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15 [1] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
[2] The following commandment is addressed not to the adult individuals then assembled in the wilderness, but rather to the children of Israel as a people, since only their descendants would enter the land.
**Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you will come into the land of your dwellings that I am giving to you, **
[3] **and you will perform **of your own free will **a fire offering to the Lord, **either in the form of **a burnt offering or a peace offering to fulfill a vow, or **if you bring a particular animal **as a pledge, **a gift offering, **or at your appointed times, to create a pleasing aroma to the Lord, from the cattle, or from the flock; **
[4] **the one who presents his offering to the Lord shall present a meal offering. **He must bring a meal offering from the world of vegetation to accompany his animal offering, in accordance with these measurements: **One-tenth **of an ephah **of high-quality flour **made from ground wheat kernels, **mixed with one-fourth of a hin of oil. **In contemporary terms, one-tenth of an ephah is more than 2 L, and a hin is somewhat larger than 1 L.
[5] **And **in addition, you shall also bring **wine **to be poured upon the altar **as the libation: One-fourth of a hin you shall make **these amounts of flour, oil, and wine **with the burnt offering or for the peace offering, for one sheep. **As explained in the coming verses, the amounts change in accordance with the type of animal brought as an offering.
[6] **Or for **an offering consisting of **a ram, **which is an older animal from the same species as the sheep, in the second year of its life, **you shall perform a meal offering **consisting of **two-tenths **of an ephah **of high-quality flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil. **
[7] **And you shall present wine as the libation: One-third of a hin, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. **
[8] **When you render a young bull a burnt offering, or a peace offering, to fulfill a vow or a peace offering to the Lord, **
[9] **one shall present with the young bull a meal offering: Three-tenths **of an ephah **of high-quality flour, **which is three times as large as the meal offering for a sheep, **mixed with one-half a hin of oil, **twice the amount brought with a sheep.
[10] **And you shall present wine as the libation: One-half a hin as a fire offering of a pleasing aroma to the Lord. **
[11] In general,
**so shall be done for one bull, or for one ram, or for a lamb, or for a kid. **
[12] **According to the number **of offerings **that you shall do, so shall you do for each according to their number. **The meal offerings and libations that accompany these offerings shall correspond to the number and type of animals that are offered.
[13] **Every native shall do these in this **precise **manner, to present a fire offering of a pleasing aroma to the Lord. **There are fixed amounts for the meal offerings and libations brought with the offerings.
[14] **If a stranger will reside with you **as a full-fledged convert who has become a member of the nation 25 **or **one **who is **already 26 living **in your midst for your generations, and will perform a fire offering of a pleasing aroma to the Lord, as you do, so he shall do. **There is no difference between an Israelite from birth and a convert who has joined the nation.
[15] The verse addresses
**the assembly: **There shall be **one statute for you and for the stranger who resides, an eternal statute for your generations; like you, so the stranger shall be before the Lord. **With regard to obligations toward God, such as these rules regarding meal offerings and libations that accompany offerings, the law applies equally to Israelites from birth and to converts.
[16] **One law and one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger who resides with you. **This principle goes beyond the specific topic at hand, as it refers to all the statutes and ordinances given to the children of Israel. These laws apply to all members of the nation, whether they are Israelites from birth or converts who have joined the nation. 27 **
[17] The next commandment will also take effect only after the Israelites enter the land.
**The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
[18] **Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come to the land that I am bringing you there, **
[19] **it shall be, when you eat from the bread of the land, you shall separate **from it **a gift for the Lord. **
[20] From
**the first of your kneading basket you shall separate a loaf [ *halla *] as a gift. **Due to this verse, the portion separated from the dough is known as *ĥalla *. **Like the gift from the threshing floor, **the portion known as *teruma *that is set aside from produce for the priests, **so shall you separate it, **the *ĥalla *from the dough.
[21] **From the first of your kneading basket you shall give to the Lord a gift for your generations. **
[22] **If you act unwittingly and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord spoke to Moses, **
[23] **everything that the Lord commanded to you at the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded and onward for your generations. **According to the tradition of the Sages, the unwitting act described here, which leads to a neglect of all the commandments, refers to the specific, fundamental sin of idolatry. 28 This was the first prohibition Israel received in the Ten Precepts: “I am the Lord your God…. You shall have no other gods before Me.” 29 These verses discuss a situation where one transgresses this prohibition unwittingly, as can happen in complicated cases or situations involving a lack of clarity in one’s thoughts or action. However, in a case where one worshipped idols intentionally, atonement cannot be achieved by means of an offering.
[24] **It shall be, if from the eyes of the congregation it was performed unwittingly, **as a result of an erroneous ruling by the court, then **the entire congregation, **meaning the court, which represents the entire congregation of Israel, **shall render one young bull as a burnt offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord, and its meal offering and its libation according to the ordinance, and one goat as a sin offering. **This is different from a comparable case of a communal sin as a result of an erroneous ruling with regard to other sins, in which case the congregation brings a bull as a sin offering.
[25] **The priest shall atone for the entire congregation of the children of Israel, and it will be forgiven for them, as it was an unwitting act, and **when they became aware of their error **they brought their offering, a fire offering to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their unwitting act. **
[26] **The entire congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven. **Even if the sin was not actually performed by every member of the congregation, an erroneous ruling on the part of the upper echelon of the nation’s leadership, which is then acted upon by the general public, is considered a transgression of the entire congregation. Therefore, the offering brought by the court serves to atone for both its own sin and that of the entire nation, **and **also for **the stranger that resides in their midst, **since he too is part of the congregation, **as it was **an **unwitting **transgression **for the entire people. **
[27] After discussing an unwitting sin of idolatry performed by the congregation as a result of a mistaken ruling by the court, the Torah continues with a case of the same sin committed unwittingly by an individual:
**If one person will sin unwittingly, he shall present a female goat in its first year as a sin offering. **For an ordinary sin offering, one may bring either a female lamb or a female goat. However, for the specific transgression of idolatry one must bring a goat, as is the case for other offerings connected with this sin.
[28] **The priest shall atone for the unwitting person, when he sins unwittingly, before the Lord, to atone for him; and it shall be forgiven for him. **
[29] **The native of the children of Israel and for the stranger that resides in their midst: There shall be one law for you, for one who acts unwittingly. **
[30] The aforementioned offerings atone for an individual or a community that committed the sin of idolatry due to an error of judgment or as a result of a habitual, unthinking action. In contrast,
**the person that will act high-handedly, **purposely and with malicious intent, **whether native or stranger, it is the Lord that he blasphemes, **30 **and that person shall be excised from among his people, **wherever he is. This punishment is inflicted by God and it is not within the jurisdiction of the court.
[31] **Because he scorned the word of the Lord **by committing the transgression, **and he violated His commandment; **as a result, **that person shall be excised; his iniquity is upon him. **
[32] In connection with the descriptions of high-handed sins like idolatry and blasphemy, the Torah relates an incident that illustrates how the children of Israel responded to a serious public violation of one of the commandments that occurred in their midst during their wanderings in the wilderness:
**The children of Israel were in the wilderness and they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. **
[33] **Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to the entire congregation, **and testified that he had desecrated Sabbath in a high-handed manner.
[34] **They placed him in custody, because it had not been explicated what **precisely **should be done to him. **It was clear that he was liable to receive the death penalty, as the verse states explicitly: “You shall observe the Sabbath, as it is sacred for you; its desecrators shall be put to death.” 31 However, it was necessary to determine the precise manner in which he was to be executed.
[35] **The Lord said to Moses: The man shall be put to death **by stoning; **the entire congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. **
[36] **The entire congregation took him outside the camp, and they stoned him with stones, and he died, as the Lord had commanded Moses. **
[37] **The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: **
[38] **Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: They shall make for themselves a fringe **consisting of a group of hanging threads 32 **on the corners of their garments for their generations, and **in addition, **they shall put on the fringe of the corner a sky-blue thread. **
[39] **It shall be for you a fringe, and you shall see it and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and perform them. **The garments with fringes shall serve as a reminder of God’s commandments **and you shall not rove after your heart and after your eyes, after which you stray. **The combination of a lusting heart and seeing eye is a dangerous one, as it can lead one to violate the Torah’s laws.
[40] **So that you shall remember and perform all My commandments **throughout your daily lives and mundane pursuits, **and be holy to your God **in all your ways, thoughts, and actions.
[41] **I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God. **By taking the children of Israel out of Egypt, God consecrated them as His servants. In order to ensure that they preserve this sanctity by observing the commandments, the Israelites are in need of these fixed signs on their garments.
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center