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22 ‎[1] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[2] **Speak to Aaron and to his sons, that **in the cases stated below **they shall refrain from **approaching **the sacred items of the children of Israel that they consecrate to Me **, 25 **and they shall not profane My holy name. I am the Lord. **Some of the sacred items that are consecrated to God are subsequently given to the priests. The priests must therefore treat those gifts with the necessary sanctity and reverence.
‎[3] The Torah presents the practical details deriving from the sanctity of these items:
**Say to them: Throughout your generations, any man from all your descendants who approaches **to eat 26 **the sacred items that the children of Israel consecrate to the Lord with his impurity upon him, that person shall be excised from before Me. I am the Lord. **A person often becomes ritually impure due to common occurrences. The consecrated gifts of the priesthood, which include the portions of the offerings given to the priests, as well as the portions of produce given to the priests, may not be consumed in a state of ritual impurity. Although any impure individual is prohibited from drawing near to the sacred, the Torah commands the priests specifically, as they are the ones who most frequently consume and have contact with consecrated foods.
‎[4] The Torah lists the different forms of ritual impurity:
**Any man from the descendants of Aaron who is a leper or has a **gonorrhea-like **discharge, he shall not partake of the sacred items until he is purified, **even if he remains impure for many years. **And **the following individuals are also ritually impure and may not partake of consecrated food: **one who touches anyone **or anything rendered **impure from a corpse, **and all the more so one who himself comes into contact with a corpse, **or a man from whom semen has been emitted, **
‎[5] **or a man who touches any **dead **swarming creature that renders him impure, **of those listed above (11:29–31), **or **who shall touch **a man that renders him impure, whatever his impurity, **including all forms of impurity not mentioned here.
‎[6] **A person who touches him, **the impure person, **shall be impure until the evening. **This is in contrast to those impure individuals whose impurity is of a greater degree of severity: a leper, one who experiences a gonorrhea-like discharge, and one who comes into contact with a corpse, as in those cases a lengthier process of purification is required. **And **yet, although this person’s impurity is of a lesser degree, **he shall not partake of the sacred items, unless he bathes his flesh in water, **immersing in a ritual bath.
‎[7] After he immerses he must wait until
**the sun shall set, and **only then **he shall be purified. Then he may **once again **partake of the sacred items, because it is his food. **The sacred food constitutes an important part of the priest’s sustenance. He is therefore permitted to partake of it as soon as nighttime has commenced and a new day has begun (see 23:32), and he is not required to wait until the following morning.
‎[8] The Torah presents a related prohibition:
**He shall not eat an unslaughtered carcass or a mauled animal, ** one that suffered a fatal injury, 27 **to render himself impure with it. I am the Lord. **
‎[9] **They, **the priests, **shall keep My commission, **keeping charge of the sacred food that is given to them. 28 The verse may also be referring to the charge of the Temple’s sanctity. 29 If they maintain the sanctity of their charge, **they shall not bear sin for it and die on its account. **However, if they do not maintain the sanctity of their charge and partake of the sacred food in a state of ritual impurity, they will be punished by death at the hands of Heaven, **because they profane it. **The desecration of consecrated items is a severe transgression punishable by death at the hands of Heaven. This applies to a ritually impure person who partakes of the sacred portion of the produce given to the priests. 30 **I am the Lord their sanctifier. **
‎[10] The Torah continues to detail the restrictions on the consumption of sacred foods:
**No non-priest shall partake of sacred items. **The Sages interpret this verse too as referring to the sacred portion of the produce given to the priests. The prohibition applies not only to one who is entirely unaffiliated with the priesthood, but also to **one who resides **for a lengthy period **with a priest or **to **a **priest’s **hired laborer, **even if he was hired for several years. They **shall not partake of sacred items, **despite the fact that they are *de facto *members of the priest’s household.
‎[11] But
conversely, **if a priest acquires a person, **a Canaanite slave, as **an acquisition of his silver, he may partake of it. **Since the Canaanite slave becomes the priest’s possession, he may partake of the priest’s sacred food. **And **similarly, with regard to **one born into his household, **Canaanite slaves born in the priest’s possession, **they may partake of his **sacred **food. **
‎[12] **If the daughter of a priest is married, **or even betrothed, **to a non-priest, she shall not partake from that which is separated of the sacred items, **the sacred portion separated from the produce. Alternatively, the verse may be referring to the portion separated from the offerings and given to the priests, which may be eaten by the members of the priest’s household. 31 Once she becomes the wife of a non-priest, she is no longer considered a member of the priestly family, and she may no longer partake of the priest’s sacred food.
‎[13] **But if a priest’s daughter, **who married a non-priest, **is a widow or a divorcée, and she has no offspring **from that husband, **and she returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, **before she married, **from the **sacred **food of her father she may partake. ** Since she has no child from her marriage, her former status as a member of her father’s priestly household is reinstated, and she may again eat the sacred portions given to the priest from the produce and offerings. **But no non-priest may partake of it. **If she gave birth to a child from her Israelite husband, since that child is a non-priest, neither she nor her offspring may eat from the sacred food. 32
‎[14] **If a man, **a non-priest, **shall eat a sacred item unwittingly, he shall add its one-fifth to it, **as a fine, **and he shall give to the priest the sacred item. **The sacred portion separated from the crop is not brought to the Temple, but given to a priest anywhere in the Land of Israel. Since it bears no sign of its consecrated status, a non-priest might unwittingly partake of it, in which case he must give the value of the sacred food to a priest, together with an additional 25 percent, which is one-fifth of the total amount repaid.
‎[15] **They shall not profane the sacraments of the children of Israel that they separate for the Lord. **This commandment applies to all Jews, although it is addressed to the priests. Not only are the offerings presented upon the altar sacred, the portion given to priests from the produce is also sacred. Its sanctity must be maintained by ensuring that it is not eaten by nonpriests or in a state of ritual impurity.
‎[16] **They will cause them, **the priests will cause themselves, 33 **to bear the iniquity of guilt, **if they are negligent **when they eat their sacred items; for I am the Lord, their sanctifier. **
‎[17] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[18] **Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel. **The passage is addressed to both the priests and the nation as a whole, as the laws that appear below pertain both to the consecration of offerings by all Jews and to their acceptance as offerings by the priests. **And say to them: **The following laws pertain to **any man from the house of Israel or from the strangers in Israel, **the converts who join the Jewish people, **who presents his offering. **This refers to an offering presented **for **the fulfillment of **any of their vows, **when one vowed to bring an offering, **or for any of their pledges, **when one pledged a specific animal as a voluntary offering, **that they shall bring to the Lord as a burnt offering. **
‎[19] The offering must be brought
**for your propitiation, **in order for you to find favor in God’s eyes. Alternatively, the verse **is not referring to the desire of the person bringing the offering to propitiate God, but to the fact that he brings the offering as a gift offering rather than in fulfillment of an obligation. It must be **an unblemished male of cattle, of sheep, or of goats. **
‎[20] **Any **animal **in which there is a blemish you shall not offer, as it shall not be accepted for you. **God will not accept a blemished offering, and it will not enable you to achieve propitiation. 34
‎[21] The previous verses dealt with the presentation of a burnt offering. The Torah now refers to the presentation of a peace offering, which is not burned in its entirety upon the altar. Rather, portions of it are eaten by the priests and by the owners.
**If a man shall present a peace offering to the Lord, to fulfill a vow, **or to consecrate as a vow offering, 35 **or as a pledge, **in a case where a specific animal was designated as an offering, **of the cattle or of the flock, it shall be **an **unblemished **male or female animal **to be accepted. No blemish shall be in it. **
‎[22] For example, the following blemishes render an animal unfit to be presented as an offering: a
**blind **animal, even in one eye; 36 **or **an animal with a **broken **limb; **or maimed, **with a cracked or damaged limb; 37 **or **an animal **with a cyst. **According to the tradition of the Sages, this refers to a cyst that contains a bone, and to certain cysts in the eye, but not to a small protrusion of flesh that may commonly be found on an animal’s body. 38 The list of blemishes continues: **or **a **scabbed **animal **or **one **with a skin eruption, **types of boils on the animal’s skin; 39 **you shall not offer these to the Lord, and you shall not place them as a fire offering upon the altar to the Lord. **
‎[23] **A bull or a sheep with an extended limb or a truncated limb, as a pledge **to the Temple treasury **you may present **40 **it **to be sold so that the proceeds may be used for the Temple maintenance. 41 **But as a vow **offering or as a voluntary offering **it shall not be accepted. **
‎[24] **Those **animals, the testicles of **which are bruised, or crushed, or torn, or cut, you shall not present to the Lord **. 42 An animal that has been castrated in any form is considered blemished and unfit to be presented as an offering, **and **furthermore, **you shall not do so in your land. **It is prohibited to castrate any animal. 43 This is a distinct prohibition, which does not apply solely to animals designated as offerings.
‎[25] This applies not only to offerings brought by the Jewish people, but also
**from the hand of a foreigner you shall not present the food of your God from any of these, because their defect is in them, a blemish is in them; they shall not be accepted for you. **It is not prohibited for a gentile to castrate animals. Nevertheless, it is deemed unfitting to do so, and a castrated animal may not be accepted as an offering even from gentiles.
‎[26] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
‎[27] **An ox or a sheep or a goat, when it is born, shall be seven days under its mother. **It is prohibited to slaughter it for any purpose during this time. Only **from the eighth day on, it shall be accepted as a fire offering to the Lord. **
‎[28] **An ox or a sheep, it and its offspring you shall not slaughter on one day, **for any purpose, not only as offerings.
‎[29] **When you slaughter a thanks offering, **as an expression of
‎[30] **On that day **on which it is slaughtered **it shall be eaten; you shall not leave from it until morning. **The thanks offering is eaten by its owner, presumably in a comfortable family setting. The verse therefore stresses that in the case of this offering too the time for its consumption is limited to a single day. **I am the Lord. **
‎[31] The passage concludes with a general commandment:
**You, **priests and non-priests alike, **shall observe My commandments and perform them. I am the Lord. **
‎[32] Moreover,
**you shall not profane My holy name **by committing transgressions or by performing the service in an inappropriate manner. **And I shall be sanctified among the children of Israel. **The verse restates the general concept that is conveyed by the many laws that define the practical concept of sanctity: One does not stand before God merely as an individual. The obligation to observe the commandments is not just the personal right or duty of a particular person. Rather, it is due to God’s choice of the Jewish people and their sanctification. **I am the Lord your sanctifier. **The sanctity does not stem from your desire to perform the service, but from Me.
‎[33] I am the Lord
**who took you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. **I sanctify you and I am your savior. **I am the Lord. **You belong to Me, and this relationship obligates you to maintain your sanctity.
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center