, or that he is withholding his fellowman’s wages,
or if he found a lost article and denied it; and he swears falsely in any of these cases, denying that he owes money, and sinned thereby.
When he acknowledges his guilt, he will return what he robbed, or the wages he withheld, or the article that was deposited with him, or the lost article he found,
or whatever he swore falsely about. He will return its principal, and add fifths to it. He will give this to the owner of the money on the day he acknowledges his guilt.
He will bring to the kohen his guilt-offering to the Eternal: a ram with no defect from the flock, whose value is that of a guilt-offering.
The kohen will make a atonement for him before the Eternal, and he will be forgiven for whichever of the above he committed, after confessing his guilt.
Chapter 6
The Eternal told Moses:
Command Aaron and his sons to teach future generations: These are the laws of the daily burnt-offering. It is the burnt-offering that burns on its pyre on the altar all night till morning, and the kohen will see to it that there is always enough wood for the fire on the altar to burn all night as well as all day.
Every day the kohen will put on his full sized linen tunic, and he will put short linen pants directly on his body. He will lift up one spadeful of the ashes from the fire's consumption of the burnt-offering on the altar, and deposit it beside the altar.
When the pile on the altar grows large, he will remove his garments, put on other garments, and take the ashes outside the Israelite camp to a designated, undefiled place.
Other pyres will also be made so that the fire on the altar will be kept burning: It will not go out: And the kohen will burn wood in it every morning. He will arrange the daily burnt-offering on the flames as an atonement for all Israel, after which he will kindle there the fats of the peace-offering.
A fire will continually be kept burning on the altar: It will not go out.
This is the law of the cereal-offering: One of the sons of Aaron will offer it before the Eternal on the southwest side of the altar.
He will scoop up with three fingers some of the fine flour of the cereal-offering and some of its oil with all the frankincense on the cereal-offering, and he will kindle this holy part on the altar as an offering willingly accepted by the Eternal.
Aaron and his sons will eat what is left of it. It will be eaten as matzos in a holy place: They will eat it in the court-yard of the Tent of Assembly.
It will not be allowed to leaven while being baked. I have given it as portion of My fire-offerings: It is most holy, as are the sin-offerings and the guilt-offerings. Just as fermentation is not allowed on the altar so may they not eat their portion leavened.
Every male among the Children of Aaron, even one with a physical defect, may eat of it: It is a regular portion for all your generations from the fire-offerings of the Eternal. Whatever foods touch and absorb part of the cereal-offering will be holy or unfit like it.
The Eternal told Moses:
This is the offering of Aaron and his descendants, which the High Kohen will offer to the Eternal every day after the day of his anointment, and which an ordinary kohen will offer the first day he officiated: One-tenth of an epha of fine flour as a regular cereal-offering, half offered in the morning and the other half in the evening.
It will be made well-mixed with oil in a pan: You will bring it baked, a cereal-offering of very well-baked pieces, willingly accepted by the Eternal.
The one of his sons anointed High Kohen after him will offer it every day, this is an everlasting decree by the Eternal. It will be burned completely: No part of it will be given to the kohanim.
Every cereal-offering brought by a kohen will be entirely burned; it will not be eaten.
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the sin-offering. The sin-offering will be slaughtered where the burnt-offering is slaughtered before the Eternal; it is a most holy sacrifice.
Any kohen fit to make atonement with it will eat of it. It will be eaten in a holy place: in the courtyard of the Tent of Assembly.
Whatever food touches it will become holy or unfit like it. Should any of its blood fall on a garment, the stains must be washed in a holy place: in the courtyard of the Sanctuary.
If the sin-offering was cooked in an earthen vessel, the vessel will be shattered, for it has absorbed part of the holy sacrifice; but if the sin-offering was cooked in a copper vessel, it will be scoured and boiled in water.
Every matured, undefected male kohen may eat of it; it is most holy.
If any of sacrifice's blood, which was intended for the altar in the courtyard, was brought into the Tent of Assembly to be sprinkled in that holy place, the sacrifice will not be eaten; it will be burnt in fire.
Chapter 7
This is the law of the guilt-offering: It is most holy.
The guilt-offering will be slaughtered where the burnt-offering is slaughtered; and a kohen will throw its blood all around the sides of the altar.
He will offer all its fat: the fat of the tail, the fat that covers the stomach,
the two kidneys and the fat on them — which is by the loins — and he will remove the lobe with a part of the liver, near the kidneys.
The kohen will kindle them on the altar, a fire-offering for the Eternal; it is a guilt-offering, even if it was not intended as a guilt-offering at slaughtering.
Only matured undefected male kohanim may eat of its flesh: It will be eaten in a holy place, it is most holy.
The same law applies to the sin-offering as to the guilt-offering: The flesh of both will be eaten by any kohen fit to make the atonement.
The skin of any man's burnt-offering will belong to any kohen fit to offer it; so, too, the skins of sin- and guilt-offerings will belong to any kohen fit to make the atonement.
Every oven-baked cereal-offering and all prepared in the stewing pan or in the frying pan will belong to the rotation of the kohen officiating that day.
Every voluntary cereal-offering mingled with oil, and every obligatory dry cereal-offering will belong to all the sons of Aaron alike.
This is the law of the peace-offerings one may offer to the Eternal as thanks for deliverance from sickness or danger, or as fulfillment of a vow made in time of distress,
If he offers it for thanksgiving, he will offer with the thanksgiving-sacrifice ten matzo cakes mixed with oil, ten matzo wafers spread with oil, ten breads of fine flour drenched with hot oil,
and ten cakes of leavened bread—altogether forty loaves. He will present this offering with the sacrifice of his peace-offering for thanksgiving.
He will give one cake of each sort of cake-offering as a Divine gift to the kohen who throws the blood of the peace-offering, and the rest will be eaten by the owner.
The flesh of his peace-offering for thanksgiving, as well as the cakes, will be eaten by the owner and his family on the day of his offering; he will leave none of it till morning.
If his peace-offering is the fulfillment of a vow made in time of distress, or a free-will offering made when his heart was moved at the remembrance of the Eternal's mercies, it will be eaten on the day of his offering, and what remains may be eaten till the next nightfall.
What remains then of the flesh of the sacrifice will be burnt on the morning of the third day.
If, during the slaughtering of the peace-offering, the kohen or the owner will intend to eat it on the third day, it will not be accepted; it will not be accounted to the owner; it will be rejected as offensive, and the person who eats of it will suffer the penalty for his iniquity—his soul will be cut off from his people.
The sacred meat of a sacrifice that touches any impure thing will not be eaten; it will be burned in fire. Otherwise, anyone who is ritually pure will eat of the meat of the offering.
A person who, while he is impure, eats of the meat of a peace-offering to the Eternal, will be cut off from his people.
A person who touches any impure thing, whether the impurity of a man, or an impure animal or creeping creature, and then eats of the flesh of a peace- offering to the Eternal—that person will be cut off from his people.
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel: Never eat those fats of oxen, sheep, and goats, which in sacrifices are offered on the altar, except the fat that is covered with flesh: That you may eat.
The fats of an animal that is traifa or n'vaila may be used for any purpose other than eating. If you eat them you violate two commandments: the prohibition against fats and the prohibition against traifa or n'vaila.
Whoever eats those fats of an animal that are eligible for consumption by fire for the Eternal — that person will be cut off from his people.
Nor will you eat blood of either fowl or animals in any of your settlements.
Whoever eats any blood will be cut off from his people.
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel: Whoever offers his peace-offerings to the Eternal will himself bring to the Eternal his peace-offering.
His own hands will hold the fats intended for consumption by the fire of the Eternal. He will hold fats with the breast, that they may be waved before the Eternal.
The kohen will kindle the fats on the altar, but the breast will be Aaron’s and his sons’.
You will give the right thigh, from the knee-cap to the thigh-bone, to the kohen as a gift from your peace-offerings.
Whoever of the sons of Aaron is fit to throw the blood of the peace-offering and to kindle its fat he will share in the right thigh of the offering.
For I have taken the breast that is waved and the thigh that is given from the peace-offerings of the Children of Israel, and I have given them to Aaron the kohen and to his sons as a permanent portion from the Children of Israel.
This is the reward of Aaron and the reward of his sons from the offerings consumed by fire for the Eternal, on the day they were presented to officiate before the Eternal,
which the Eternal commanded the Children of Israel to give them from the day of their anointment; it is an everlasting decree for all their generations.
These are the laws of the burnt-offering, of the cereal-offering, of the sin-offering, of the guilt-offering, of the priestly installation offering, and of the peace- offering,
which the Eternal commanded Moses at Mount Sinai on the day He commanded the Children of Israel to present their offerings in the Divine House they constructed in the Sinai Desert.
Chapter 8
The Eternal told Moses:
Invite Aaron with his sons; and take the garments for the kohanim, oil for anointing, the bullock sin-offering, the two rams, and the basket of matzos;
and invite all the representatives of the community to the entrance of Tent of Assembly.
Moses did as the Eternal commanded him, and on the twenty-third of Adar (seven days before the erection of the Divine House) the representatives of the community gathered at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly.
Moses told the representatives of the community: “This is what the Eternal commanded me to do for His honor, not for the glory of Aaron.”
Moses led Aaron and his sons to the laver at the entrance of the Sanctuary, and commanded them to wash with water.
He put the tunic on him, and girded him with the linen belt: He dressed him in the robe, and put the ephod on him, and he tied the ephod around him with its belt.
He placed the breast-plate on him. In it he placed the Divine Name of the Eternal, the Urim V’Tumim.
He set the turban 011 his head, and over the turban, in front, he tied the golden tzitz, the holy crown, exactly as the Eternal ordered Moses.
Moses took the oil for anointing, and anointed the Divine Tent and all that was in it, and he consecrated all.
He sprinkled some on the altar seven times; he anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the laver and its stand, to consecrate them.
He poured some anointment oil on Aaron’s head, and anointed him to consecrate him.
When Moses led the sons of Aaron to the laver he dressed them in tunics, girded them with linen belts, and tied hoods on them, exactly as the Eternal commanded Moses.
He brought the bullock sin-offering, and Aaron and his sons placed their hands on the bullock’s head to confess whatever sins they had committed.
After he had slaughtered it, Moses took the blood, and daubed it all around the corners of the altar with his finger, thus purifying the altar; and he poured out the remaining blood at the base of the altar, thus sanctifying it for the atonement of sins.
He took all the fat on the stomach, the lobe with a part of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and Moses kindled all on the altar.
But he burned the skin, the flesh, and the dung of the bullock in a fire outside the Israelite camp, exactly as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
He brought the ram for the burnt-offering, and Aaron and his sons placed their hands on the ram's head.
After he had slaughtered it, Moses threw the blood around the sides of the altar.
After he had cut the ram into pieces, Moses kindled the head, the pieces, and the fats.
When he had washed the stomach and the two legs with water, Moses kindled the rest of the ram on the altar, a burnt-offering willingly accepted and consumed by fire for the Eternal, exactly as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
He brought the other ram, the ram peace-offering of installation, and Aaron and his sons placed their hands on the ram's head.
After he had slaughtered it, Moses took some of its blood, and put it upon the lobe of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the big toe of his right foot.
After he brought Aaron's sons, Moses put some of the blood upon the lobes of their ears, upon the thumbs of their right hands, and upon the big toes of their right feet (to indicate that the Kohen's organs must be attentive to the service of holiness), and Moses threw the blood around the sides of the altar.
He took the fats, the fat of the tail, all the fat on the stomach, the lobe with a part of the liver, the two kidneys and their fat, and the right thigh.
From the basket of matzos before the Eternal, he drew one matzo cake, one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and he placed them on the fats, and upon the right thigh of the peace-offering.
He arranged all this on Aaron's hands and on his sons' hands, and Moses waved them before the Eternal.
Moses took the offerings from their hands, and kindled them on the altar in addition to the burnt-offering; they were an installation sacrifice, willingly accepted and consumed by fire for the Eternal.
Moses took te breast, and waved it before the Eternal. It was Moses' portion of the ram of installation; exactly as the Eternal had commanded Moses, that he shall serve as a kohen during the seven days of Installation.
Moses took some anointment oil and some of the blood from the altar, and sprinkled on Aaron and on his garments, and on his sons and on their garments, and he consecrated Aaron, his garments, his sons, and his sons' garments.
Moses told Aaron and his sons: “Cook the flesh at the entrance to the Tent of Assembly, and eat it there together with the bread that is in the basket of the installation-offering, as I was ordered: “Aaron and his sons will eat it.”
What remains of the meat and the bread till morning, you will burn in Are.
You will not leave the Tent of Assembly for seven days, until the days of your installation ar completed, for during these seven days you will sacrifice your installation offerings (and you must not become impure).
The Eternal commanded that which was done this day be done all seven days to make atonement for you.
Within the Tent of Assembly you will stay day and night for seven days, and keep the watch of the Eternal, so that you will not incur the heavenly death penalty; for so was I commanded.
Aaron and his sons did everything the Eternal had commanded through Moses.
Chapter 9
On the eighth day of the installation which was the first day of Nisan, Moses called Aaron, his sons, and the leaders of Israel.
And he said to Aaron: “Bring a young calf as a sin-offering — a sign that the Eternal has forgiven you for the golden calf you made — and a ram as a burnt-offering — a remembrance of the ram that was offered instead of Isaac — both without blemish; and offer them before the Eternal.
You will tell the leaders of the Children of Israel as follows: “You, however, will bring a he-goat as a sin-offering — to atone for the sons of Jacob who dipped the coat of Joseph in the blood of a goat — a calf, and a lamb, both within their first year, without a defect, as burnt-offerings;
and an ox and a ram as peace-offerings, to be sacrificed before the Eternal. Also a cereal-offering mixed with oil; for today the Glory of the Eternal will be revealed to you.”
They brought what Moses had ordered them to bring to the front of the Tent of Assembly. The whole community approached, and stood devoutly before the Eternal.
Moses said: “Fulfill this commandment of the Eternal with the intention (and true spirit) of attaining nearness to Him, so that the Glory of the Eternal will reveal Itself to you.”
Moses saw that Aaron was fearful of approaching the altar, and he reassured him: “Approach the altar, and offer your sin-offering and your burnt-offering. After you have secured aonement for yourself, you will be qualified to atone for the people. Then present the offering of the people and atone for them, as the Eternal commanded.”
Aaron approached the altar, and slaughtered the calf of sin-offering which was from his own property.
The sons of Aaron brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood, and daubed it on the corners of the altar. He poured the remaining blood at the base of the altar.
He kindled the fats, the kidneys, and the lobe with a part of the liver of the sin-offering, on the altar, exactly as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
Although the flesh of a regular sin-offering may be eaten by the Kohanim he burned the flesh and the skin of the sin-offering of installation in fire outside the Israelite camp.
Then he slaughtered the burnt-offering. Aaron’s sons handed him the blood, and he threw it around the sides of the altar.
They handed him the burnt-offering in limbs, then its head; and he kindled it on the altar.
He washed the innards and the legs, and he kindled them with the rest of the burnt-offering on the altar.
He brought the people’s offering. He took the goat that was the people’s sin-offering, he slaughtered it, and made atonement with it as with the previous sin-offering.
He brought the burnt-offering, and he treated it according to ritual.
He brought the cereal-offering, and he took three fingers-full of it and kindled that on the altar, in addition to the cereal-offering kindled with the daily burnt-offering.
He slaughtered the ox and the ram, which were the people’s peace-offerings. The sons of Aaron handed him the blood, which he sprinkled around the altar.
They took the fats of the ox; and from the ram: the fat of the tail, that which covered the stomach, the kidneys, and the lobe with a part of the liver.
They put the fats on the breasts of the sacrifices, and he kindled the fats on the altar.
Aaron waved the breasts and the right thigh before the Eternal, exactly as Moses had commanded him.
Aaron spread out his hands towards the people, and blessed them; and he stepped off the altar after he had finished sacrificing the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the peace-offering.
Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Assembly to pray for a sign that the Eternal had accepted the sacrifices. When they came out they blessed the people that His Presence might rest upon their handwork. The Glory of the Eternal revealed Itself to all the people,
and a fire descended from before the Eternal, and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fats. When the people beheld it, they praised the Eternal, and bowed in worship.
Chapter 10
Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aaron, each took his coal-pan, put fire in it, and placed incense on it; and, before the heavenly fire descended while under the influence of wine, without consulting Moses or Aaron, they offered unconsecrated fire on the inner altar of the Eternal, which He had not commanded them to do.
When the heavenly fire descended from the Eternal to burn the sacrifices, it consumed their souls, but their bodies were untouched; and they died in the Divine House of the Eternal.
Aaron wanted to interrupt his service in order to mourn for his sons. Moses said to Aaron: “This is what the Eternal told me, to say to you: “I will be sanctified by those who are near to Me. Do not desecrate the service by leaving the Sanctuary in case of a death in the family, and through that I will be glorified by all the people when they see that My service stands higher than the family ties.” And Aaron accepted the Eternal's will and continued the service.
Moses called Mishael and Eltzafan, sons of Uziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them: Come near, pull your kinfolk out of the Sanctuary with hooks, as you are not allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, and carry them out of the camp to bury them.
So they came near, and pulled them over to beyond the camp by their tunics, which had not been burned, as Moses told them.
Moses told Aaron and his sons, Eleazar and Ithamar: “You will not let the hair of your head grow, nor will you rend your garments as a sign of mourning, so that you will not be guilty of death; but let your brethren the whole house of Israel bewail the burning that the Eternal has kindled, so that He will not rage against the whole community.
You will not leave the entrance of the Tent of Assembly, so that you will not be subject to the death penalty, for the anoinment-oil of the Eternal is upon you.” They accepted the heavenly decree according to the words of Moses.
The Eternal told Aaron:
“You will not drink wine to an extent that intoxicates, neither you nor your sons with you, when you enter the Tent of Assembly to perform Divine Service, so that you will not be guilty of death; this is an everlasting decree throughout your generations.
Nor will you be intoxicated when you have to pass decisions to distinguish between ritually impure and ritually pure.
Have a clear mind when you teach the Children of Israel all the decrees that the Eternal spoke through Moses.”
Moses told Aaron and his surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar: “Take the cereal-offering that remains of the offerings to be consumed by fire for the Eternal, and eat it as matzoth, beside the altar, although you are in mourning (when it is normally forbidden to eat sacrifices), for it is most holy—your consecration offering.
You will eat it in a holy place, because it is your share and the share of your sons from the Eternal's fire-offering; for so was I commanded.
The waved breast and the thigh that is a gift from the communal peace- offering, you will eat in a pure place within the camp of Israel, you and your sons and your daughters with you, for they are given as your share and your sons' share of the peace-offerings of the Children of Israel.
They will bring the thigh that is a gift and the waved breast upon the fats that are to be burned on the altar, to wave them before the Eternal; and it will be yours and your sons' with you. This is an everlasting decree, as the Eternal commanded.”
When Moses inquired what had been done with the goat sin-offering, he found that it had been burned (though the flesh of a sin-offering is usually eaten by the kohanim), and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who survived, and, upholding the dignity of Aaron, he addressed his sons:
“Why have you not eaten the sin-offering in the holy place, as it is most holy, and He has given it to you to pardon the iniquity of the assembly, to atone for them before the Eternal?
Mark: Its blood was not brought into the inner court of the Sanctuary, in which case you would have had to burn its flesh. You should certainly have eaten it in the holy place as I commanded you.”
Aaron's sons remained silent out of respect for Moses; and Aaron spoke to Moses: “Mark: They had already sacrificed their sin-offering and their burnt-offering today for initiation into the service of the Eternal. When these befell me— the deaths of my two sons, would it have pleased the Eternal if I had eaten the sin-offering today?
When Moses heard that, he was pleased by the praiseworthy reasoning.
Chapter 11
The Eternal told Moses to tell Aaron: “Tell Eleazar and Ithamar, whose duties as kohanim include teaching the distinctions between pure and impure:
Tell the Children of Israel: You may eat these animals—if they have no defect that makes them traifa (ritually unfitted) —from among all land animals:
All whose hoofs are split—completely cleft—who ruminate; you may eat of these animals after shehita (ritually slaughtered).
But do not eat the following, who either only ruminate or only have split hoofs: The camel—although it ruminates, its hoofs are not split—is impure for you;
the shafan although it ruminates, its hoofs are not split—is impure for you;
the arnevet — although it ruminates, its hoofs are not split—is impure for you;
and the swine, although its hoofs are split — completely cleft — so long as it does not ruminate it is impure for you.
Do not eat of their flesh, and if you touch their remains you will become impure.
Of all that is in the water you may eat these: All in the waters, the seas, and the streams that have fins to swim ydth and scales that cover their bodies: These you may eat.
Of all in the seas and streams, of all that moves in water, and of all the beings living in water—those that have no fins or no scales are a detestation to you.
The foods they are cooked with and the liquids they cooked in are a detestation to you. You may not eat their flesh. You will detest their remains.
All in the water that have no fins or no scales are detestation to you; but fish whose fins or scales fall off when they are caught may be eaten.
Of fowl you will detest these — they will not be eaten for they are a detestation: the nesher, the peres, and the 'azniya;
the da’a and the aya including its kind;
every 'orev including its kind;
the bat-haya’ana, the tahmas, the shahaf, ahd the netz including its kind;
the kos, the shalach, and the yanshuf;
the tinshemet, the ka’at, and the raham:
the hasida, the anafa including its kind, the duchifat, and the 'atalef.
All winged creeping beings that move on four legs along with the head and neck low down are a detestation to you.
Eat only of the winged creeping being that move on four legs: those that have an extra pair of jointed legs above their forelegs with which to jump from the ground.
These you may eat: the arbeh including its kind, the sal’am including its kind, the hargol including its kind, and the hagav including its kind. (Some translate: locust, the bold locust, the cricket, grasshopper).
All winged creeping beings that have four legs are a detestation to you.
The following will make you impure: Whoever touches their remains (even a part as small as an olive) will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion in a mikva (ritual pool of water);
and whoever lifts their remains will immerse his clothes in a mikva and will be impure until the nightfall after his own immersion in a mikva.
All animals whose hoofs are split but not completely cleft, or who do not ruminate — they are impure for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will become impure.
All four-legged animals that move on their paws are impure for you. Whoever touches their remains, even a part as small as an olive, will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion in a mikva,
and whoever lifts their remains — even if he does not touch the carcass - will immerse his clothes in a mikva and will be impure until the nightfall after his own immersion in a mikva for they are impure for you.
These are impure for you of the creeping beings that crawl on the ground: the holed, the achbar, and the tzav including its kind;
the anaka, the ko’ah, the l’ta’a, the hornet, and the tinshemet.
These, of all the creeping beings are impure for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion in a mikva.
If, after their death, a part the size of a lentil of any of the above creatures should fall into any vessel — wooden, cloth, leather, or sackcloth — used as a container, the vessel will be immersed in a mikva and will remain impure until nightfall.
If they fall into an earthern vessel, everything in the vessel will become impure. You will shatter the vessel: Immersion does not help.
Only if the food in that earthern vessel had once been in one of the seven liquids (wine, blood, olive oil, milk, dew, bee-honey, and water) will it become impure; and any liquids, if they are in that earthern vessel, will become impure.
If part of their remains falls upon anything, it will become impure. If it is an earthern oven or range, let it be broken, for it is impure. But it may stand unused.
However, a fountain or a ditch in which water is gathered is pure. Even while standing in such purifying water, a person who touches the remains of these animals will become impure.
If a part of their remains falls on any rooted plant, the plant will remain pure.
If any edible plant is cut or uprooted, and one of the seven liquids comes in contact with it before part of their remains falls on it, it will be impure for you.
If one of the animals you may eat dies, whoever touches its flesh will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion in a mikva.
Whoever eats of its flesh — an amount the size of an olive — will immerse his clothes in a mikva and be impure until the nightfall after his own immersion in a mikva. Whoever lifts even so small a part of its flesh, will immerse his clothes in a mikva and be impure until the nightfall after his own immersion in a mikva.
All creeping beings that creep on the earth are a detestation: They will not be eaten.
All the creeping beings that creep on the earth — that move on their bellies; that crawl on four legs, including those with many legs — you will not eat them for they are a detestation.
Do not make yourselves detestable by eating any creeping beings, and do not become impure and defiled by eating them,
for I am the Eternal, your Almighty. Sanctify yourself and you will be holy, as I am holy: Do not defile yourselves by eating any of the creeping beings that move on the ground—even those that do not reproduce.
For I am the Eternal who raised you up from the land of Egypt to be your Almighty. Be holy for I am holy.
This ideal of holiness is the reason for the laws concerning animals, birds, all creatures that move in water, and all the creatures that crawl on the ground:
To differentiate between the impure and the pure, between the creatures that may be eaten and the creatures that may not be eaten.
Chapter 12
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel: When a woman conceives and bears a male, she will become impure to her husband for seven days; as in the days of separation due to her menstruation, she will be impure.
On the eighth day, even on the Sabbath, his foreskin will be cut off, by circumcision.
After the seven days of impurity, all blood she sees for thirty-three days will be considered pure; but she will not even touch hallowed foods nor enter the Sanctuary until the end of her days of purification.
If she bears a female, she will become impure for two weeks in accord with the laws of menstrual impurity. After that, all blood she sees for sixty-six days will be considered pure; but she will not even touch hallowed foods, nor enter the Sanctuary.
At the end of her days of purification for either a son or a daughter, she will bring a lamb in its first year as a burnt-offering and a young pigeon or a turtle-dove as a sin-offering—to the kohen, at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly.
He will sacrifice the sin-offering to the Eternal. After he makes atonement for her, the blood she will see will be pure, and she will be allowed to eat hallowed foods. This is the law for a woman who bears either a male or female.
If she cannot afford a lamb, she will bring two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, one as a burnt-offering and the other as a sin-offering. After the kohen makes an atonement for her, she will be completely pure.
Chapter 13
NOTE: The laws of tzara’at (which some translate: Leprosy) spots are complex and the terms used have no counterpart in any language. Therefore the Hebrew nouns are here merely transliterated.
The Eternal told Moses and Aaron:
A man who has on his skin s’ait or sapahat scab or baheret (a glossy patch), a spot that may be tzaia’at, let him be brought to Aaron the kohen, or to one of his descendants, the kohanim.
The kohen will see the spot on the skin: If the hair of the spot has turned white and the appearance of the spot is deeper than his skin, it is a symptom of tzaia’at: The kohen will examine it and declare him impure.
If, however, he lias on his skin a white baheret that in appearance is not deeper than the skin, and whose hair has not turned white—the kohen will quarantine the symptom for a week.
The kohen will see the symptom on the seventh day: If the symptom has not changed in appearance, and has not spread on the skin—the kohen will quarantine him for another week.
The kohen will see him on the thirteenth day: If the symptom has dulled in appearance, and has not spread on the skin—the kohen will declare him pure; it is a mishpahat; he need only immerse himself in a mikva to become completely pure, and his clothes, too, for them to become pure.
If, after it was shown to the kohen for purification, the mispahat spread on the skin, it will be shown to the kohen a second time.
When the kohen sees that the mispahat has spread on the skin, he will declare it impure: It is tzaia’at.
If a symptom that may be tzaia’at develops on a person and is brought to a kohen —
when the kohen sees a white s’ait on the skin that has changed the color of the hair to white or in which there is an area of healthy-looking skin —
he will know it to be a long-standing tzara’at, and he will declare it impure. He will not quarantine him, for he is definitely impure.
If the tzaia’at develops on the skin until it covers the skin of the original spot and all his skin from head to foot, as judged by the vision of the kohen —
the kohen will see that the tzara’at has covered his entire skin, and he will declare the affliction pure: He has turned completely white; he is pure.
If, however, normal-looking flesh should appear anywhere in the affliction, he will be impure:
For the kohen, upon seeing the normal-looking flesh, will declare it impure. Normal-looking flesh is a sign of impurity; the affliction is tzara’at.
It is possible that the normal-looking flesh will change and turn white. Then he will go to the kohen.
When the kohen sees that the spot has turned white, he will declare the symptom pure; he is pure.
If a person has an inflammation due to a blow on his skin and, in healing,
a white s’ait or a red-and-white baheret will replace the inflammation — it will be shown to the kohen.
If the kohen sees that it appears to be lower than the skin and its hair turned white, the kohen will declare him impure. It is a symptom of tzara’at that has developed in the inflammation.
If, when the kohen sees it, there is no white hair there and it is not deeper than the skin, and it is dull in appearance—the kohen will quarantine him for a week:
If it spreads on the skin, the kohen will declare it impure: It is an affliction.
But if the baheret stays in its place, does not spread—it is the scar of the inflammation: The kohen will declare him pure.
If a person will have a burn caused by fire, and the scar will be red-white or white baheret,
the kohen will see it: If the hair in the baheret has turned white, and the baheret appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a tzara’at that has developed in the burn. The kohen will declare it impure: It is a symptom of tzara’at.
If, when the kohen sees it, there is no white hair in the baheret and it does not appear to be lower than his skin, and it is dull—the kohen will quarantine him for a week.
The kohen will see him on the seventh day: If it spreads on the skin the kohen will declare him impure: It is a symptom of tzara’at.
But if the baheret stays in its place, it does not spread on the skin, and it is dull — it is s’ait due to the burn. The kohen will declare him pure, for it is the scar of the burn.
If a man or a woman has an affection on the hairy part of his head or in his beard —
the kohen will see the affection: If its appearance is deeper than the skin, and it has thin golden hair, the kohen will declare it impure: It is a netek, a skin disease; it is tzara’at of the head or the beard.
If, when the kohen sees the netek-affection, its appearance is not deeper than the skin, nor is there any black hair in it—the kohen will quarantine the netek-affection for a week.
The kohen will see the symptom on the seventh day: If the netek has not spread nor has golden hair in it, and the appearance of the netek is not deeper than the skin —
he will shave around the netek, but not the area of the netek itself. The kohen will quarantine the netek for a second week.
If, when the kohen sees the netek on the seventh day, the netek has not spread in the skin and its appearance is not deeper than the skin — the kohen will declare him pure: He need only immerse himself in a mikva to become completely pure; and his clothes, too, for them to become pure.
If the netek spreads on his skin after his purification,
the kohen will see it: If the netek has spread on the skin, the kohen need not look for golden hair: He is impure.
If the netek has not changed in appearance and black hair has grown in it: The netek is healed; he is pure and the kohen will declare him so.
If a man or a woman will have white stains on his skin,
and the kohen will see that there are dull white stains on his skin: It is bohak that has developed in the skin; it is pure.
If a man loses the hair of the back of his head, he has a karahat; he is pure, free of the impurities of netek.
A man who loses the hair of the front or the sides of the head, has a gabahat, he is pure, free of the impurities of netek.
If a white-red spot appears in the karahat or in the gabahat, it is a developing tzara’at in his karahat or gabahat.
When the kohen sees that the appearance of the spot in his karahat or gabahat is white-red like the appearance of tzara’at of the skin —
he is a man with tzara’at; he is impure—the kohen will declare him impure; his affection is on his head.
He who has the affection of tzara’at will wear torn clothes; his hair will grow wild; he will cloak himself like a mourner with his upper lip covered; and he will cry out: “Do not become impure. Do not become impure.”
All the while the affection is upon him, he will be impure. Since he is impure, he will stay alone; his dwelling will be outside all camps.
If a garment has a symptom of tzara’at in it—a woolen garment or a linen garment —
either in the warp or in the woof of the linen or the wool; or a hide or leather:
If the symptom is a strong green-yellow or a strong red on either the garment or the hide, in the warp or the woof, or in any leather utensil—it is a symptom of tzara’at that will be shown to the kohen.
When the kohen sees the symptom, he will (quarantine the spot for a week.
He will see the symptom on the seventh day. If the symptom has spread on the garment, either in the wrap or in the wook, or in the hide—whatever utensil is made of the leather—the spot is malignant tzara’at, it is impure.
He will burn the garment, or the warp or wool of the wool or linen, or whatever leather utensil has the spot; for it is malignant tzara’at; it will be burnt in fire.
However, if the kohen sees that the spot has not spread on the garment, neither on the warp nor on the woof; nor on the leather utensil —
he will command and they will launder the area of the symptom and the area around it, and he will quarantine it for another week.
If, the spot is laundered, the kohen sees that the symptom has not dimmed in appearance, nor has the symptom spread — it is impure; you will burn it in fire: It has sunk into the reverse or into the obverse side.
If, when the kohen sees it, the spot has dimmed after being laundered: He will rip it out of the garment or the hide, whether from the warp or the woof, and burn it.
If it reappears in the garment, whether in the warp or in the woof, or in ' any leather utensil—it is a growing tzara’at; burn whatever has the spot on it in fire.
When a garment, either the warp or the woof, or any leather utensil will be laundered, and the spot will disappear completely — it will be immersed in a mikva and will become pure.
This is the laws of tzara’at—afflictions in garments of wool or linen, whether in the warp or in the woof, or of leather utensils—whether to declare them pure or impure.
Chapter 14
The Eternal told Moses:
This will be the law of the m'tzora on the day of his purification, when he will be brought toward the kohen.
The kohen will go outside the camps, and when the kohen will see that the tzara’at—affliction of the m’tzora has been cured,
The kohen will command that he shall bring for the purifiee two live, kosher birds, a cedar stick, a bright woolen thread, and some hyssop.
The kohen will further command to slaughter one of the birds over an earthern vessel containing spring water.
He will take the live bird, and tie the cedar stick and the hyssop together with the bright woolen thread. He will immerse them and the live bird in the blood of the bird slaughtered over the spring water.
He will then sprinkle the liquid seven times upon the man being purified of tzara’at, and he will declare him pure. Then he will send the live bird off into the fields.
The purifiee will immerse his clothes in a mikva. He will shave off all his hair, immerse himself in a mikva, and he will become pure enough to enter the camp; but he will dwell outside his tent for a week.
On the seventh day, he will again shave off all his hair—that on his head, his beard, and eyebrows—he will shave all the hair of his body. He will immerse his clothes in a mikva, and he will become pure at nightfall.
On the eighth day he will take two rams without defect, a ewe in its first year without defect, three-tenths of an epha of fine flour for a cereal-offering mixed with oil, and one log of oil.
The kohen performing the purification will halt the purifiee and his offerings before the Eternal, at the entrance of the Assembly Tent.
Then the kohen will take one of the rams and offer it as a guilt-offering together with the log of oil: He will wave them before the Eternal.
He will slaughter the ram in the holy place north of the altar where the sin- and the burnt-offerings are slaughtered; for the guilt-offering, like the sin-offering, is for the kohen — it is most hallowed.
The kohen will take some of the blood of the guilt-offering; and the kohen will place it on the inner part lobe of the purifee’s right ear, on his right thumb, and on the big toe of his right foot.
The kohen will take oil from the log: He will pour some on his left palm.
The kohen will dip his right index finger into the oil on his left palm, and will sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times toward the entrance of the sanctuary.
The kohen will place some of the oil in his palm on the innerpart lobe of the purifiee’s right ear, on his right thumb, and on the big toe of his right foot—upon the blood of the guilt-offering.
The remainder of the oil in the kohen’s palm, he will place on the purifiee’s head. The kohen will perform atonement for him before the Eternal.
The kohen will sacrifice the sin-offering to atone for the man undergoing purification from impurity; then he will slaughter the burnt-offering.
The kohen will then put the burnt-offering and the cereal-offering on the altar; the kohen will perform atonement for him, and he will be completely pure.
If he is ppor and cannot afford the above offerings, he will take for his atonement one ram as a guilt-offering to be waved, one-tenth of an epha of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal-offering, a log of oil,
and two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, whichever he can afford: One of the last will be a sin-offering, the other a burnt-offering.
He will bring them to the kohen, on the eighth day of his purity, to the outer entrance of the Tent of Assembly, before the Eternal.
The kohen will take the ram of guilt-offering and the log of oil, and the kohen will wave them before the Eternal.
He will slaughter the ram of the guilt-offering, and the kohen will take some of the blood of the guilt-offering and put it on the innerpart lobe of the purifiec’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.
The kohen will pour some of the oil on his left palm.
With his right index finger, the kohen will sprinkle some of the oil that is in his left palm seven times toward the entrance of the Sanctuary.
The kohen will put some of the oil that is in his palm on the inner part lobe of the purifiee’s right car, on his right thumb, and on the big toe of his right foot—where the blood of the guilt-offering was placed.
The remainder of the oil in the kohen’s pahn, he will place on the purifiec’s head to atone him for him before the Eternal.
He will sacrifice one of the turtle-doves or one of the young pigeons—whatever he can afford.
Of what he can afford, one of them will be a sin-offering and the other a burnt-offering brought with the ccreal-offering. The Kohen wall make atonement for the purifiee before the Eternal.
This is the law for the person having a tzara’at-affliction who cannot afford the ordinary requirements for purification.
The Eternal told Moses and Aaron, to tell the Children of Israel.
When you come to the land of Canaan, which I am giving as a possession, and I will place a tzara’at-symptom in the house of the land of your possession (as a punishment for stolen things concealed in the house, or to help find treasures hidden by the Amorites in ther houses),
The possessor of the house will come and will tell the kohen, “I have seen what seems to be a tzara’at-symptom in the house.”
The kohen will command and they will empty the house while the kohen has not yet come to see the spot—so that everything in the house will not become impure should he declare the house impure; afterwards the kohen will come to see the house.
If, when he sees the symptoms, the symptoms in the walls of the house is strong green-yellow or strong red, and it appears to be sunk into the wall —
the kohen will go out of the house to its entrance, and he will quarantine the house for a week.
The kohen will return on the seventh day. If he sees that the affliction has spread on the walls of the house,
he will command and they will remove the stones that have the symptoms, and they will throw them outside the city in an impure place.
He will scrape away the plaster around the area of the affliction from inside the house, and they will pour the plaster they scraped off in an impure place outside the city.
They will take other stones and bring them to replace the stones, and he will take different plaster and plaster the house.
If the affliction return and develops in the house after the stones are removed, and scraping the house, after plastering —
the kohen will come. If he sees that the affliction has spread in the house, it is a malignant tzara’at of the house; it is impure.
He will tear down the house, its stones, its wood and all the plaster of the house; and he will take it to an impure place outside the city.
Whoever comes into the house all the while it is quarantined will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion in a mikva,
whoever lies in the house will immerse his clothes in a mikva; and whoever eats in the house will immerse his clothes in a mikva.
If the kohen comes and sees that the affliction has not spread in the house after the replastering of the house, the kohen will declare the house pure, for the affliction has been cured.
For the purification of the house, he will take two birds, a cedar stick, a bright woolen thread, and some hyssop.
He will slaughter one of the birds over an earthen vessel containing spring water.
He will take the cedar stick, the hyssop, the bright woolen thread, and the live bird; and he will immerse them in the blood of the slaughtered bird mixed with the spring water; and he will sprinkle on the house seven times.
He will purify the house with the blood of the bird mixed with the spring water, with the live bird with the cedar stick, with the hyssop, and with the bright woolen thread.
He will send the live bird outside the city upon the fields, making atonement for the house so that it will be pure.
This is the law for atzara’at- or a netek-affliction:
and for the leprosy of a garment, and of a house,
and for s'ait, sapahat, or baheret;
to determine the day it is impure and the day it is pure. This is the law of tzara’at.
Chapter 15
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel and say to them: Any man who on two consecutive days will have a zov from his reproductive organ — his zov is impure.
This is the way his zov will cause his impurity: If his zov flows out as clear as saliva, or if his zov flows out thick and stops up his organ — it is impurity.
Any object made solely for lying — if the zav lies upon it, it will become impure. Similarly, any object made solely for sitting will become impure.
If anyone touches the object the zav lay on, he will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva, and he will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
Whoever sits on the object the zav sat upon will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva, and he will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
Whoever touches the zav will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva, and he will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
If the spittle of the zav touches a pure person or is lifted by one, he will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva, and he will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
Any object used solely for riding upon — if the zav sat on even part of it — is entirely impure.
Whoever touches anything the zav rode on, will become impure until the nightfall after his own immersion in a mikva; but whoever lifts such an object will immerse his clothes as well as himself in a mikv a, and he will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
Whoever the zav touches prior to his own immersion in a mikva will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva, and will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
An earthern vessel that the zav moves will be shattered; and all wooden vessels — will be immersed in a mikva.
When the ziva of the zav will cease — in order to purify himself — he will count seven consecutive days of no new zov. He will then immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva of spring water and he will become pure at the nightfall after his immersion.
On the eighth day — if he had originally seen ziva three consecutive days — he will take for himself two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, and he will come before the Eternal to the entrance of the Sanctuary. He will give them to the kohen.
The kohen will sacrifice them — one for a sin-offering and one as a burnt-offering, and the kohen will make atonement for him, for his ziva, before the Eternal.
If a man has an emission of semen, he will immerse himself in a mikva and will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
Any cloth or leather garment that has semen on il will be immersed in a mikva, and will be impure until the nightfall afterwards.
If a woman has sexual intercourse with a man, both will immerse themselves in a mikva, and will be impure until the nightfall after the immersion.
If a woman has a flow — blood will flow from her reproductive organ — she will be menstrually impure for seven days. Whoever touches her will become impure until the nightfall after his immersion in a mikva.
Whatever she lies upon during her menstrual impurity will become impure, and whatever she sits on will become impure.
Whoever touches what she lay on will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva, and will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
Whoever touches any utensils she sat upon will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva, and will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion;
also, if he was lying or sitting on the object as she lay or sat on it. Whoever touches anything she rode on, or touches him who is on her bed, will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion in a mikva.
If a man has sexual intercourse unintentionally with her, her menstrual impurity will be upon him, and he will be impure for seven days; all that he lies upon or touching food will become impure.
If a woman’s blood will flow many days immediately after the period of her menstruation or shortly afterwards, all the days of the flow of her impurity she will be as in the days of her menstrual impurity: She will be impure.
All that she lies upon during all the days of her flow will be like whatever she lies upon during her menstrual impurity; and whatever utensils she sits upon will be impure like the impurity caused by her menstruation.
Whoever touches them will become impure. He will immerse himself and his clothes in a inikva, and he will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion.
When her flow stops she will be trusted to count seven consecutive days of no new flow, then she will immerse herself in a mikva and become pure.
On the eighth day she will take for herself two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, and she will bring them to the kohen at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly.
The kohen will sacrifice one of them as a sin-offering and one as a burnt-offering. The kohen will make atonement for her, for the flow of her impurity, before the Eternal.
You will keep the Children of Israel disassociated from their impurity, so that they will not die because of their impurity by defiling My Sanctuary, which is in their midst.
This is the law for the zav who sees ziva once and for the man who has an emission of semen in becoming impure;
of her who becomes impure with her menstrual impurity; for the man who sees ziva more than once or the woman whose flow is beyond the menstrual; and for the man who has unintentional sexual intercourse with an impure woman.
Chapter 16
The Eternal told Moses—after the death of the two sons of Aaron: that the reason they died was that they drew near before the Eternal and offered unconsecrated fire.
The Eternal therefore said to Moses: “Speak to your brother Aaron, and let him not come at will into the Holy of Holies, beyond the Partition, in front of the ark-cover that is on the ark—and he will not die; for I am constantly in the cloud upon the ark-cover.
Only on the Day of Atonement may Aaron enter into the Holy of Holies with the following: To offer a bullock for a sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering.
He will wear a consecrated linen tunic, and short linen trousers will be directly on his body; he will gird himself with a linen belt, and hat himself with a linen turban; they are consecrated garments, and he will immerse in a mikva before donning them.
From the community of the Children of Israel, he will take two he-goats for a sin-offering, and one ram as a burnt-offering.
Aaron will offer his private bullock sin-offering at the entrance of the Sanctuary and make atonement for himself and for his household.
He will take the two he-goats and stand them up before the Eternal at the entrance of the Sanctuary.
Aaron will place lots on the two he-goats, on one lot shall be written: FOR THE ETERNAL; and on one lot: TO AZAZEL.16
Aaron will offer the he-goat on which the lot FOR THE ETERNAL fell, and he will sacrifice it as a sin-offering.
The he-goat on which the lot TO AZAZEL fell will be stood up before the Eternal, while he confesses upon it, before it is sent to Azazel, to be hurled from the peak of the cliff in the wilderness, where the sin would be no more remembered.
Aaron will offer his private bullock sin-offering to atone for himself and for his household: He will slaughter his private bullock sin-offering.
He will take a full pan of hot coals from the altar in the courtyard before the Eternal and enough thinly-ground fragrant incense to fill both his fists. He will bring this into beyond the Partition.
He will put the incense on the fire inside of the Holy of Holies, before the Eternal, and the cloud of incense will cover the ark-cover which is over the ark of testimony, so that he will not die.
He will take some of the bullock’s blood; he will sprinkle once with his index finger upon the eastern side of the ark-cover; and he will sprinkle more of the blood in front of the ark-cover seven times with his index finger.
He will slaughter the he-goat sin-offering that belongs to the people; he will bring its blood into beyond the Partition; he will do with its blood what he did with the bullock’s blood, and he will sprinkle it on the ark-cover and in front of the ark-cover:
So will he perform atonement for the Holy of Holies defiled by the intentional as well as the unintentional entry of the Children of Israel into the courtyard of the Sanctuary while they are impure. He will also sprinkle some of the bullock's blood and then some of the he-goat's blood on the outside of the Partition in the Tent of Assembly once each on the Partition and seven times each in front of the Partition, for His Glory dwells among them despite their impurities.
No person will be in the Sanctuary when he enters to make atonement in the Holy of Holies, until he leaves; so will he perform atonement for himself, for his household, and for the entire community of Israel.
He will go out to the golden altar that is before the Eternal and perform atonement upon it; He will take some of the bullock's blood mixed with the he-goat's blood and put it on the corners of the altar all around.
He will sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times with his index finger; so will he purify it from past defilement and reconsecrate it for future use for the Children of Israel.
When he completes the atonement for the Holy of Holies, the Sanctuary, and the altar, he will offer the live he-goat.
Aaron will place both his hands on the live he-goat’s head; he will confess on it all the willful transgressions of the Children of Israel, all their rebellious deeds, as well as their unintentional sins. He will put them all on the head of the he-goat and he will, send it to the desert with a previously designated man;
and the he-goat will carry all their sins upon itself to a barren region to hurl it from the mountain peak. So will he send the he-goat into the desert.
After sacrificing the bullock and the first he-goat, Aaron will re-enter the Tent of Assembly. There he will remove the linen garments he wore when he went into the Holy of Holies, and he will cache them there.
He will immerse his body in a mikva in the consecrated courtyard, and he will don his eight regular service garments. He will go out and sacrifice his own burnt-offering and the burnt-offering of the people, and so perform atonement for himself and for the people.
He will kindle the fats of the sin-offering on the center altar.
The man who led the he-goat to Azazel will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva; afterwards, in the evening, he will enter the camp.
The bullock sin-offering and the he-goat sin-offering whose blood was brought into the Holy of Plolies to make atonement—he will take out beyond the camps. They will burn their hides, flesh, and dung in fire.
Whoever burns them will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva; afterwards he will enter the camp.
It will be an everlasting decree for you: In the month of Tishri, on the tenth of the month, you will fast and refrain from certain pleasures, and you will do no m'lacha — both the native, and the convert who dwells amid you;
for although the High Kohen performs atonement for you on this day to purify you, you must repent in order to achieve complete purification for all your sins before the Eternal.
It is a Sabbath of Sabbaths, of complete rest to you; you will fast and refrain from certain pleasures. This is an everlasting decree to observe even when there are no sacrifices.
Only the High Kohen who has been anointed, or appointed to replace his father will perform atonement. He will don the consecrated linen garments,
and he will perform atonement for the Holy of Holies; he will perform atonement for the Tent of Assembly and for the altar; and he will perform atonement for the kohanim and for the entire people—the community.
This will be an everlasting decree for you: to perform atonement for the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year, on Yom Kippur. Aaron did what the Eternal commanded Moses not to enter the Holy of Holies, except on Yom Kippur.
Chapter 17
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell Aaron and his sons and all the Children of Israel, say to them: This is what the Eternal commanded:
“Any man of the House of Israel who consecrates an ox, a ram, or a goat for an offering and then slaughters it anywhere in the camp outside the courtyard of the Sanctuary, or slaughters it outside of the camp,
but he does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Assembly to offer it as an offering to the Eternal in the courtyard before the Eternal's Sanctuary— it will be reckoned to that man as if he had killed a person: He spilled innocent blood. That man will be cut out from amid his people.
In order that the Children of Israel will bring their sacrifices, which they are accustomed to sacrificing on the open field and some err in sacrificing to demons—they will bring them to the Eternal, to the kohen at the entrance of the Sanctuary. They will sacrifice them as peace-offerings to the Eternal.
The kohen will throw the blood on the Eternal's altar at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly and he will kindle the fats to make them willingly acceptable to the Eternal.
This will eliminate their practice of offering their sacrifices to the false idols, the demons, they stray after. This will be an everlasting decree for them throughout their generations."
Say to them: “Any man of the House of Israel or of the converts who live in their midst, who will place a burnt-offering or a peace-offering on an altar,
but will not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Assembly to sacrifice it to the Eternal, that man will be cut off from his people.
Any man of the House of Israel or of the converts living in their midst who will eat any blood, whether of sacrificial or common animal, I will direct My anger against him and will cut him out from amid his people.
For the life of the body depends on the blood. I allow you to place it on the altar to atone for yourselves, because the blood atones for the soul.
I therefore say to the Children of Israel: None of you will eat blood, even the convert dwelling in your midst will not eat blood.
Any man of the Children of Israel or of the converts dwelling in their midst who will capture a game animal or a bird that may be eaten—he will slaughter it ritually and cover its blood with dust or ashes.
For the life of every creature depends on its blood. Therefore I say to the Children of Israel: Do not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of any being is its blood; whoever eats it will be cut off.
Whoever eats n’vaila or treifah of a kosher bird, whether he is a native or a convert, will immerse his clothes and himself in a mikva, and he will be impure until the nightfall after his immersion, then he will become completely pure.
If he intentionally does not immerse his clothes or himself — when he enters the Sanctuary, or eats of the offerings, he will bear the consequences of his iniquity.
Chapter 18
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel, say to them: I, the Eternal, your Almighty, Whose authority you accepted on Mount Sinai, command you to obey these moral laws.
Do not practice the immoral deeds done in the land of Egypt, wherein you dwelt; do not practice the immoral deeds done in the land of Canaan, whither I bring you; nor will you follow their customs.
Practice My civil judgments, and observe My moral decrees to fulfill them; I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
By observing My moral decrees and My civil judgments, you will live in the world to come: I am the Eternal, Who will reward you.
None of you will come close to have cohabitation with his near kin: I am the Eternal.
Marry not your father’s wife, nor your mother even if she is not your father’s wife; she is your mother, have no cohabitation with her.
(ספורנו, א"ע.)
Marry not your father’s wife even after his death; it is your father’s dishonor.
(ספורנו.)
Marry not your sister, daughter of your father and your mother, or another wife; nor with your sister, daughter of your mother and another man.
(ספורנו, רש"י.)
Marry not your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; for it is your dishonor.
(רש"י, ספורנו, אונקלוס.)
The daughter of your father's wife; daughter sired by your father is your sister; do not marry her.
(רשב"ם.)
Marry not your father's sister, for she is your father's kin.
(רשב"ם.)
Many not your mother's sister, for she is your mother's kin.
(רשב"ם, רמב"ן, א"ע.)
Do not dishonor your father's brother: Do not come close and marry not his wife, even after he divorces her or dies, even though she is your aunt only by marriage.
(עפ"י א"ע.)
Marry not your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife: Have no coition with her.
Marry not your brother's wife; it is your brother’s dishonor except in the instance of levirate marriage.
(עפ"י א"ע.)
Marry not a mother and her daughter, one of whom you have married; nor with a grandmother and granddaughter, one of whom you have married, neither the daughter of her son nor the daughter of her daughter. They are kin: It is repulsive lewdness.
(עפ"י א"ע.)
You will not make a woman and her sister as co-wives. If you divorce your wife, you may not marry her sister while the former is alive.
Have no coition with your wife during her menstrual impurity, nor come into physical contact with any woman who is menstrually impure.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
Have no coition with the wife of your fellowman, so that her husband will not be defiled by cohabiting with her.
(רמב"ן.)
Do not let your children be sacrificed to Molech. Do not marry a non-Israelite woman so that your children will not become idol-worshippers: Do no desecrate the Name of your Almighty: I am the Eternal.
(רש"י, רמב"ן וא"ע.)
Do not have coition with a man as with a woman: It is an abomination.
(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
Do not have coition with any animal to defile yourself with it. A woman will not stand before an animal to have coition with it: It is intermixture.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
Do not contaminate yourselves with any of these, for the nations I am dispersing before you, contaminated themselves with all of these,
and the land was contaminated. Therefore I punished the land, and it spewed forth its inhabitants.
Therefore, observe My moral decrees and maintain justice by punishing transgressors. Do not practice any of these abominations, neither the native nor the convert in your midst,
for the natives of the land who preceded you practise all these abominations, and the land became contaminated.
(א"ע.)
Do not cause the land to spew you forth, too, when you contaminate it—as it spewed forth the nation that preceded you.
For whoever practices any of these abominations—the participating persons will be cut out from amid their people, either through application of the death penalty by a court or by Divine punishment.
Safeguard My commandments by surrounding them with cautionary rules. Prevent yourselves from practicing any of the abominable customs practiced before you, so that you will not contaminate yourselves with them: I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
Chapter 19
The Eternal told Moses:
(מכילתא, א"ע.)
Tell the entire community of the Children of Israel the following fundamental laws, and say to them: “Be holy, by practicing restraint and moderation even in matters that are permitted, for I, the Eternal, your Almghty, am holy.
(א"ע.)
Each of you will be in awe of his mother and father. You will observe My Sabbaths as well as My other commandments even when ordered by your parents to violate them; I am the Eternal, your Almighty and your parents, too, must serve Me.
(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
Do not turn to the idols; do not make molten images for others, nor have others make them for you. I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
(רש"י, אונקלוס, א"ע.)
If you offer a peace-offering to the Eternal, offer it of your own free will, not because of compulsion.
(אונקלוס, רשב"ם, רמב"ן.)
While it is being slaughtered, you must intend to eat it on that day and on the next day; what remains of it on the third day will be burned in fire.
(ראה מ"ב, ו' יח (מלבי"ם).)
If a slaughtering intended to eat in a place where it may not be eaten — it is offensive, and it will not be accepted by the Eternal.
(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
Whoever eats what is left over on the third day will suffer the penalty for his iniquity, for he has desecrated what the Eternal sanctified: That person will be cut off from his people.
(מלבי"ם.)
When you reap the harvest of your land: Do not reap the last corner of your field; nor will you regather the stalks that fall one or two at a time during the reaping;
(רש"י, רשב"ם, רמב"ן ומלבי"ם.)
do not take the grapes that fall during the harvest of your vineyard. Leave them for the poor and for the converts: I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
(רשב"ם.)
Do not steal another’s possessions; do not deny money or objects deposited in your charge; and do not lie to another about money lent to you.
(רש"י, אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
Do not swear by My Name falsely, so as not to desecrate the Name of your Almighty: I am the Eternal.
(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
Do not withhold the wages of a hired person. Do not rob anyone. The wages of a dayworker must be paid to him before the next morning.
(רש"י, רשב"ם, א"ע.)
Do not curse, not even a deaf person. Do not place a stumbling block before one who is blind; similarly, do not give anyone advice that is not in his best interests. Revere your Almighty, Who knows your thoughts: I am the Eternal.
Do not pervert justice in your courts: Do not be partial to the poor litigant, by sympathizing with him, nor show excessive honor to the influential person; judge your fellowman truthfully.
(עפ"י מס' שבת ס"ז.)
Do not spread gossip among your people. Do not stand idle when your fellowman is in danger: I am the Eternal, Who rewards the righteous and punishes transgressors.
(רש"י.)
Do not hate your fellowman in your heart; reprove your fellowman tactfully at first, more strongly if needed, but do not shame him by reprimanding him in public.
(א"ע.)
Do not take vengeance, and do not bear hatred nor bear a grudge against any of the Children of your People; but love your fellowman as yourself: I am the Eternal.
Observe My decrees: Do not interbreed different kinds of animals; do not sow your field with seed of two different kinds of plant; for at creation I commanded each species to reproduce itself after its own kind. Nor will you don a garment of wool and linen.
(עפ"י רש"י ורשב"ם.)
If a man has coition with a woman who is a Canaanite bondmaid betrothed to an Israelite manservant, but she is only partly free — full freedom not having been given her — she will receive thirty-nine lashes. They will not be put to death because she was not completely free, and her marriage to the manservant was not fully valid.
(אונקלוס.)
He will bring his guilt-offering to the Eternal at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly: a ram guilt-offering.
(רש"י ורשב"ם.)
The kohen will perform atonement for his sin before the Eternal with the ram guilt-offering, for the sin he committed; he will be forgiven for the sin he committed.
(רש"י וא"ע.)
When you come to the land and plant any kind of food tree, you will leave its fruit unused: For three years will it be forbidden to you. You must never eat that fruit or derive any other benefit from it.
(ספורנו ומלבי"ם.)
In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy and will be eaten in the holy City, where the Sanctuary is erected, unless it is redeemed.
In the fifth year you may eat of its fruit. For your observance of His commandment the Almighty will increase its produce: I am the Eternal, your Almighty, Who assures this and Who will fulfill His promise.
(רש"י.)
Do not eat the flesh of an animal while there is still blood in its body. Do not believe in superstitious omens whether of things or of time.
Do not cut the hair of your head all around so that you remove the corners of the hair in front of the ears. Do not destroy, by shaving with a razor, the five corners of your beard.
Do not make any incision in your flesh in mourning for the dead; do not tattoo yourselves: I am the Eternal.
Do not desecrate your daughter by prostituting her; for if the inhabitants of the land will fall into prostitution, the land will turn unfaithful and will not yield its produce.
Observe My Sabbaths and festivals, and revere My holy places: I am the Eternal.
Do not turn to charmers or wizards; do not seek to practice them for you will be defiled by them: I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
Stand up for an aged man; honor the Torah-scholar; revere your Almighty: I am the Eternal.
If a convert dwells with you in your land, do not offend him even with words.
You will treat the convert who dwells with you just like any other citizen: You will love him like yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
Do not act dishonestly in business, whether in land measurement, in dry weighing, or in liquid measurement:
You will have just scales, just weights for counterbalancing, and just utensils for dry measurement and for liquid measurement: I am the Eternal, your Almighty, Who took you out of the land of Egypt on condition that you be just to your fellowman.
Observe all My decrees and all My rational precepts, and practice them: I am the Eternal.”
Chapter 20
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel of the punishments for sins I have warned them about. Any man of the Children of Israel, or of the converts that dwell with Israel, who sacrifices his child to the idol Molech will be put to death in court; the People of Israel will stone him.
(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
If he committed the sin secretly, I will turn My anger against that man and will cut him out from amid his people; for he has sacrificed his child to Molech in order to defile the Community of Israel which is sanctified to Me, and to desecrate My holy Name.
(רש"י.)
If the People of Israel overlook that man's offense in sacrificing his child to Molech, in order not to put him to death,
(רמב"ן.)
I will turn My anger against that man and against the members of his family who shield him. I will inflict suffering on the family; but the man himself I will cut out — and all who are deluded with him into worshipping idols — from amid their people.
(עפ"י רש"י ומלבי"ם.)
I will turn My anger against the person who turns to the magic charmers or to the wizards to be deluded by them, and I will cut that person out from amid his people.
(אונקלוס, רש"י, רמב"ן, א"ע.)
Sanctify yourselves by abstaining from immorality, and be holy by your moral conduct, for I am the Eternal, your Almighty, Whose Divine Spirit will dwell among you only when you are fit.
(אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
Observe My moral decrees and practice them: I am the Eternal, Who consecrates you for My service.
(תלמוד, רש"י, ספורנו.)
Any man who curses his father or his mother using the Divine Name will be put to death by stoning; he cursed his father, or his mother, and he alone is to blame for his death.
(רמב"ן.)
10; If a man has coition with a woman betrothed or married to his fellowman, both he and the adulteress will be choked to death.
(רש"י, א"ע, רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
The man who has coition with his father's wife, whether she is his mother or his step-mother, has dishonored his father — both will be stoned to death; they alone are to blame for their deaths.
(ראה שמואל א, רמב"ן.)
If a man has coition with his daughter-in-law, both will be stoned to death; they have practiced perversion, they alone are to blame for their deaths.
(תלמוד, רמב"ן.)
If a man has coition with another male as he would with a woman, both have committed an abomination; they will be stoned to death; they alone are to blame for their deaths.
(רמב"ן, א"ע; דברה ז - א"ע, הירץ, דברה ח - ספורנו, א"ע, דברה ט - ספורנו.)
If a man marries a woman and then marries her mother, it is repulsive lewdness. Both he and the woman forbidden him will be burnt to death, and there will be no repulsive lewdness among you.
(עפ"י א"ע.)
A man who has coition with an animal will be choked to death; and you will stone the animal to death.
(מכילתא.)
If a woman approaches any animal and has coition with it, you will kill the woman and the animal: They will be stoned to death; they are guilty of death.
(אונקלוס עפ"י רבי עקיבא.)
If a man marries his sister, whether his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and it was by mutual consent, it is a shameful deed; they will both be cut off and the Children of their People will see them die. But if he had coition with his sister against her will, he alone will suffer the penalty for his iniquity.
(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
If a man has coition with a woman who is menstrually impure; and he is aware of her impurity, and she willingly has coition with him: Both will be cut out from amid their people.
(אונקלוס.)
You will have no coition with your mother's sister, whether maternal, paternal, or both; nor with your father’s sister, whether maternal, paternal, or both. For whoever have coition with their near kin will suffer the penalty for their iniquity.
(רש"י, ד"ע.)
If a man has coition with the wife of his father’s brother, he dishonors his uncle. They will suffer the penalty for their iniquity: They will die childless.
(רמב"ן.)
If a man marries his brother’s wife, except of levirate marriage, it is repulsive. He dishonors his brother; they will die childless.
(אונקלוס, רש"י, ספורנו.)
You will observe all My decrees against immorality and all My rational precepts and you will practice them; so that the land, whither I bring you to dwell in, will not spew you forth.
(עפ"י רש"י ורמב"ן.)
Do not follow the customs of the nations I am dispersing before you. I abhorred them because they practiced all these abominations.
(רש"י.)
I say to you: Beware of adopting their abominable customs, and you will inherit their land. I will turn what you inherit into a land flowing milk and honey. I am the Eternal, your Almighty, Who distinguishes you from the nations by these laws of moral purity.
You will distinguish the kosher animal from the non-kosher animal, kosher fowl from the non-kosher. Do not make yourselves detestable by eating animals, fowl, or anything that creeps on the ground that I have set apart for you to consider not kosher.
In this manner you will be holy before Me, for I, the Eternal, am holy; I have distinguished you from all the nations to serve Me.
A man or a woman who practices magic charming or wizardry will be put to death: They will stone them; they alone are to blame for their deaths.
Chapter 21
The Eternal told Moses: Speak to the kohanim, the male children of Aaron, and warn them: "No kohen will defile himself with a dead person, when someone else can attend to burying the body,
(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
except for his nearest kin — his wife, for his mother, for his father, for his son, for his daughter, and for his brother.
(רמב"ן, א"ע.)
He will defile himself for his virgin sister who is betrothed but not married.
(רש"י, עיין פירוש בפסוק ג.)
A husband will not defile himself for his wife when there is someone else to bury her, if she disqualified him for service in the Sanctuary, because he was not allowed to marry her.
Like all Israelites they will not make their heads bald in mourning for the dead; they will not shave the corners of their beards with a razor; nor will they make any incision in their flesh in mourning for the dead, as the heathens do.
(א"ע.)
They will be consecrated to their Almighty so that they will not desecrate the Name of their Almighty; for they offer up the fire-offering of the Eternal, the offerings for their Almighty, and must therefore keep themselves consecrated body and soul.
(רש"י ורמב"ן.)
They will not marry a woman who has had coition with a man who may not marry her, nor a woman born of the union of a kohen with a woman forbidden to him as a kohen. Nor will they marry a woman divorced by her husband. For a kohen is consecrated to his Almighty.
(ספורנו.)
Compel him to be holy, if need be; for he offers the sacrifices of your Almighty. He will be shown the respect due his consecratedness, in all matters; for I, the Eternal, Who is holy, sanctify you through the kohen.
(אונקלוס ורש"י.)
If the daughter of a kohen is betrothed and desecrates herself by coition with another man, it is her father she desecrates: She will be burned to death.
(ספורנו ורמב"ן.)
The High Kohen chosen above his brothers, upon whose head the oil of anointment was poured and who is consecrated by his wearing the eight consecrated garments, will neither let the hair of his head grow nor will he rend his clothes as a sign of mourning.
(רש"י וא"ע.)
He will not enter a house that has a dead body in it. He will not defile himself even for his father or for his mother.
(ר' סעדי' גאון ורש"י.)
He will not leave the Sanctuary for the funeral procession. He will not desecrate the Sanctuary of his Almighty, for he has upon him the crown of divine anointment-oil: I am the Eternal.
(א"ע.)
He must marry and the bride must be a virgin.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
He must not marry these: a widow, a divorcee, a woman from the union of a kohen with a woman forbidden to him as a kohen, or a woman who has had coition with a man who may not marry her. Only a virgin of his people will he marry,
(א"ע.)
so that his marriage will not disqualify his children from serving as kohanim for his people. For I am the Eternal, Who consecrates him.
(רש"י.)
The Eternal told Moses:
(רש"י.)
Tell Aaron: If anyone of your descendants throughout their generations will have a physical defect, he will not approach to offer the sacrifices for his Almighty.
(סנהדרין סו.)
For it is irreverent for any man with one of the following defects to approach the altar: a blind man, a lame man, a man with a sunken nose, a man with one limb larger than its counterpart,
(מכילתא, רש"י, רמב"ן.)
a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand,
(רש"י, א"ע.)
a man whose eyebrows cover his eyes, a man who has one of several defects of the eye, a man who has one of several kinds of boil on his skin, or a man who has crushed testicles.
(מכילתא, רש"י, רמב"ן.)
The Israelites will not permit any of Aaron the kohen’s descendants with a physical defect to approach the altar to offer up the fire-offering of the Eternal; as long as he has the defect, he will not approach to offer up the sacrifices of his Almighty.
(רשב"ם.)
However, he may eat of the most holy offerings to his Almighty, as of the holy ones.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
But he will not enter the Sanctuary to sprinkle blood on the Partition, nor will he approach the altar to offer up sacrifices, because he has a defect. He will not desecrate My holy places, for I am the Eternal, Who sanctifies them.
(עפ"י רש"י במכילתא.)
Moses told Aaron and his sons this commandment, and he warned all the Children of Israel to enforce it.
(בבא קמא סד.)
Chapter 22
The Eternal told Moses:
(רש"י, א"ע.)
Tell Aaron and his sons that when they are impure they will abstain from eating of the sacrifices of the Children of Israel, which the latter consecrate to me, so that they will not desecrate My holy Name: I am the Eternal.
(עפ"י א"ע.)
Tell them: Warn future generations that any of your descendants who will eat of the offerings that the Children of Israel consecrate to the Eternal while his impurity is upon him, that soul will be cut off from before Me: I am the Eternal.
(רשב"ם.)
Any man of Aaron's descendants who has tzara’at, or is a zav will not eat of the holy foods, until he becomes pure. The same applies to a man who touches another whose impurity comes from a dead person, to a man who has a seminal emission,
(אונקלוס.)
to a man who touches enough of any creeping being to make him impure, and to a man who himself becomes impure from a dead person or from any source of impurity.
(רשב"ם.)
The kohen who touches any of these will be impure and will not eat of the holy foods until the nightfall after his immersion in a mikv a.
(רש"י.)
At nightfall he will be pure. Then he may eat some of the hallowed food even before offering his sacrifice, because it is his food.
(רש"י ורמב"ן.)
Nor will he eat of a pure animal that died without shehita, so that he will not become impure and unfit to serve before Me: I am the Eternal.
(עפ"י רש"י ורשב"ם.)
They will observe what I told them to observe, lest they suffer the penalty for such sin and die for their desecration of My Sanctuary: I am the Eternal, Who sanctifies them.
(רש"י.)
A non-kohen will not eat of the hallowed food nor will a Jewish servant who works for a kohen till the jubilee year, or a kohen’s six-year servant eat of the hallowed food.
(רש"י.)
If a kohen buys a Canaanite slave, he is his property, and may eat of them; also the children born of his maidservant may eat of his hallowed food.
When a kohen’s daughter marries a non-kohen, she will no longer eat of the tiuma or of any other hallowed foods.
(רש"י, א"ע, רשב"ם.)
But if a kohen’s daughter is widowed from or divorced by her non-kohen husband and has no child from him, and is not bound by levirate law — when she returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s hallowed food. But if she is pregnant or has a child she will not eat of it during the child’s lifetime.
(א"ע.)
If a non-kohen eats of the hallowed food unintentionally, he will add a fifth of the food’s value to the principal and will give the kohen other fruits of the same value in lieu of the hallowed food.
(רש"י.)
They will not desecrate the foods hallowed by the Children of Israel — who set them apart for the Eternal — by giving them to non-kohanim to eat,
for they will suffer the penalty for the guilt they cause when non-kohanim eat their hallowed food; for I am the Eternal, Who sanctifies them.
(קידושין מז, מכילתא, א"ע.)
The Eternal told Moses:
(עפ"י רש"י.)
Tell Aaron, his sons, and all the Children of Israel, and warn them: Any man of the House of Israel or of the converts with Israel, who brings his offering in fulfillment of a vow or as a free-will offering — whatever is offered to the Eternal as a burnt-offering,
in order to be accepted, must be a male without defect of the oxen, of the sheep, or of the goats.
(הירץ.)
But whatever has a defect you will not bring for an offering; it will not be accepted for you.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
If a man offers a peace-offering to the Eternal in fulfillment of an expressed vow or as a free-will offering — of cows or oxen, or of sheep — it need not be a male, but it must be without defect for it to be accepted: It will have no defect in it:
(רש"י.)
Not blindness, nor broken bones, nor split eye-lid or lip, nor defective eyes, nor boils — you will not designate an animal with any of these defects as a sacrifice to the Eternal, nor will you kindle any of them on the altar as a fire-offering to the Eternal.
An ox or a lamb, one of whose limbs is larger than its counterpart or whose hoofs are not completely cleft—you may make it a free-will contribution for the Sanctuary repair fund, but it will not be acceptable for the altar.
(אונקלוס, רש"י, רמב"ן.)
An animal whose testicles were distorted by hand or crushed, or torn, or cut — you will not offer it to the Eternal. You will not castrate any animal.
(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
You will not accept any of these as an offering to your Almighty from a non-Israelite: Their deformity is part of them; there is a defect in them; they will not be acceptable for you.
The Eternal told Moses:
(אונקלוס, מכילתא, רמב"ן.)
When an ox, or a sheep, or a goat will be born, it will stay with its mother the first week. From the eighth day on, it may be accepted as an offering to be consumed by fire for the Eternal.
(א"ע.)
Neither in cattle, nor in sheep will you slaughter the mother and its offspring on the same day.
(אונקלוס, רש"י, א"ע.)
When you slaughter a thanksgiving-offering for the Eternal, slaughter it with the intention,
(אונקלוס.)
that it will be eaten on the same day before midnight. Do not leave any of it until the morning: I am the Eternal.
(רש"י, מלבי"ם.)
Study My commandments and practice them: I am the Eternal.
Do not desecrate My holy Name. Hallow My Name actively amid the Children of Israel, even to the point of martyrdom: I am the Eternal, Who hallows you,
Who took you out of the land of Egypt to be your Almighty; I am the Eternal, Who will reward your obedience.
Chapter 23
The Eternal told Moses:
(א"ע.)
Tell the Children of Israel, and say to them: The times chosen by the Eternal for you to regulate as fixed holy days—these are the chosen times:
(עפ"י אונקלוס, רש"י, א"ע.)
M’lacha will be done six days; on the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a fixed holy day; you will do no m’lacha; It is the Sabbath as the Eternal has regulated it according to sunset in all your settlements.
(רש"י.)
The following are the times chosen by the Eternal for fixed holy days to be regulated by you at the set times.
(מכילתא, עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
In Nisan, the first month, on the afternoon of the fourteenth day of the month, you will offer the Passover sacrifice to the Eternal.
(רש"י, ספורנו.)
The fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Matzos, dedicated to the Eternal: You will eat matzos for seven days.
You will fix the first day as a holy day for yourselves: You will do no m’lacha other than that needed in the preparation of food to be eaten the same day.
(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
You will offer special fire-offerings to the Eternal for a week. The seventh day is a fixed holy day: You will do no m’lacha other than that needed: the preparation of food to be eaten the same day.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
The Eternal told Moses:
(ראה קידושין כב אודות המלה לחץ.)
Gather the Children of Israel and tell them: When you come to the land I give you to reap its harvest, you will bring the measure of an Omer' of your first-harvested barley to the kohen.
(עפ"י א"ע.)
He will wave the Omer measurement before the Eternal so that it will be acceptable for you; on the second day of Passover will the kohen wave it.
(רשב"ם.)
On the day you wave the Omer, you will offer a he-lamb without defect, in its first year, as a burnt-offering to the Eternal.
(רש"י.)
Its accompanying cereal-offering will be two-tenths of an epha of fine flour mixed with oil, a fire-offering to the Eternal that is willingly accepted. Its accompanying drink-offering of wine will be a quarter of a hin of wine.
(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
You will eat from the new crop neither bread, nor flour, nor kernels until the end of that day, or until you bring the offering of your Almighty. This is an everlasting decree throughout your generations, in all your settlements.
(ספורנו.)
You will start to count from the night after the first day of the Passover holiday, from the day you bring the Omer that is waved: Seven complete weeks will there be,
(רש"י.)
for you will count up to the day after the seventh week, which day is the fiftieth; then you will offer the first cereal-offering from the new wheat crop to the Eternal.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
You will bring from wheat grown in the Land of Israel two loaves for waving, each made of two-tenths of an epha of fine flour, baked leavened, a first-fruit offering to the Eternal.
(רשב"ם.)
You will offer with the bread seven he-lambs without defect in their first year, one young ox, and two rams. They will be a burnt-offering to the Eternal, with their accompanying cereal-offering and drink-offerings, an offering consumed by fire, willingly accepted by the Eternal.
(רש"י, א"ע, רמב"ן.)
You will slaughter one he-goat as a sin-offering, and two he-lambs in their first year as peace-offerings.
(תלמוד, מלבי"ם.)
The kohen will wave the two he-lambs before the Eternal, putting the bread of the first-fruit near them. They will be consecrated to the Eternal, to be eaten by the kohen.
(ראה רש"י ומלבי"ם.)
You will regulate that very day as a fixed holy day for you: You will do no m’lacha other than that needed in the preparation of food to be eaten the same day. This is an everlasting decree in all your settlements throughout your generations.
(אונקלוס.)
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not completely harvest the corners of your field, nor gather the stalks of grain that fall from the hands of the reaper one or two at a time. Leave them for the poor and for the converts: I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
(עפ"י אונקלוס.)
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel: In Tishri, the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you will have a day of rest, a fixed holy day on which the Eternal will remember you through your blowing of the shofar.
(רש"י, רמב"ן, א"ע ביתרו כה.)
Do no m’lacha other than that needed in the preparation of food to be eaten the same day. Bring a fire-offering to the Eternal.
(רמב"ן, רשב"ם, ספורנו.)
The Eternal told Moses:
(רשב"ם.)
Although other holy days are festivals of rejoicing through food and drink, the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement: You will fix it as a holy day which you will fast and refrain from certain pleasures. You will offer a fire-offering to the Eternal.
(אונקלוס.)
You will do no m’lacha because of the innate sacredness of this day: It is a day of atonement that atones for you before the Eternal, your Almighty.
(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
For any person who does not fast and refrain from certain pleasures on this day will be cut off from his people,
(רש"י.)
and any person who does any m’lacha on this day — I will cause that person to be lost from amid his people.
(א"ע.)
You will do no m’lacha. This is an everlasting decree throughout your generations in all your settlements.
(אונקלוס, רש"י, ספורנו.)
It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you; you will fast and refrain from certain pleasures. Begin the fast before the nightfall after the ninth day of the month, and fast and desist from m’lacha from that evening until the night after the tenth day.
(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
The Eternal told Moses:
(רש"י.)
Tell the Children of Israel: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Succoth, Booths, a week dedicated to the Eternal.
The first day will be fixed a holy day; you will do no m’lacha other than that needed in the preparation of food to be eaten the same day.
For a week you will bring a fire-offering to the Eternal. The eighth day will be a fixed holy day for you, and you will bring a fire-offering to the Eternal. It is a concluding festival: You will do no m’lacha other than that needed in the preparation of food to be eaten the same day.
These are the Eternal’s chosen times, which you will regulate as fixed days on which to bring fire-offerings to the Eternal: burnt-offerings with their cereal- offerings, peace-offerings and drink-offerings as required for each day;
besides the sacrifices for the Sabbath of the Eternal, besides your gifts, and besides all the vow—and freewill-offerings that you give for the sake of the Eternal.
Although the first ten days of the month of Tishri, when you gather the produce of the land are days of penitence, you will celebrate the Eternal's festival for a week on the fifteenth day of the month. The first day will be a day of rest, and the eighth day, which is a festival in its own right, will be a day of rest.
You will take for yourselves on the first day, a fruit from an ethrog tree, a Iulav from a palm tree, hadasim from a myrtle branch, and aravot from a willow that grows near water; and you will make joyous processions before the Eternal, your Almighty, for a week.
You will celebrate it as a feast of the Eternal, one week each year; it is a everlasting decree throughout your generations. You will celebrate it in the seventh month.
You will dwell in succoth—booths for a week; every citizen and every convert will dwell in the booths.
So that your future generations will know that I encircled the Children of Israel with Clouds of Glory to protect them when I took them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
Moses taught the regulation of the Eternal’s chosen times to the Children of Israel.
Chapter 24
The Eternal told Moses:
(מלבי"ם.)
Command the Children of Israel: Bring for yourselves pure olive oil without lees, pounded in a mortar for illumination, to light the lamps every night.
(ד"ע.)
Outside the Partition that separates the ark from the rest of the Tent of Assembly will Aaron prepare each lamp to burn every evening till morning before the Eternal; it is an everlasting decree throughout our generations.
(א"ע.)
He will prepare the lamps in the candelabrum of pure gold every evening before the Eternal.
(א"ע, רשב"ם.)
Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves; each loaf will contain two-tenths of an epha.
(אונקלוס.)
Set them in two tiers, six to a tier, on the table of pure gold before the Eternal.
(ספורנו.)
Put pure frankincense atop each tier. It will be consumed by fire for the Eternal as the holy part of the bread.
(רשב"ם.)
He will arrange fresh loaves before the Eternal every Sabbath. It is from the Children of Israel in fulfillment of an everlasting covenant.
The bread removed will belong to Aaron and his family, and they will eat in a hallowed place, for it is a most holy gift from the Eternal’s fire-offerings, a regular portion.
The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian father sought to pitch his tent amid the Children of Israel. He quarreled with an Israelite of the tribe of Dan, who would not allow him to pitch his tent because his father had not been an Israelite. The Israelite and the son of the Israelite woman went to Moses' court where the Israelite was upheld.
(אונקלוס, רשב"ם, א"ע.)
When he left the court the son of the Israelite woman pronounced the most holy Name of the Eternal and blasphemed. They brought him before Moses. His mother was Shlomith, the daughter of Divri, of the tribe of Dan.
(אונקלוס.)
They imprisoned him, pending word from the Eternal on how to punish him.
(תלמוד, רש"י, מלבי"ם.)
The Eternal told Moses:
(עפ"י רש"י.)
Take the one, who cursed, outside the camp, and the witnesses to the transgression and the judges who heard the evidence will put their hands on his head. They will say: “You alone are responsible for your death. We will not be punished for your death, for you have brought it upon yourself." The entire community will be present as he is stoned to death.
(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
Warn the Children of Israel: Whoever curses his Almighty will suffer the penalty for his sin.
(מלבי"ם.)
Whoever pronounces the most holy Name of the Eternal and blasphemes, will be put to death; the entire community will be present when he is stoned to death. A convert or a native Israelite who pronounces the most holy Name of the Eternal and blasphemes will be put to death.
(רש"י.)
A man who kills any other person will be put to death by the sword.
Whoever kills another's animal will make full restitution.
(א"ע.)
A man who injures his fellowman will compensate for the damage he inflicted:
for a fracture, its cost; for an eye, its cost, for a tooth, its cost. As he has injured his fellowman, he will be obligated to render compensation.
Whoever injures an animal will render compensation. Whoever wounds his parent will be put to death.
You will have one form of justice for the convert as for the native; for I am the Eternal, the Almighty of both."
Moses told this to the Children of Israel. They took the man, who had cursed, outside the camp, and stoned him. The Children of Israel carried out all the regulations of the stoning as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
Chapter 25
On Mount Sinai, the Eternal told Moses all the details of the Sabbatical year:
“Tell the Children of Israel: When you come to the land I am giving you, the earth will be released from tilling as on the weekly Sabbath of the Eternal:
(רש"י, מלבי"ם.)
You may sow your field six years, and you may prune your vineyard six years, and gather in their produce;
but the seventh year will be a Sabbath of complete rest for the earth like the weekly Sabbath of the Eternal: Neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
(רש"י.)
Do not reap whatever has grown without sowing, nor harvest your grapes. It is a year of complete rest for the earth.
The produce of the earth during the Sabbatical year will not be stored for personal use. It will, at all times, be food for any of you: for you, your manservant, your maidservant, your hired man and even the non-Israelite who resides with you.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
You may maintain grain stores to feed your domestic animals so long as there is food in the fields for the wild animals.
Count yourselves seven Sabbatical cycles, seven times seven years: The seven Sabbatical cycles will total forty-nine full years.
(עפ"י רש"י, ספורנו.)
You will make a proclamation by sounding a shofar on the tenth day of the seventh month — even if it falls out on the Sabbath; on the Day of Atonement you will blow a proclamation of independence by sounding the shofar throughout your land.
(רש"י.)
You will declare holy the fiftieth year and you will announce independence throughout the land for all its inhabitants; it will be a jubilee for you: The original owners will return to their lands, and servants will return to their families.
(הירץ.)
It is jubilee for you for the duration of the fiftieth year: Do not sow, do not reap what has grown from the earth without sowing, and do not harvest its grapes.
(רש"י.)
Because it is jubilee, it will be hallowed by you: You will eat what you have stored of the field's produce so long as there is food in the fields for the wild animals.
(רש"י, ספורנו.)
At the beginning of this jubilee year, the original owners will return to their lands.
(הירץ.)
If you sell something to your fellowman or buy something from your fellowman, do not defraud one another.
(הירץ.)
When buying or selling land, avoid fraud, but reckon the number of years left till the next jubilee and the value of the crops the field can yield.
(רש"י.)
For a greater number of years the price will increase, and for a smaller number of years the price will decrease; for he does not sell the land — that belongs to the Almighty, it is only the number of crops that he sells you.
(רש"י.)
Do not mislead or offend one another verbally; and revere your Almighty, for I am the Eternal, your Almighty, Who knows whether you intend to offend or mislead.
Practice My Sabbatical and jubilee decrees; observe My rational precepts regarding transactions and fraud, and practice them; then you will dwell in the land securely.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
The land will yield its produce, and you will eat and be satisfied; and you will dwell in it without fear of famine.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
You may ask in the seventh year, “What will we eat in the eighth year,, for we have not sown or harvested our produce?"
(עפ"י רש"י.)
I will order My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it will yield produce for three years.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
You will sow in the eighth year, and you will eat of the old produce until the ninth year — until its produce is harvested, you will eat of the old produce.
(אונקלוס.)
The land must not be sold into permanent ownership, for the land is Mine: You are strangers and settlers on My land.
In all the lands in your possession you will practice redemption of the land any time after the first two years from the sale:
If your fellowman becomes poor, and sells some of his inherited lands, his relative may redeem what the former sold, and the buyer cannot prevent him from doing so.
(רש"י, א"ע.)
A man who has no relative able to redeem it for him: If he himself obtains sufficient means for redemption,
he will calculate the price per year till the jubilee, return the balance for the years remaining to the buyer, and he will return to his lands;
(עפ"י רש"י.)
but if he cannot obtain sufficient means for redeeming all of it for himself, his estate remains in the buyer’s possession until the jubilee year. In the jubilee the sale will terminate, and the original owner will return to his lands.
If a man sells a house in a city surrounded by a wall, he may redeem it within the first year from the sale: Only during that year does he have the right of redemption.
(עפ"י הירץ.)
If it is not redeemed within a full year of the sale, the house that is in a city that was surrounded by a wall will remain the permanent possession of the buyer, throughout his generations; it will not revert at jubilee.
But houses in cities that have no wall around them will be considered like open fields. They may be redeemed any time after two years, and they revert at jubliee.
In the cities assigned to the Levites, the Levites will have a perpetual right to redeem the houses and the fields of the cities in their possession at any time.
(רש"י.)
As to purchases from the Levites: The sale of a house or of a possessional city terminates at jubilee, for the houses and cities of the Levites are their possession amid the Children of Israel.
(אונקלוס.)
If the fields of the open land around the cities are consecrated to the Sanctuary fund, the treasurer may not sell them at jubilee. Since these are part of their permanent possessions, Levites may always redeem them.
(אונקלוס.)
If your fellowman grows poor: As soon as his fortune begins to fail, you must support him; even though he is a convert or even a non-Israelite who has undertaken not to worship idols, he will live with you.
Lend him money, but take no interest from him; revere your Almighty so that you will not be tempted to take interest: Your fellowman will live with you as long as you have what to live from and can support him.
Do not give him money for interest, nor give him your food for interest.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
I am the Eternal, your Almighty, Who took you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan in which you will live united, aiding one another, recognizing Me as your Almighty.
(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
When your fellowman becomes poor, and sells himself to you, do not make him to do the work of a slave.
(הירץ.)
He will be with you like any hired man or laborer. He will serve with you until the jubilee, but no longer than six years.
(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
Then he will leave you, he and his children — whom you were obligated to provide with food — with him. He will return to his family, and he will return to the pride of his ancestors. There is no justification for despising him for his servitude,
for they are My servants, whom I took out of the land of Egypt. They will not be displayed or sold in the slave market.
Do not make him perform unnecessary work. Revere your Almighty, Who knows your intentions.
You may own bondmen and bondmaids, whom you will buy from the nations around you,
and from the non-Jews who come to reside among you. You may buy of them and of their families when they reside with you; even though they marry Canaanite women, who bear children for them in your land, you may acquire those children as slaves. They will be part of your estate,
to be held and bequeathed to your children after you, who will inherit your estate. You will always hold them in service for work, but you may not harm them. You will not dominate one another — your brethren, the Children of Israel — with work that wrecks the body.
If a non-Israelite who lives with you obtains means; and your fellow-Israelite becomes poor beside him, and sells himself to the non-Israelite living with you, or into providing service for idol-worship:
Immediately after he is sold, he must be redeemed; one of his brothers will redeem him.
Or his uncle or his cousin will redeem him, or some other relative in his family will redeem him. Or he may obtain the means to redeem himself.
Because the non-Israelite is under Israelite rule, be sure to deal with him fairly: The redeemer will calculate with him the number of years from when the Israelite sold himself to him until the jubilee. Then they will divide the price he paid by the number of years, to calculate the wages per year as for a hired servant.
If there are still many years till the jubilee, the redeemer will return the money for those years as the redemption price.
If few years remain till the year of jubilee, he will calculate accordingly. The number of years will determine the redemption price.
He will treat him like a man hired for annual labor. He will not dominate him with work that wrecks the body, in your sight.
If he is not redeemed during the years of his servitude, he will go free in the year of jubilee, he and his children — for the non-Israelite is obligated to feed his children — with him.
Although the non-Israelite is not otherwise obligated to keep the laws of jubilee, he cannot own a Israelite. For the Children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants, whom I took out of the land of Egypt. I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
Chapter 26
Even when sold as a slave to a non-Israelite, do not follow his practices. Do not make idols for yourselves, do not put a graven image or a monument for yourselves to worship. Do not place a stone floor in your land for prostration, for I am the Eternal, your Almighty.
(רש"י.)
Even when in servitude, observe My Sabbaths and holy days, and be in awe of My holy places to worship there: I am the Eternal, Who rewards those who merit it.
If you labor to understand Torah, and observe My commandments and practice them,
(רש"י.)
I will provide the rains at the most convenient times so that the land will yield its produce immediately, and even the non-fruit trees of the field will yield their fruit.
There will be so much grain to thresh, that the threshing season will last into the vintage, and the vintage will occupy you until planting time. You will eat your bread and be satisfied, and you will dwell in your land without fear of famine.
I will provide peace in the land so that you will rest with nothing to terrify you. I will exterminate evil beasts from the land, and no warring nation will pass through your land, not even to fight another people.
(א"ע.)
You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by each other's swords.
(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before you by the sword in great numbers.
I will turn from punishing your enemies to rewarding your good deeds by making you fruitful and increasing you, and so I will fulfill My covenant with you.
(רש"י.)
Despite a decrease in farmers and vintners, your crops will be so abundant that you will eat from the old harvest and store the surplus. Because of the abundance of the new harvest, you will be compelled to export the old.
(רש"י.)
When My Divinity will be amid you, and you will not loathe Me,
(רש"י.)
I will then associate with you intimately, but you will remain in awe of your Almighty, your Savior; and you will be a people consecrated to Me.
(רש"י.)
I am the Eternal, your Almighty, Who took you out of the land of the Egyptians, liberated from being their slaves; I broke the traces holding your yoke of bondage, and led you out erect freeman.
(רש"י ורשב"ם.)
But if you will not obey Me to study the Torah, and consequently will not practice all these commandments,
(רש"י וא"ע.)
and you will reject My decrees and loathe My rational precepts so that you will prevent others from practicing My commandments, denying that I ever command them, with the result that you will nullify My covenant by denying Me:
(רש"י.)
I will also act like this to you. I will order confusion upon you, diseases that strike terror: shahefet and kadahat: the curses for which one waits for and never sees, while families can only wail disheartenedly as they bury the victims. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat whatever grows.
(רש"י.)
I will turn My anger against you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. Your foes will dominate you, and you will flee demoralized even when no one pursues you.
(רש"י.)
If you will not repent after these punishments, and obey Me, I will increase your punishment sevenfold for your sins:
(אונקלוס.)
I will destroy My Holy House, the source of your pride and courage. I will make the skies of your land like iron to withhold rains, and your land like copper.
Your efforts will go to waste, for your land will not yield its produce, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit.
If you will follow your stubbornness against Me and will refuse to obey My commandments faithfully, I will increase your plagues sevenfold for your sins:
I will incite wild animals upon you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and diminish your numbers. Your roads will become desolate.
(רש"י.)
If despite these punishments you will not subject yourselves to Me, and you will follow your stubbornness against Me,
(רש"י.)
I will also act with rigidity towards you: I will smite you sevenfold for your sins.
(אונקלוס.)
I will bring war upon you as retribution for your abrogation of the covenant made at Sinai. You will gather within your fortified cities; but I will send epidemics among you until you surrender to the enemy.
I will destroy your food supply. For lack of fuel ten women will bake bread in one oven, and will weigh out the resultant brittle crumbs to divide them fairly. Even then, what you eat will not satisfy you.
If after this set of adversities you will not accept Me, but will follow your stubbornness against Me,
I will treat you with the fury aroused by your stubbornness, and I will punish you in seven more ways for your sins:
(עפ"י רש"י.)
The famine will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
I will destroy your altars for idol-worship, and I will shatter your sun-temples. I will cast your bodies upon your useless idols, and My Divinity will reject you and depart.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
I will reduce your cities to rubble; I will desolate your sanctuaries; and I will not accept your offerings and prayers.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
I will desolate the land so that even your occupying enemies will be astounded.
I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you. Only when your land will be desolate, and your cities rubble,
will the land appease the wrath of the Almighty for the Sabbatical years you disregarded. For the duration of its desolation and your stay in your enemies’ land, the land will lie fallow and will expiate your neglect of its Sabbatical years.
It will lie fallow for the duration of its desolation in lieu of the Sabbatical years during which it did not rest, while you dwelt upon it.
I will make those of you who survive in the land of their enemies fearful and fainthearted: The sound of rustling leaves will cause them to run; and they will flee for their lives, and fall, although no one pursues them.
They will stumble one upon the other fleeing as for their lives, even when there is no pursuer. You will not be able to stand before your enemies.
Many of you will be lost among the nations; and the land of your enemies will consume many of you.
Those of you who remain will be deteriorated for their sins in the lands of your enemies; and they will be reduced for the sins of their fathers.
Until they confess their sin and their fathers’ sin of faithlessness to Me and following stubbornness against Me,
I will act with rigidity towards them, and leave them in the land of their enemies. Perhaps their rebellious hearts will capitulate and repent, and they will acknowledge their guilt.
Only then will I have mercy on them and recall the covenant I made with Jacob, the mainstay of Torah; also My covenant with Isaac, the mainstay of Service; also My covenant with Abraham, the mainstay of Benevolence, will I recall for them. And I will remind them to return to the land of their fathers.
The land will be forsaken without them, and no other nation will settle it. The Israelites will acknowledge the appeasement of the Almighty's wrath for their neglect of the Sabbatical and jubilee years when they perceive its desolation without them, with no nation able to cultivate it: that this all came about because they rejected My rational precepts and loathed My decrees.
Although they will suffer in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I spew them forth to annihilate them, to nullify My covenant with them. For I am the Eternal, their Almighty.
I will remind them of the covenant of Sinai — which I made with the first generation when I took them out of the land of Egypt to the amazement of the nations — that they acknowledge Me as their Almighty; I am the Eternal.
These are the decrees, the rational precepts, and the Written and Oral Laws concerning Him and the Children of Israel, which the Eternal gave on Mount Sinai through Moses.
Chapter 27
The Eternal told Moses:
Tell the Children of Israel to assemble, and say to them: If a man expresses a vow that if the Almighty grants him his prayer he will donate his worth or the worth of another to the Sanctuary of the Eternal:
The worth of a male from twenty to sixty years of age is fifty silver shekels of the Sanctuary shekels;
(עפ"י רש"י.)
the worth of a female is thirty shekels.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
From five to twenty years of age the worth of a male is twenty shekels, of a female ten shekels.
(עפ"י רש"י.)
From a month to five years of age the worth of a male is five silver shekels, and the worth of a female is three silver shekels.
From sixty years of age and upward, of a male the worth is fifteen shekels, of a female ten shekels.
If he is too poor to pay the assigned valuation, the person whose worth he promised will appear before the kohen, and the kohen will assess him. The kohen will assess him according to what the vower can afford, leaving the last means sufficient for his necessities.
If he expressed a vow to donate an annual fit for a sacrifice to the Eternal, whatever he donates to the Eternal belongs to the Sanctuary.
He will not exchange it for a different kind of animal; nor will he replace it with an animal of the same kind—neither a perfect animal with a defective one, nor a defective animal with a perfect one. Should he, however, replace the animal with another, it and its replacement will belong to the Sanctum.
If the animal becomes unfit for a sacrifice to the Eternal, he will place the animal before the kohen.
The kohen will assess it, whether it is of much value or of little value; for its value, as the kohen assessed it, another sacrifice will be bought.
If the owner redeems it, he will pay an additional fifth to the assessment.
If a man dedicates his house to be holy to the Eternal, the kohen will assess it, whether it is of much value or of little value; its value will be fixed at whatever the kohen assesses.
If the man who dedicated it redeems his house, he will pay an additional fifth to the assessment, and it will be his.
If a man dedicated part of the land he inherited to the Eternal, the assessment will be according to the quantity of seed it grows. An area that grows a kor of barley seed will be assessed at fifty silver shekels.
This assessment will be fixed if he dedicated the field immediately after the jubilee.
If he dedicated the field later, the kohen will reckon the amount for him according to the years remaining till the next jubilee. He will thus deduct from the fixed worth one and one forty-eighth shekels per kor-field for each year from the last jubilee till its redemption.
(עפ"י א"ע.)
If the man who dedicated it redeems the land, he will pay an additional fifth to its assessment, and it will become his.
(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
If the owner does not redeem it before the treasurer of the Sanctuary fund sells it to another man, the original owner may no longer redeem it.
(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
But when the land goes out of the buyer’s ownership at jubilee; like a field of herem, this inherited land will belong to the kohanim.
If he dedicated land that he bought, which is not of his inherited estate, to the Eternal:
The kohen will reckon its value for him until the year of jubilee as for inherited lands. He will pay the assessment on that day as a holy donation to the Eternal.
In the jubilee year the land will return to the person the dedicator bought it from, to the person it belongs to as inherited land.
All worths will be expressed in Sanctuary shekels, twenty gerahs to the shekel.
However, a firstling of the animals, which is consecrated as a first-offering to the Eternal — no man will dedicate it for a different offering; whether it is an ox or a sheep, it already belongs to the Eternal.
If a man dedicates a non-kosher animal to be sold and its money used for Sanctuary repair — when the owner wants to redeem it, he will do so according to the kohen’s assessment, adding a fifth to the woth. If the dedicator does not redeem it, it will be sold to others at its assessed worth.
Any of his possessions that a man relegates to the kohanim as herein, whether a slave, an animal, or part of his inherited lands, will neither be sold nor redeemed before it comes into the possession of a kohen. Herein not specifically relegated is most holy for the Sanctuary of the Eternal.
A person sentenced to death has neither worth nor value, for he is about to be put to death.
The second tithe of the land, whether of cereals, or of grapes or olives, is the Eternal’s; it is holy to the Eternal, and must be eaten in the holy City.
If a man redeems any part of this tithe, he will add a fifth to its value, and buy food with the money in the holy City. He will eat that food there.
In annually tithing of sheep, the animals born that year will pass through, out the gate of the stall, one by one. Every tenth animal will be struck by a rod smeared with red paint, marking it as holy for the Eternal. Its blood and fats will be offered on the altar, and its flesh eaten by the owner.
He will not investigate to see whether it is without defect or defective, nor will he replace it. If he replaces it, the original and its replacement will both be holy. It cannot be redeemed.
These are the commandments that the Eternal commanded Moses to tell the Children of Israel, on Mount Sinai.