[Translation is by EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses; commentary from P&H/Pentateuch & Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz.—Admin1.]
1-9. REGULATIONS FOR PRIESTS WHO SHARE IN A SACRIFICIAL FEAST
The last Chapter dealt with the bodily defects that disqualify the priest from officiating in the Sanctuary; this section insists on physical purity as the condition in which alone he could handle the offerings.
Leviticus/Wayyiqrah 22
2 Speak to Aharon and to his sons, that they may be-careful (in handling) the holy-donations of the Children of Israel -that they not profane my holy name- which they hallow to me, I am YHVH!
that they separate themselves. The sacred foods may be eaten only by priests and the members of their family, and then only if they are ritually clean. We must add words like, ‘in the time of impurity,’ which are implied in the context.
holy things of. A comprehensive expression for all offerings presented at the Altar. Even the offerings which the priests themselves bring to the Altar on their own behalf must not be sacrificed or eaten by them when they are ritually unclean (Rashi).
3 Say (further) to them: Throughout your generations, any man that comes-near-of all of your seed- to the holy-donations that the Children of Israel hallow to YHVH, with his tum’a upon him: that person will be cut off from my presence, I am YHVH!approacheth. To participate in the offering of the sacrifices or in the sharing of the sacred dues.
shall be cut off. Some understand this to mean exclusion from the priestly service. It is, however, more likely that a sterner punishment is intended.
4 Any-man, any-man of the seed of Aharon, if he has-tzaraat or has-a-flow: of the holy-donations he is not to eat, until he is pure; whoever touches anything tamei by a (dead) person, or a man from whom an emission of seed goes out,unclean by the dead. For the various forms of uncleanness and the manner of purification, see X,9.
5 or a man that touches any swarming-thing through which he becomes-tamei, or a human through which he becomes-tamei, whatever his tum’a-swarming thing. i.e. a dead insect or reptile; XI,24,29.
6 the person who touches it is to remain-tamei until sunset, he is not to eat of the holy-donations unless he washes his flesh in water;the soul. Heb. idiom for ‘the person’.
7 when the sun comes in, (then) he is pure, afterward he may eat of the holy-donations, for they are his food.bread. Or, ‘food.” Certain portions of the sacrifices were the prescriptive right of the priests, and they depended upon them for their sustenance.
8 A carcass or a torn-animal he is not to eat, to become-tamei by means of them, I am YHVH!or is torn of beasts. This prohibition is repeated here for the special warning of the priests, since the impurity thereby caused would incapacitate them for service at the Sanctuary (Ibn Ezra); see also Ezek XLIV, 31.
for it. Either for the Sanctuary (Ibn Ezra) or for the ‘food’ in v. 7, since the context speaks of the eating of the flesh of the sacrifices.
die therein. The Rabbis explain this as ‘death by the hand of Heaven’
10-16. No layman was to eat a sanctified thing; with a list of the exceptions to that rule.
10 Any outsider is not to eat the holy-donation; a settler (belonging) to a priest, or a hired-hand, is not to eat the holy-donation;common man. Not a priest; a layman.
tenant. One who dwells with the priest, or is his guest; or the Hebrew slave who refused his freedom in the seventh year and remained in his service.
hired servant. As distinct from a non-Israelite slave, who was considered a member of the household (see next v). The Torah does not mention that the priest’s wife may eat of the portion, as husband and wife were deemed one person.
11 but a priest, when he purchases a person through his purchase of silver-he may eat of it, and one born into his household may eat of his food.the purchase of his money. The non-Israelite slave purchased by a priest became part of the faily, and was allowed to share in the sacrificial portion.
12 The daughter of a priest-when she belongs (in marriage) to a man, an outsider, she-of the raised holy-donations she is not to eat.priest’s daughter. On marrying a layman, she no longer belonged to the priestly family.
13 And the daughter of a priest-if she is a widow or a divorcée, and seed-offspring she has none, when she returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, from her father’s food she may eat, any outsider may not eat of it;have no child. If there is issue of the marriage, she is still regarded as attached to her husband’s family. If, however, the issue of the marriage died, she regained her former status as a priest’s daughter.
14 but a (lay)man-if he eats a holy-donation in error, he is to add its fifth to it, giving to the priest the holy-donation.the holy thing. i.e., its equivalent.
15 They are not to profane the holy-donations of the Children of Israel, that they set aside for YHVH,they shall not profane. The subject is the priests; and the profanation is the admission of unqualified persons to partake of the sacred dues (Rashi).
16 by causing them to bear iniquity (requiring an) asham-offering by eating their holy-donations, for I am YHVH, the one-who-hallows you!17-25. QUALITY OF OFFERINGS
After laws concerning the purity of the priesthood and the holiness of the sacrifices, there follow regulations concerning the faultlessness of the offerings. Jewish tradition demands of the Israelite such faultlessness in the case of any gift or offering set apart for sacred purposes, whether in the sphere of religion or of charity.
17 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:18 Speak to Aharon and to his sons and to all the Children of Israel, and say to them: Any-man, any-man of the House of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel that brings-near his near-offering-including any of their vow-offerings or including any of their freewill-offerings that they bring-near to YHVH, as an offering-up-;
the strangers. Aliens who were residing in their midst.
19 for your acceptance (they must be): wholly-sound, male among the cattle, among the sheep or among goats; 20 any-one in whom is a defect, you are not to bring-near, for not for acceptance will it be-considered on your behalf.shall ye not bring. The Rabbis extended the scope of this law and insisted that the oil, wine, flour and wood offered and used in the Temple must likewise be of the best quality. Even the wood to be burnt at the Altar was to be carefully selected so as to contain no worm-eaten pieces.
21 A man-when he brings-near a slaughter-offering of shalom to YHVH- for making a vow-offering or for a freewill-offering-among the herd or among the flock: wholly-sound must it be, for acceptance, any defect there must not be in it. 22 (One that is) blind or broken, or mutilated or (with) spotted-eye or scab or eruptions, you are not to bring-near (any of) these to YHVH; a fire-offering you may not place from (any of) them, on the slaughter-site to YHVH.blind . . . scabbed. The blemishes which disqualify an animal as an offering are very similar to those which render the priest unfit for service. wen. A running sore, an ulcer.
23 But an ox or a sheep, (too) long-limbed or stunted, you may sacrifice it as a freewill-offering, but for a vow-offering it will not be accepted.mayest thou offer. According to the Rabbinic interpretation, this means that the imperfect animal may not be sacrificed upon the Altar, but it may be donated to the Temple for working purposes.
24 (One that is) bruised or smashed or torn-up or cut out (in the testicles) you are not to bring-near to YHVH, in your land these may not be sacrificed.25 And from the hand of a foreigner you are not to bring-near the food of your God from any of these, for their ruin is in them, a defect is in them, they will not be accepted on your behalf!
foreigner. Blemished animals are unacceptable even from a non-Israelite who ‘comes out of a far country for Thy name’s sake’ (I Kings VIII,41). The priest was not to think that he need not be so strict in such a case.
their corruption is in them. ‘They are faulty’ (Moffatt).
accepted for you. Who offer these animals on behalf of the foreigner.
26-33. FURTHER DIRECTIONS IN REGARD TO SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS
27 An ox or a sheep or a goat, when it is born, shall remain seven days under its mother, and from the eighth day and forward it will be accepted as a near-offering, as a fire-offering to YHVH.
eighth day. Exod.XXII,29. Maimonides explains that the animal is ‘as if it had no vitality before the end of that period’ and not until the eighth day can it be counted among those that enjoy the light of the world.
in one day. ‘It is prohibited to kill an animal with its young on the same day, in order that people should be restrained and prevented from killing the two together in such a manner that the young is slain in the sight of the mother; for the pain of animals under such circumstances is very great. There is no difference in this case between the pain of man and the pain of other living beings, since the love and the tenderness of the mother for her young ones is not produced by reasoning but by feeling, and this faculty exists not only in man but in most living things’ (Maimonides); cf. the similar prohibition of the mother-bird being taken with her young (Deut. XXII,6f).
29 When you slaughter a slaughter-offering of thanksgiving to YHVH, for acceptance for you, you are to slaughter it:30 on that (very) day it is to be eaten, you are not to let (any) of it remain until morning, I am YHVH!
31 You are to keep my commandments, and observe them, I am YHVH!
CHILLUL HASHEM AND KIDDUSH HASHEM
32 You are not to profane my holy name, that I may be hallowed amid the Children of Israel; I am YHVH, the one-who-hallows you,to make; become set-apart righteously], [ye shall not . . . Israel. This verse has been called ‘Israel’s Bible in little’ (Jellinek). It contains the solemn warning against the Profanation of the Divine Name (Chillul Hashem), and the positive injunction to every Israelite to hallow the Name of God (Kiddush Hashem) by his life and, if need be, by his death. Although spoken in reference to the priests as the appointed guardians of the Sanctuary, this commandment, both in its positive and negative forms, was early applied to the whole of Israel.
ye shall not profane My holy name. Be ye exceedingly guarded in your actions, say the Rabbis, so that ye do nothing that tarnishes the honour of Judaism or of the Jew. Especially do they warn against any misdeed towards a non-Jew as an unpardonable sin, because it gives a false impression of the moral standard of Judaism. The Jew should remember that the glory of God is, as it were, entrusted to his care; and that every Israelite holds the honour of his Faith and of his entire People in his hands. A single Jew’s offence can bring shame on the whole House of Israel. This has been the fate of Israel in all the ages; and nothing, it seems, will ever break the world of its habit of putting down the crimes, vices, or failings of a Jew, no matter how estranged from his people or his people’s Faith he may be, to his Jewishness, and of fathering them upon the entire Jewish race. The Rabbis say: “Wild beasts visit and afflict the world because of the profanation of the Divine Name’ (Ethics of the Fathers,v,11). And, indeed, wherever Jews are guilty of conduct unworthy of their Faith, there the wild beast in man—blind prejudice and causeless hatred—is unchained against Israel. No student of Jewish history will question the truth of this judgment. The Rabbis, in a striking apologue, picture a boat at sea, full of men. One of them begins to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat, and, on being remonstrated with, urges that he is only boring under his own seat. ‘Yes,’ say his comrades, ‘but when the sea rushes in we shall be drowned with you.’ So it is with Israel. Its weal or its woe is in the hands of every one of its children.
I will be hallowed. Not to commit Chillul Hashem is only a negative virtue. Far more is required of the Israelite. He is bidden so to live as to shed lustre on the Divine Name and the Torah by his deeds and influence. Rabbi Simon ben Shetach one day commissioned his disciples to buy him a camel from an Arab. When they brought him the animal, they gleefully announced that they had found a precious stone in its collar. ‘Did the seller know of this gem?’ asked the Master. On being answered in the negative, he called out angrily, ‘Do you think me a barbarian that I should take advantage of the letter of the law by which the gem is mine together with the camel? Return the gem to the Arab immediately.’ When the heathen received it back he exclaimed: ‘Blessed by the God of Simon ben Shetach! Blessed be the God of Israel!’
The highest form of hallowing God is martyrdom; and Jewish law demands of every Israelite to surrender his life, rather than by public apostasy desecrate the Name of God (Shulchan Aruch, Yore Deah, CLVII). When, during the war of annihilation which the Emperor Hadrian waged against Judaism, the readiness for martyrdom on the part of the young and old began to imperil the existence of the Jewish nation, the Rabbis decreed that only with regard to three fundamental laws—idolatry, incest, and murder—should death be preferred to transgression. ‘The Jewish martyrs of olden days, who bore witness to their God at the stake, are described as having yielded up their lives for the “sanctification of the Divine Name”. Such testimony is within the power, and constitutes the duty, of the Jew in these times also. If he is not called upon to die for the sanctification of the Name, he has at least to live for it. His life lmust give glory to God, vindicate his God-given religion (M. Joseph).
among the children of Israel. If it is a sacred duty to hallow the Name of God and Israel before the nations, it is even a more sacred duty to do so ‘among the children of Israel’. Moses could make Pharaoh fear God; the dukes of Edom, the mighty men of Moab, and the peoples of Canaan trembled before him; but he was far from uniformly successful in making his own people do so. Therefore he was to see the promised Land afar off, but he was not to enter it. ‘Get thee up unto Mount Nebo, and die in the mount as Aaron thy brother died on Mount Hor, because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel’ (Deut II,49-52). It is important to make non-Jews respect Judaism, but even more so to make Jews respect Judaism.