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18 ‎[1] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[2] **Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: I am the Lord your God. **
‎[3] **You shall not follow the practices of the land of Egypt in which you lived, and you shall not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, and you shall not follow their statutes, **their ways. You shall not follow their mores or their prescribed laws. 41
‎[4] Rather,
**My ordinances you shall perform, and My statutes you shall observe, to follow them; I am the Lord your God. **
‎[5] **You shall observe My statutes and My ordinances, which a man shall perform and live by them. **The commandments concerning the standards of sexual morality, which mandate the distinctiveness and sanctity of the children of Israel, shape the proper way to lead one’s life. **I am the Lord, **I live forever.
‎[6] **Any man of you shall not approach his kin to uncover nakedness, **to engage in sexual relations; **I am the Lord. **This general declaration serves to underline the basic principle of this passage that sexual relations with all close blood relatives are prohibited.
‎[7] **The nakedness of your father and the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. **In practically all societies, sexual relations between a mother and son are proscribed. Although this prohibition applies directly to a mother, in any normal family the shame and embarrassment caused by such an act would impact both parents. Consequently, the verse first mentions both the father and mother. 42
‎[8] **The nakedness of your father’s wife, **even if she is not your mother, **you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness [ *erva *]. **The narrow meaning of the word *erva *is nakedness, as it has been explained here, or it can specifically refer to the sexual organs. However, it can also be used in the sense of shame or embarrassment. 43 Consequently, one possible interpretation of this verse is that sexual relations with one’s father’s wife would cause the father shame and embarrassment.
‎[9] **The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother, **and all the more so if she is the daughter of both your father and your mother, although this case is not explicitly mentioned in the verse, 44 whether she is **born into the household or born outside **of wedlock, 45 **you shall not uncover their nakedness, **as they are your relatives.
‎[10] **The nakedness of the daughter of your son, or of the daughter of your daughter, **and certainly of your daughter herself, although she is not mentioned in the verse, 46 **you shall not uncover their nakedness, for it is your nakedness. **One’s relationship with one’s own children is even closer than one's relationship with other relatives; sexual relations with one’s child would constitute the parent’s own personal nakedness or shame.
‎[11] **The nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife, **who was **born to your father **and not necessarily to your mother, **she is your sister; **therefore, **you shall not uncover her nakedness. **There is overlap between this verse and the prohibition of verse 9. Consequently, sexual relations with the daughter of one’s father who is also the daughter of the father’s wife is prohibited by two commandments. 47 However, if one does not share either parent with the daughter of his father’s wife, he is not considered her relative at all, and she is not forbidden to him. 48 Indeed, there are historical precedents of men marrying their stepsisters. 49
‎[12] **The nakedness of your father’s sister you shall not uncover; she is your father’s kin, **or flesh. 50
‎[13] **The nakedness of your mother’s sister you shall not uncover, as she is your mother’s kin. **
‎[14] The aunts mentioned in the previous two verses are blood relatives from the side of each parent. This verse adds that even an aunt who is not a blood relative is prohibited.
**The nakedness of your father’s brother you shall not uncover; you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. **Since she is married to your uncle, she should be considered as much your aunt as the sister of your father or mother.
‎[15] The Torah lists further prohibitions involving relatives through marriage.
**The nakedness of your daughter-in-law you shall not uncover; she is your son’s wife. **Therefore, **you shall not uncover her nakedness. **
‎[16] **The nakedness of your brother’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your brother’s nakedness. **
‎[17] The list of forbidden relations began with close blood relatives, e.g., parents, children, and siblings, before continuing with those who are relatives through marriage. In contrast, the next two prohibitions do not involve a familial relationship between the man and woman but rather focus on a preexisting relationship with a female relative of the woman.
**The nakedness of a woman and her daughter you shall not uncover. **It is prohibited for a man to have relations with a mother and her daughter. This applies not only to her actual daughter, as even **her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter you shall not take to uncover her nakedness. They are kin; it is lewdness [ *zima *]. **Alternatively, *zima *means the thought process of sinners and is similar to the word *mezima *, plot. 51 Although a man is permitted to wed either woman, he may not marry one of them once he has already been married to the other. Such a marriage would ruin the mother-daughter relationship. 52 An additional negative consequence of such a marriage is that the husband is more liable to think of one woman while he is with the other, as there is often a resemblance between mother and daughter.
‎[18] Similarly,
**a woman with her sister you shall not take to be rivals to uncover her nakedness through her in her lifetime. **It is prohibited to marry two sisters. The verse clearly states that a man may not marry his wife’s sister if his wife is still alive, even if she is no longer his wife and he has divorced her. The prohibition against marrying two sisters is similar to the prohibition against marrying a mother and her daughter. However, the permissibility of marrying the sister of one’s wife after the wife’s death is a unique feature of this case that does not apply to the prohibition of marrying a mother and her daughter or to any of the other forbidden relations. The prohibition is in effect only during the lifetime of the sister one marries first.
‎[19] The following forbidden sexual relationships are not prohibited due to familial connections of any kind between the participants.
**To a woman in her state of menstrual impurity you shall not approach to uncover her nakedness. **It is prohibited to engage in sexual relations with a woman when she is in a state of menstrual impurity. Furthermore, one may not even approach to uncover her nakedness, which is a broader prohibition than refraining from actual sexual relations. It is prohibited for a man to engage in all forms of close contact with a woman in a state of menstrual impurity, and it makes no difference whether she is not related to him or if she is his own wife. 53
‎[20] **And with the wife of your counterpart, **another Jewish man, 54 **you shall not engage in sexual relations, to defile yourself with her. **
‎[21] The Torah now turns to a different type of prohibition:
**You shall not give from your offspring to pass **him as a symbolic or an actual offering **to Molekh, **which is the name of a particular idol or cult that was widespread at the time. 55 **And you shall not profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. **According to the alternative opinion that Molekh is not the name of any particular idol, this might mean that one may not worship God by sacrificing children, as in the Molekh ritual, since this is a degenerate practice that profanes the name of God. This interpretation also fits the verses in Deuteronomy that discuss the topic of burning one’s sons or daughters. 56
‎[22] This verse adds another prohibition to the list of forbidden sexual relations that are not due to familial ties, in addition to adultery and relations with a menstruating woman:
**You shall not lie with a male in the manner of lying with a woman; it is an abomination. **Homosexual relations between two men is not considered a normal sexual act; it is an abomination.
‎[23] **You shall not engage sexually with any animal to defile yourself with it. **The defilement of this deed is due to its nature as a purely sexual act, with no possibility of mutual human attachment or procreation. Up to this point, the forbidden sexual acts have been stated as prohibitions for males, though it is clear from context and parallel sources that these prohibitions apply equally to females. 57 The verses have been addressed to men because the man is generally the more active party in these acts. Here the verse addresses a situation where no man is involved at all: **And a woman shall not stand before an animal for it to copulate with her; it is a perversion. **The verse insists that bestiality is a perversion, though it appears to not have been unheard of in Canaanite culture.
‎[24] To conclude the section, the verse adds that transgressions in the area of forbidden sexual relations are not only legally proscribed, but also cause moral and spiritual debasement. Therefore,
**do not defile yourselves in any of these; for in all these were defiled the nations that I am sending forth from before you. **Various types of forbidden sexual relations, including adultery, homosexuality, and bestiality, were a central feature of ancient Canaanite culture.
‎[25] **The land was defiled, and I visited its iniquity upon it. **These acts are not merely private, personal transgressions. When they become accepted and normative they defile the land itself. Severe sexual transgressions contaminate not only the individual who commits them, but one’s surroundings as well, and they cause punishment to be inflicted on the entire land. 58 **And the land spewed out its inhabitants, **by conquest at the hands of other nations or through natural disasters.
‎[26] In contrast to those nations,
**you, **the children of Israel, **shall observe My statutes, **which determine what is considered a familial relationship, although these definitions are not predicated on human logic, **and My ordinances, **laws **with discernible logical or practical underpinnings. 59 **You shall not perform any of these abominations, the native and the stranger who resides among you, **as these restrictions apply to anyone who resides in the land. 60
‎[27] **For all these abominations were performed by the people of the land, who were **living there **before you, **the Canaanites, **and the land was defiled **through these acts.
‎[28] If you do not sin, the result will be that
**the land will not expel you by your defiling it, as it spewed out the nation that was before you. **The Land of Israel in particular cannot tolerate moral debasement, and it spews out the sinners who defile it. 61
‎[29] **For anyone who shall perform any of these abominations **listed above, as opposed to other, less severe prohibitions involving sexual relations that are not mentioned here, 62 **the people who perform them shall be excised from among their people. **Even prior to the involvement of a human court in the case of one who violates these prohibitions, those who transgress these prohibitions are liable to excision at the hands of Heaven. 63
‎[30] **You shall keep My commission to refrain from performing any of the abominable practices that were performed before you **in the land of Canaan, **and you shall not defile yourselves through **performing **them; I am the Lord your God. **The phrase “you shall keep My commission” may also be rendered as: You shall establish a safeguard for My commission. The Sages interpreted this as a mandate to enact protective measures to prevent people from performing transgressions. 64
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
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