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6 ‎[1] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[2] **Command Aaron and his sons: **Since the following laws pertain to the priestly responsibilities and privileges, the command was directed specifically toward Aaron and his sons. **Saying: This is the law of the burnt offering. **Although the laws of the burnt offering were essentially delineated in the beginning of Leviticus (see chap. 1), an additional point is added by the verse here: **It is the burnt offering **that burns **on the pyre on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it. **Most of the Temple service was performed during the day, including the slaughter of the burnt offering and the sprinkling of its blood upon the altar. 1 The burning of the offering upon the altar, however, could be performed at night. When many offerings were sacrificed during the day, they would remain burning on the pyre throughout the night. The fire on the altar was especially intense, as the wood of the pyre was coupled with the fat of the portions of the animals that were burned on the altar. The burnt offering, which was burned in its entirety, burned slowly on the pyre relative to the other offerings, as its fat was covered by its flesh. It was also offered after all the other offerings had been sacrificed. 2 Consequently, it remained on the altar throughout the night.
‎[3] At the end of the night, **the priest shall don his linen vestment [ *middo *], **which is precisely fitted to his size [ *midda *], 3 **and his linen trousers, **another basic article of the priestly garments, **he shall don on his flesh; and he shall separate **from the altar **the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire consumes on the altar, and he shall place it beside the altar. **The removal of these accumulated ashes from the altar was a daily ritual that could be likened to an offering itself.
‎[4] **He, **the priest, **shall remove his vestments and don other **priestly **vestments **of lesser quality than the previous vestments. 4 According to tradition, it was prohibited for the priestly vestments to be soiled or worn out; 5 consequently, the priest had to change his clothing when performing this particularly sullying rite. Aside from the symbolic, daily removal of the ashes that was performed after the completion of the day’s rites and before the arrival of the new day, it was also necessary to remove ash from the altar when copious amounts accumulated on it. **And **in that case, **he shall take the ashes outside the camp. **In the wilderness, the ashes from the altar in the Tabernacle were placed outside the encampment of the Israelites, while the ashes from the altar in the Temple were placed outside the walls of Jerusalem. The Sages teach that the ashes were placed outside the northern part of the city. 6 These ashes shall be taken **to a pure place. **They are not of inferior status; rather, they are removed because it is prohibited to make use of them. Accordingly, they must be taken to a pure place. 7
‎[5] **The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be extinguished, and **to that end, **the priest shall kindle wood on it every morning. **He shall arrange a new pyre on the altar every morning to feed the continuously burning fire. In addition, **he shall arrange the **pieces of the **burnt offering upon it, and he shall** also **burn on it the fats of the peace offering.** Although the peace offering was not the only offering whose fats were burned on the altar, it seems that the Torah deliberately omits mention of the sin offering or guilt offering in this context. Accordingly, it mentions only the burnt offering, which is the first offering of the morning, and the peace offering.
‎[6] The Torah reiterates what was mentioned in the previous verse, establishing a continuous obligation: 8 **A perpetual fire shall be kept burning upon the altar; it shall not be extinguished. **This concludes the laws of the burnt offering, although other laws were introduced in this passage as well: the removal of the ashes from the altar, their removal to a pure place outside the camp, the arrangement of the wood on the altar, and the requirement to maintain a perpetual fire upon the altar. This is because these laws are especially relevant to the daily burnt offerings, which were the first and last offerings to be sacrificed during the day. 9
‎[7] **This is the law of the meal offering. **A general overview of the meal offering already appears in the beginning of Leviticus (chap. 2). Here the Torah emphasizes the priestly obligations pertaining to the meal offering. **The sons of Aaron shall present it before the Lord to the front of the altar **. 10
‎[8] After the priest presents the meal offering at the foot of the altar, **he shall separate from it, **from the meal offering, **his handful, **by inserting his middle three fingers into the meal offering, **from the high-quality flour of the meal offering and from its oil. **The base of all meal offerings is flour; generally, a large measure of oil is mixed into the flour as well. **And **he shall also remove **all the frankincense that is on the meal offering. **The priest would sprinkle frankincense on the mixture of flour and oil. **He shall burn its memorial portion, **both the handful of flour and all the frankincense, **on the altar, **as **a pleasing aroma to the Lord. **11
‎[9] **The remnant of it Aaron and his sons shall eat **in their role as priests in the Temple; **as unleavened bread it shall be eaten. **Leavened bread was hardly ever brought to the Temple (see 2:11). Here, the verse stresses that the remnants of the meal offering must also be consumed unleavened, and they are to be consumed **in a holy place; in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting they shall eat it. **
‎[10] **It, **the meal offering, **shall not be baked leavened. **Aside from the general prohibition against allowing the meal offering to become leavened, there is an additional prohibition against baking it leavened. 12 **I have given it as their, **that is, the priests’, **portion from My fire offerings; it, **the entire meal offering, **is a sacred sacrament like the sin offering and like the guilt offering. **
‎[11] Because of the sacred nature of the meal offering, **every male among the children of Aaron shall eat it, **but other members of the priest’s family could not partake of it. This is yet another indication that the consumption of the remnant by the priests is itself a sacrificial rite, which may be performed only by the priests themselves, in contrast to other sacred items that are given to the priests as gifts, which may be consumed by all members of the priest’s family (see 22:11–13). It is **an eternal statute for your generations from the fire offerings of the Lord. **The verse now states an additional law: **Anything that touches them, **the meal offerings, **shall become sacred. **Since it is possible to consume meal offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings with other foods, the Torah states that anything that touches them and thereby absorbs their taste must be treated with their sanctity.
‎[12] Following the previous verses, which discussed the laws of meal offerings in general, many of which pertained to their consumption by the priests, the Torah now discusses certain meal offerings that are brought only by the priests: **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[13] **This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons that they shall present to the Lord on the day he is anointed, **on the first day that any priest performs the Temple service. This is known as the priestly meal offering of inauguration. Although the verse refers to any priest who enters the service, this same offering is to be brought by the High Priest every day. In that context, it is known as the griddle-cake offering of the High Priest: 13 **One-tenth of an ephah of high-quality flour as a perpetual meal offering, half of it in the morning, and half of it in the evening. **The Sages explain that this last clause applies only to the griddle-cake offering of the High Priest. The priestly meal offering of inauguration, however, was brought only once on the day of a priest’s investiture. 14
‎[14] **On a pan it, **the meal offering, **shall be prepared with oil, **fried; **you shall bring it boiled **. 15 **You shall present the baked meal offering in pieces; **that is, it is boiled, then baked, and then fried. 16 The meal offering was prepared as one loaf and then broken into pieces. 17 All of it was burned on the altar as **a pleasing aroma to the Lord. **
‎[15] As mentioned above (verse 13), this offering was brought not only by a priest when beginning his Temple service, but also, **the priest who is anointed in his stead from his sons, **the High Priest, who is descended from Aaron, **shall prepare it **every day as a fixed offering. **It is an eternal statute to the Lord; it shall be burned in its entirety **upon the altar.
‎[16] Likewise, **every meal offering of the priest, **whether brought as a voluntary meal offering or in any other manner, **shall be offered in its entirety, **entirely burned on the altar; **it shall not be eaten. **This is in contrast to the meal offering of a non-priest, of which only a portion is burned on the altar, while the remainder is designated by God for the priests’ consumption alone.
‎[17] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[18] **Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the law of the sin offering. **After previously stating the basic laws of the sin offering (see chaps. 4–5), the Torah elaborates: **In the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, **on the north side of the altar (see 1:11), **the sin offering shall be slaughtered before the Lord; it is a sacred sacrament. **The difference between a sacred sacrament and an offering of lesser sanctity is not only conceptual; there are also practical differences with regard to the manner in which each type of offering is sacrificed. For example, since a burnt offering and sin offering are sacred sacraments, they must be slaughtered on the north side of the altar.
‎[19] Furthermore, **the priest who presents it as a sin offering [ *hameh **· *] shall eat it. **18 The priest who engages in the sacrificial rite of the sin offering has the first right to consumption of its meat. However, as will be stated below (6:22), in practice this right is granted to all priests serving in the Tabernacle on that day. Additionally, since the consumption of the sin offering is itself a sacred act, **in a holy place it shall be eaten, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. **
‎[20] **Anyone who shall touch its flesh, **the flesh of the sin offering, **shall become holy. **It must be treated with sanctity, and, like the sin offering, it must be consumed in a holy place, by the priests, and within the allotted time in which the sin offering itself may be consumed. 19 **And if some of its blood is **accidentally **sprinkled on a garment **rather than the altar, then **that upon which it is sprinkled you shall wash in a holy place. **It may not be removed from the holy place, just like the blood itself.
‎[21] Since the sin offering is consumed by the priests only after first cooking or roasting it, the status of the cooking implements must also be clarified: **An earthenware implement in which it, **the sin offering, **shall be cooked shall **subsequently **be broken, **as such a vessel absorbs some of the matter of the sin offering during the cooking process. This matter will remain absorbed in the implement beyond its allotted time for consumption; it will then be rendered unfit for consumption, at which point the matter must be destroyed. 20 As such, the implement must be destroyed after the elapse of that allotted time. 21 This is similar to the law that an earthenware implement is not purified through immersion in water or in any other manner, and so, when it becomes impure, it remains that way until it is broken (see 11:33). **If it is is cooked in a bronze implement, it shall be scoured, **scrubbed clean, then placed in boiling water to purge the absorbed matter **and rinsed in water. **It is then permitted subsequently to use such a vessel. 22
‎[22] It has already been stated that the priest who sacrifices the sin offering has the first right to its consumption. Nevertheless, **every male among the priests shall eat it, **that is, may partake of it, and their consumption is part of the atonement process. **It, **the entire sin offering, **is a sacred sacrament. **
‎[23] Until now, this passage has discussed only the typical sin offering brought by an individual who unwittingly transgresses certain prohibitions. Earlier, however (chap. 4), the Torah mentioned several different types of sin offerings, in particular the sin offering of the High Priest and the sin offering brought for an unwitting communal sin, whose blood is not sprinkled on the outer altar, but inside the Sanctuary itself. These offerings are referred to by the Sages as the inner sin offerings 23 and are mentioned in this verse: **Any sin offering from which blood shall be brought to the Tent of Meeting **to sprinkle opposite the curtain and on the incense altar, **to atone in the holy place, shall not be eaten **at all; rather, **it shall be burned in fire. **As stated above (4:1–21), certain portions of these sin offerings are burned on the altar, while the remainder is burned outside the encampment of Israel. Here, the Torah explicitly states that its consumption is prohibited.
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
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License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center