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18 [1] **The Lord said to Aaron: You and your sons **the priests, **and your patrilineal house, **the Kehatites, **with you shall bear the iniquity of the Sanctuary, **as you will be held accountable for any breach of the sacred. **And **in addition, **you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood: **The responsibility for the lack of fulfillment of the duties of the priesthood shall fall upon you.
[2] **Also your brethren, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring near with you, and they shall accompany you, and serve you. And **only **you and your sons with you **will serve **before the Tent of the Testimony, **not the Levites, whose function is outside this area. 16
[3] **They shall keep your commission, and the commission of all the **surrounding **Tent; however, they shall not come close to the sacred vessels and to the altar, and neither they nor you will die. **Although the Levites must carry and guard the Tabernacle, they are prohibited from touching its vessels.
[4] **They, **the Levites, **shall accompany you **and your family, the priests, **and **they shall **keep the commission of the Tent of Meeting, for all the service of the Tent; a non-priest shall not approach you. **
[5] **You shall keep the commission of the sacred and the commission of the altar, **by ensuring that non-priests shall not approach the Sanctuary and the altar, 17 **and there will be no more rage against the children of Israel, **due to any breach of the sanctity of the altar.
[6] **And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel; to you they are given as a gift for the Lord, to perform the service of the Tent of Meeting. **
[7] **You and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood with regard to any matter of the altar, and with regard to that which is within the curtain, and you shall serve. **You are responsible for ensuring that the entire service, both inside and outside the Sanctuary, is performed in the proper manner. **As a service of gift I give **you **your priesthood. **Your service as a priest is not a form of subjugation but rather a privilege bestowed solely upon you, whereas **the non-priest who approaches shall be put to death. **
[8] **The Lord spoke to Aaron: Behold, I have given you the commission of My gifts; with regard to all the consecrated **
[9] The Torah provides a list of the gifts of the priesthood:
**This shall be for you from the sacred sacraments, from the fire, **the offerings of the most sacred order that are burnt upon the altar: **Every offering of theirs, every meal offering of theirs, every sin offering of theirs, and every guilt offering of theirs that they shall return to Me; it is a sacred sacrament for you and for your sons. **Only the priests are entitled to these gifts.
[10] **In the sacred sanctum shall you eat it, **in the courtyard, which is the designated place for the consumption of offerings of the most sacred order: meal offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. 19 **Every male may eat it; it shall be sacred to you. **
[11] **This is yours: The separation of their gift, for all the wave offerings of the children of Israel, **the specific portions of peace offerings that are set aside and waved, 20 **I have given them to you, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, as an eternal allotment; all pure in your household may eat it, **in accordance with the law of offerings of lesser sanctity, which may be eaten by all ritually pure members of a priest’s household.
[12] **All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the first of them that they will give to the Lord, **which is the portion that the children of Israel separate for God, 21 in practice **to you, **the priests and their families, **have I given them. **
[13] **The first fruits of all that is in their land that they bring to the Lord, **to the Temple, **shall be yours; all pure in your household may eat it. **This includes slaves, who are referred to as an “acquisition of his silver,” who are permitted to partake of the meat of offerings permitted to the priests, the portion of produce allotted to the priest, or *teruma *, and first fruits, if the slaves are ritually pure. 22 In certain cases, when *teruma *is unfit for human consumption, it may even be given to animals. 23
[14] **Everything proscribed in Israel, **movable property and real estate that were consecrated, but not for the Temple maintenance, **shall be yours. **
[15] **Every first issue of the womb of all flesh, which they offer to the Lord, of man and of animal, shall be yours; however, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, **by means of money that is given to you, **and the firstborn of the impure animal you shall redeem. **Since you may not eat this animal, you shall receive its value instead. It is clarified elsewhere that the impure animal mentioned here is a donkey, which is redeemed with a lamb given to a priest. 24
[16] **Its redeemed, **of a woman’s firstborn son, **from one month old shall you redeem, with a value of five shekels of silver in the sacred shekel; it is twenty gera. **The *gera *is the smallest unit of weight for silver, which is referred to as a *ma’a *by the Sages. The sacred shekel is twice the value of a regular shekel, which is worth ten *gera *. 25
[17] **However, the firstborn of an ox, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem, they **themselves **are sacred. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and you shall burn their fat as a fire offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord, **as these portions are not eaten.
[18] In contrast to the blood and fat,
**their meat, **of the firstborn kosher animals, **shall be for you, like the breast of the waving and like the right haunch **of peace offerings, which are eaten by priests and the members of their household in a state of ritual purity. The same applies to the meat of firstborn animals; **it shall be yours. **
[19] The Torah once again summarizes:
**All the gifts of the consecrated items that the children of Israel separate for the Lord, **those stated explicitly here, as well as other gifts alluded to in these verses, and those mentioned elsewhere, **I have given you, and your sons and your daughters with you, **
[20] **The Lord said to Aaron: **On the one hand, you and your descendants will receive gifts from the rest of the children of Israel; on the other hand, **you shall not inherit in their land, and you shall not have a portion **of land **in their midst; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel. **
[21] **To the children of Levi, **who also serve in the Temple, **behold, I have given all the tithe, **a tenth of all produce, **in Israel as an inheritance, in exchange for their service that they perform, the service of the Tent of Meeting. **
[22] **The children of Israel shall not approach the Tent of Meeting anymore, to bear sin, to die. **The Levites will care for the Temple maintenance, through their singing and the assistance they provide to the priests, and they must also prevent the Israelites from performing these functions and from approaching the Sanctuary.
[23] **The Levite himself shall perform the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they, **the Levites, **shall bear their iniquity; **they are responsible for the sins that might result from their service. **It shall be an eternal statute for your generations, and among the children of Israel, they, **the entire tribe of Levi, **shall not inherit an inheritance **in the land of Israel.
[24] **For the tithe of the children of Israel that they will separate to the Lord as a gift, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore, I said to them: In the midst of the children of Israel they shall not inherit an inheritance. **
[25] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
[26] **To the Levites you shall speak, and say to them: When you take from the children of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, you shall separate from it a gift to the Lord. **From the tithe that you receive from the Israelites, you must set aside **a tithe from the tithe. **
[27] After you have separated a tithe from the tithe
that you received from an Israelite, then **your gift **to the priest **shall be considered for you like the grain from the threshing floor, and like the fill **28 **of the winepress, **like the produce that grows in one’s property, from which *teruma *, the portion of produce allotted to the priest, is set aside and given to the priest. 29
[28] **So you too shall separate the gift of the Lord from all your tithes that you receive from the children of Israel; you shall give from it the gift of the Lord to Aaron the priest, **meaning to one of the priests. The tithe that the Levites receive from the Israelites is their sustenance. Just as the children of Israel give *teruma *to a priest from their produce, so too the Levites must give *teruma *to a priest from the portion they receive.
[29] **From all your gifts **that you receive from the children of Israel **you shall separate all the gifts of the Lord, of all its finest **portions, you must give to the priest **its sacred part from it. **
[30] **You shall say to them: When you separate its finest, **the tithe of the tithe for the priests, **from it, **the other nine-tenths of the tithe, **it shall be considered for the Levites like the produce of the threshing floor, and like the produce of the winepress. **The remainder of the tithe has the status of nonsacred produce.
[31] **You may eat it, **the tithe, **in any place, you and your households, for it is your wage in exchange for your service in the Tent of Meeting. **
[32] **You shall not bear sin on its account when you separate its finest from it. **You must give the choicest part of the produce received from an Israelite to the priest. It is derived from here that one may not set aside poor-quality produce for the priest. **The sacred items of the children of Israel you shall not profane, and you will not die. **By separating the tithe of the tithe for the priest, the Levite prevents the profanation of the sacred gifts of the Israelites that were given to him. 30
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
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License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center