[Those of us reading these chapters today will naturally wonder what is the connection of these commandments to us? Do we indulge in “Molech worship” or “necromancy” or any of the “abominable” practices that these pagan idolatrous nations indulged in?
We might better think this way: are there modern equivalents to the cultural and religious practices of these people of biblical antiquity? Because when we do, most likely we will find them relevant to life today. Man’s nature has not really changed over 6 millennia since these laws were given to Israel.
We have said in past articles that the reason these commandments were given, especially the ‘don’ts’ is because humankind were going according to their chosen inclinations, where the powerful take advantage of the powerless, where the strong dominate over the weak, and man-made laws hardly were made to benefit majority of the populace but more to benefit the ruling few. And so, as we continue to read through the remaining chapters of Wayyiqrah, we rely on the scholarship and wisdom and understanding of those who have studied it before us — specifically the commentators in Pentateuch and Haftarahs, one of our recommended Resources in our S6K library. The translation we’re now using is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.––Admin1]
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PENALTIES FOR UNLAWFUL MARRIAGES, MOLECH WORSHIP AND NECROMANCY
This chapter is a natural pendant to XVIII and XIX, and enumerates the acts that would debase Israel’s life, and altogether destroy its ideal of Holiness. In an organized society, it is essential to institute penalties for the violation of enactments that are vital to its existence. Ruthless measures were indispensable against the abominable vices and hideous practices which Israel was in danger of transplanting into its own life from its Canaanite and Egyptian neighbours. Flaming jealousy for Israel’s mission of Holiness, and gigantic energy on the part of its ethical guides and religious teachers, could alone have overcome the bestialities of heathendom.
Unsparing condemnation of the crimes did not, however, invariably lead to the unsparing punishment of everyone suspected of them. In Jewish Law, the presumption of innocence is given to the accused, and capital punishment requires two eyewitnesses to the premeditated commission of the crime. This alone rendered actual conviction in such cases a rare thing.
1-5 PENALTIES FOR MOLECH WORSHIP
Leviticus/Wayyiqrah 20
2 And to the Children of Israel you are to say:
Any-man, any-man of the Children of Israel and of the sojourners that sojourn in Israel
that gives of his seed-offspring to the Molekh
is to be put-to-death, yes, death;
the People of the Land are to pelt him with stones.
strangers. Such horrors should not be permitted even to resident strangers on any false idea of toleration, or on the ground that it was no concern of the community what ‘aliens’ did.
stone him. Stoning goes back to hoary Semitic antiquity, and was prescribed for crimes that demanded punishments with a deterrent effect upon the people. In later ages, the original method was modified to render it more humane. The Talmud tells that, in capital offences, delinquents were drugged in order to deaden the senses before execution.
3 As for me, I will direct my face against that manand will cut him off from amid his kinspeople,
since of his seed he has given to the Molekh
with the result that he makes my Holy-shrine tamei and profanes my holy name.
will cut him off. This verse refers to the case of a man who performs the atrocity in private, so that there are no witnesses of the act. In that event, God will Himself punish the evil-doer.
to defile my sanctuary. ‘The community of Israel which is sanctified to God’ (Rashi); or the soil would be defiled by such an enormity and the defilement conveyed to the Sanctuary established upon it.
4 Now if the People of the Land should hide, yes, hide their eyes from that manwhen he gives of his seed to the Molekh, by not putting him to death,
hide their eyes. i.e., overlook it. For such an offence to be connived at and condoned by the authorities and nation is evidence of both religious demoralization and social decay. It furthermore proves that they too are on the threshold of succumbing to Molech worship (Strack).
5 I myself will set my face against that man and against his clan,and will cut off him and all who go whoring along with him, to whore after the Molekh,
from amid their kinspeople.
his family. i.e. his sympathizers or accomplices. Ibn Ezra quotes an explanation which refers ‘his faily’ to am ha-aretz in the preceding verse. They hide their eyes from his crime because they are of his family. Targum Jonathan renders this verse: ‘And I shall choose My own time to attend to that man and to the members fo the family who take him under their protection, and shall chasten them with painful trials; but the man himself I shall destroy.’
6 And the person who turns-his-face to ghosts or to familiar-spirits, to whore after them,I will direct my face against that person
and will cut him off from amid his kinspeople!
familiar spirits. The punishment is left in the hands of God; but as for the necromancer himself, the penalty is death by stoning (v. 27 below0, since to cause others to sin is worse than sinning. Here, too, ruthlessness—social surgery—was required, if true and ethical religion was not to perish from the earth. ‘Not to realize the vital necessaity of these laws concerning witchcraft and the vital duty of its extirpation, is to fall a victim to the superstition that witchcraft was mere harmless make-believe that did not call for any drastic punishment. At the bottom of this sceptical attitude towards the laws of witchcraft is indifference towards the unique value of monotheism. In a conflict of this nature—witchcraft versus monotheism—there can be no hesitancy or mutual tolerance of opposite points of view. It is a question of ‘To be’ or not to be for the ethical life’ (Hermann Cohen).
7-21. LAWS BEARING ON IMMORALITY
7 So you are to hallow-yourselves, you are to be holy,for I YHVH am your God!
sanctify yourselves. This and the following verses are introductory to the laws which follow. The first section deals with idolatry and heathenish superstition. The motive that should guide the life of the Israelite and restrain him from wrong actions is solemnly repeated.
8 You are to keep my laws, and observe them,I YHVH am the one-who-hallows you!
sanctify you. By electing you from all the nations to be My people, and by giving you laws and institutions designed to lead a holy life. Before the performance of any religious precept, the Israelite repeats the Blessing: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us by thy commandments and hast commanded us . . . ‘
9 Indeed, any-man, any-man that insults his father or his motheris to be put-to-death, yes, death,
his father and his mother he has insulted, his bloodguilt is upon him!
curseth. See Exod. XXI, 15,17; Prov. XX,20 ( ‘Who so curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in the blackest of darkness.’). It was a capital offence; but the Rabbis, though they shared the horror with which the moral hideousness of such an action was viewed, endeavoured in various ways to render the carrying out of the penalty as rare as possible.
his blood shall be upon him. i.e. ‘He has brought it upon himself that he should be killed’ (Rashi). Some see in these Heb. words the formula used in pronouncing the condemnation.
10 A man who adulters with the wife of (another) man, who adulters with the wife of his neighbor, is to be put-to-death, yes, death,the adulterer and the adulteress.
committeth adultery. The repetition of the phrase and the substitution of neighbour’s wife for another man’s wife stress the heinousness of the offence. The consent of the husband is quite immaterial. Marriage is not merely a ‘contract’; it is consecration, and adultery is far more than merely an offence against one of the parties to a contract. It is an offence against the Divine Command proclaimed at Sinai, and constitutes the annihilation of holiness in marriage (Z. Frankel).
11 A man who lies with the wife of his father-the nakedness of his father he has exposed,
the two of them are to be put-to-death, yes, death, their bloodguilt is upon them!
12 A man who lies with his daughter-in-law-
the two of them are to be put-to-death, yes, death,
they have done perversion, their bloodguilt is upon them!
13 A man who lies with a male (as one) lies with a woman-
abomination have the two of them done,
they are to be put-to-death, yes, death, their bloodguilt is upon them!
14 A man who takes-in-marriage a woman and her mother-
it is insidiousness,
in fire they are to be burned, he and they,
that there be no such insidiousness in your midst!
wife also her mother. brands as ‘wickedness’ (for enormity) the union with the two women at the same time.
15 A man who gives his emission to an animalis to be put-to-death, yes, death,
and the animal you are to kill!
beast. Because it was the cause of the person’s downfall, and would be a reminder to others of what had taken place.
16 A woman who comes-near any animal to mate with it-you are to kill the woman and the animal,
they are to be put-to-death, yes, death, their bloodguilt is upon them!
17 A man who takes-in-marriage his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother,
so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness-
it is a disgraceful-thing,
they are to be cut off before the eyes of their kinspeople,
the nakedness of his sister he has exposed,
his iniquity he shall bear!
see. Has the same meaning as ‘uncover’.
shameful thing. Or, ‘impiousness,’ unholiness. The Heb. term is an expression of the strongest moral detestation. The vehement condemnation of this crime may be due to the fact that, in early times, marriage with a half-sister was deemed objectionable, a custom that lingered on for centuries after its proscription at Sinai.
cut off in the sight. The words signify that there was a public ceremony of excommunication.
he shall bear his iniquity. Ibn Ezra understands the second half of the verse to refer to the case where the sister was seduced against her will. He alone is then punished. According to Hoffmann, the repetition of the phrase is to indicate that his is a double turpitude, as it is a brother’s part to defend his sister’s honour.
18 A man who lies with a woman (in her) infirmity, exposing her nakedness-her source he has laid-naked, and as for her, she has exposed her source of blood;
the two of them are to be cut off from amid their kinspeople!
19 The nakedness of your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, you are not to expose!
For his (own) kin he has laid-naked,
their iniquity they are to bear!
20 A man who lies with his aunt-
the nakedness of his uncle he has exposed,
their sin they are to bear, accursed will they die!.
shall die childless. Childlessness was regarded as little less calamitous than death. ‘It is evidently meant as a heavenly and supernatural retribution’ (Kalisch).
21 A man that takes-in-marriage the wife of his brother:she is one-set-apart,
the nakedness of his brother he has exposed, accursed they will be!
22-26. EXHORTATION
From here to the end of the Chapter is the concluding exhortation of the Law of Holiness (XVIII-XX), or possibly of the whole section beginning with Chap. XI.
22 You are to keep all my laws and all my regulations, and observe them,that the land not vomit you out into which I am bringing you to settle.
23 You are not to walk by the laws of the nations that I am sending-out before you,
for all these they did, and (so) I abhorred them,
customs of the nations. In later times, these Heb. words gave the name to the important principle in accordance with which Jewish life was jealously guarded against adopting religious customs of surrounding nations.
24 so I say to you: It is you who will possess their soil,I myself will give it to you, to take-possession of it,
a land flowing with milk and honey.
I am YHVH your God, who has separated you from the (other) peoples!.
set you apart. By means of distinctive laws and precepts.
25 So you are to separate between the pure animals and the tamei-ones, and between the tamei fowl and the pure ones,that you not make your selves detestable through animal or fowl or anything with which the soil stirs,
that I have separated for you to treat-as-tamei.
clean . . . unclean. The inclusion of this verse is significant. It is a reminder, still required by the Jewish people, that the ideal of holiness for the Israelite consists in more than moral purity. The dietary laws have likewise their essential place in the scheme of the Torah, and form a necessary aid in the pursuit of the goal set by God.
26 You are to be holy to me,for holy am I, YHVH;
I have separated you from the (other) peoples
to be mine!
ye shall be holy. Sums up the whole end and aim of the preceding laws. The people whom a holy God has chosen for His own must, like Him, be holy.
unto Me. ‘If ye be separated from the heathen nations, then ye belong to Me; but if not, ye belong to Nebuchadnezzar and his colleagues,’ i.e. you shall go into exile, become assimilated among the nations and lose your distinctive identity (Sifra).
27 A man or a woman with whom is a ghost or a favorable-spirit-they are to be put-to-death, yes, death,
with stones you are to pelt them, their bloodguilt is upon them!
familiar spirit. The position of this verse after the exhortation, is intended as a final warning against superstition that was deadly to all higher religion. Unlike v. 6 the subject here is the person with ‘the familiar spirit’, and not he who consults the wizard.