page_title: Kedoshim
section_title: Leviticus chapter 20
hierarchical_section_title: Kedoshim / In inner-biblical interpretation / Leviticus chapter 20
caption_attribution_description: English: The Damascus Document Scroll 4Q271 (4QDf)
context_page_description: Kedoshim, K'doshim, or Qedoshim is the 30th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the seventh in the Book of Leviticus. It constitutes Leviticus 19:1–20:27. The parashah tells of the laws of holiness and ethical behavior, repeats the ten commandments, and describes penalties for sexual transgressions. The parashah is made up of 3,229 Hebrew letters, 868 Hebrew words, 64 verses, and 109 lines in a Torah Scroll.
  Jews generally read it in late April or May. The lunisolar Hebrew calendar contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between 50 in common years and 54 or 55 in leap years. In leap years, parashah Kedoshim is read separately. In common years, parashah Kedoshim is combined with the previous parashah, Acharei Mot, to help achieve the needed number of weekly readings. Some Conservative congregations substitute readings from part of the parashah, Leviticus 19, for the traditional reading of Leviticus 18 in the Yom Kippur Minchah service. And in the standard Reform High Holidays prayerbook, Leviticus 19:1–4, 9–18, and 32–37 are the Torah readings for the afternoon Yom Kippur service.
context_section_description: Leviticus 20:20 addresses God's role in the creation of children. While Leviticus 12:6–8 required a new mother to bring a burnt-offering and a sin-offering, Leviticus 26:9, Deuteronomy 28:11, and Psalm 127:3–5 make clear that having children is a blessing from God; Genesis 15:2 and 1 Samuel 1:5–11 characterize childlessness as a misfortune; and Leviticus 20:20 and Deuteronomy 28:18 threaten childlessness as a punishment.
  Leviticus 20:3 announced the judgment that those who gave their children to Molech profaned God's Name. In Amos 2:7, Amos similarly condemned as profaning God's Name fathers and sons who had sex with the same woman — likely exploiting a household servant woman. Amos grouped these sinners in the same verse along with those who trample the heads of the poor into the dust and those who make the humble walk a twisted course, thereby suggesting more generally that those who take advantage of people in lower social stations profane God's Name.
caption: A Damascus Document Scroll found at Qumran
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