Clean Foods for a Holy People

14 “You are the children of Adonai your God. You are not to cut yourselves or shave your forehead for the dead. ² For you are a holy people to Adonai your God—from all the peoples on the face of the earth, Adonai has chosen you to be His treasured people. ³ You are not to eat any detestable thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ Among the animals, you may eat any animal that splits the hoof—the hoof completely split in two—and chews the cud. ⁷ Yet of those that chew the cud or have a split hoof, you are not to eat the camel, the hare, and the rabbit—because they chew the cud but do not split the hoof, they are unclean to you. ⁸ The pig, because it splits the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you—you are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses. ⁹ Of all that are in the waters, these you may eat: whatever has fins and scales you may eat, ¹⁰ but whatever does not have fins and scales you are not to eat—it is unclean to you. ¹¹ You may eat all clean birds, ¹² but these are the ones you are not to eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³ the red kite, the black kite, and any bird of prey of that kind, ¹⁴ every raven of any kind, ¹⁵ the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, a hawk of any kind, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the Egyptian vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, a heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. ¹⁹ All winged insects are unclean to you—they are not to be eaten. ²⁰ You may eat any clean bird. ²¹ You are not to eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the outsider within your gates so that he may eat it or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people to Adonai your God. You are not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Tithe and Remember the Levite

²² “You will surely set aside a tenth of all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. ²³ You are to eat the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, before Adonai your God in the place He chooses to make His Name dwell, so that you may learn to fear Adonai your God always. ²⁴ Now suppose the way is too long for you, for you cannot carry the tithe because the place Adonai your God chooses to set His Name is too far from you. When Adonai your God blesses you, ²⁵ then you are to exchange the tithe for silver, bind up the silver in your hand, and go to the place that Adonai your God chooses. ²⁶ You may spend the money for whatever your soul desires—cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever your soul asks of you. Then you will eat there before Adonai your God and rejoice—you and your household. ²⁷ But you are not to neglect the Levite within your gates, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. ²⁸ At the end of every three years, you are to bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year and store it within your gates. ²⁹ Then the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, along with the outsider, the orphan and the widow within your gates, will come and eat and be satisfied, so that Adonai your God may bless you in all the work of your hand that you do.

3 “Next we turned and went up the way to the Bashan. King Og of the Bashan came out against us—he and all his people—for battle at Edrei. ² But Adonai said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over and all his people and his land. You will do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.’

³ “So Adonai our God also handed over King Og of the Bashan and all his people, and we struck him down until no survivor was left. ⁴ We captured all his cities at that time—there was not a town that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in the Bashan. ⁵ All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates and bars, in addition to a great many unwalled towns. ⁶ We utterly destroyed them, just as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city—men, women and children. ⁷ But all the livestock and the spoils of the cities we took as plunder for ourselves.

⁸ “So at that time we took from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land across the Jordan, from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon. ⁹ (Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.) ¹⁰ We took all the cities of the plain and all the Gilead and all the Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in the Bashan. ¹¹ (For only King Og of the Bashan survived from the remnant of the Rephaim. In fact, his bed was made of iron—is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length and four cubits its width, according to the cubit of a man.)

Possession East of Jordan

¹² “This land we took in possession at that time—from Aroer by the Wadi Arnon and half the hill country of the Gilead and its cities—I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites. ¹³ The rest of the Gilead and all of the Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh—all the region of the Argob. (All the Bashan is called the land of Rephaim. ¹⁴ Jair son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites. He called them—the Bashan—after his own name, Havvoth-jair’s Villages, as it is the case to this day.)

¹⁵ “To Machir I gave the Gilead. ¹⁶ To the Reubenite and Gadites I gave from the Gilead as far as the Wadi Arnon—the middle of the wadi as the border—and as far as Jabbok, the wadi that is the border of the sons of Ammon, ¹⁷ and the Arabah, with the Jordan as the border from Kinneret as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.

¹⁸ “I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘Adonai your God has given you this land to possess it. Ready for battle, you will cross over ahead of your brothers Bnei-Yisrael—all the men of valor. ¹⁹ Only your wives and your little ones and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) may stay in your cities that I have given you, ²⁰ until Adonai gives rest to your brothers as He has for you, and they also possess the land that Adonai your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then you may return, each man to his possession that I have given you.’

²¹ “I commanded Joshua at that time saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that Adonai your God has done to these two kings. Adonai will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to cross into. ²² You must not fear them, for it is Adonai your God who fights for you.’

Parashat Va’etchanan

Moses Pleads to Enter

²³ “I pleaded with Adonai at that time, saying, ²⁴ ‘O Lord Adonai, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand—for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do deeds and mighty acts like Yours? ²⁵ Please! Let me cross over and see the good land across the Jordan—that good hill country and the Lebanon.’

²⁶ “But Adonai was angry with me because of you, so He would not listen to me. ‘Enough!’ Adonai said to me, ‘Do not speak to Me anymore about this matter. ²⁷ Go up to the top of Pisgah, look around to the west and the north and the south and the east, and see with your eyes—for you will not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸ But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will cross over before this people, and he will enable them to inherit the land that you will see.’ ²⁹ So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

Bnei-Yisrael Must Listen and Obey

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and possess the land that Adonai the God of your fathers is giving you. ² You must not add to the word that I am commanding you or take away from it—in order to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am commanding you. ³ Your eyes have seen what Adonai did at Baal Peor, for Adonai your God has destroyed from among you everyone who followed Baal Peor. ⁴ But you who held tight to Adonai your God are alive today—all of you.

⁵ “See, just as Adonai my God commanded me, I have taught you statutes and ordinances to do in the land that you are about to enter to possess. ⁶ You must keep and do them, for it is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For what great nation is there that has gods so near to them, as Adonai our God is whenever we call on Him? ⁸ What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances that are righteous—like all of this Torah that I am setting before you today?

⁹ “Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely, so you do not forget the things your eyes have seen and they slip from your heart all the days of your life. You are to make them known to your children and your children’s children. ¹⁰ The day that you stood before Adonai your God in Horeb, Adonai said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me and I will make them hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and so that they teach their children.’

Words from the Fiery Mountain

¹¹ “You came near and stood at the bottom of the mountain while the mountain was blazing with fire up to the heart of the heavens—darkness, cloud, and fog. ¹² Adonai spoke to you from the midst of the fire. The sound of words you heard, but a form you did not see—only a voice. ^{[a] 13} He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to do—the Ten Words—and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ^{[b] 14} Adonai commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, so that you might do them in the land you are crossing over to possess.

¹⁵ “So be very watchful over your souls since you saw no form on the day that Adonai spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a graven image in the likeness of any figure—the form of a male or female, ¹⁷ the form of any animal that is on the earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸ the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the water under the earth— ¹⁹ and so that you do not lift up your eyes toward the heavens and see the sun and the moon and the stars—all the heavenly host—and are drawn away and bow down and worship them. Adonai your God has allotted them to all the peoples under all the heavens. ²⁰ But you, Adonai has taken, and He brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be a people for His own inheritance, as you are this day.

²¹ “Furthermore Adonai was angry with me because of your words, and He swore that I would not cross over the Jordan or enter the good land that Adonai your God is giving you for an inheritance. ²² For I must die in this land; I am not crossing over the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of that good land. ²³ Watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of Adonai your God, which He cut with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything that Adonai your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For Adonai your God is a consuming fire^[c]—a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you father children and children’s children and have been in the land a long time, and you act corruptly and make a graven image in the form of anything and do evil in the sight of Adonai your God, provoking Him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will certainly be carried off quickly from the land you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days on it, for you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷ Adonai will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Adonai will drive you. ²⁸ There you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which do not see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹ But from there you will seek Adonai your God and you will find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

³⁰ “When you are in distress and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you will return to Adonai your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For Adonai your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you or destroy you, or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to them.

³² “Indeed, ask now about the former days that were before you, from the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of the sky to the other. Has there ever been such a great thing as this, or has anything like it been heard? ³³ Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard—and lived? ³⁴ Or has any god ever tried to come to take for himself a nation from within a nation—by trials, by signs and wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—like all that Adonai your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ You were shown, so that you might know that Adonai is God—there is no other besides Him. ^{[d] 36} From the heavens He made you hear His voice to instruct you,^[e] and on earth He caused you to see His great fire—you heard His words from the midst of the fire. ³⁷ Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them. Then He brought you out from Egypt with His presence, by His great power— ³⁸ to drive out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.

³⁹ “So you will know today and take to heart that Adonai, He is God, in the heavens above and on the earth below—there is no other. ⁴⁰ You must keep His statutes and His mitzvot, which I am commanding you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may prolong your days in the land that Adonai your God is giving you for all time.”

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan, toward the east. ⁴² There the manslayer might flee, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and did not hate him previously. He may flee to one of these cities and live: ⁴³ Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramot in the Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in the Bashan for the Manassites.

⁴⁴ This is the Torah, which Moses set before Bnei-Yisrael. ⁴⁵ These are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to Bnei-Yisrael when they came out from Egypt— ⁴⁶ beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and Bnei-Yisrael struck down when they came out from Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of the Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan toward the east— ⁴⁸ from Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹ and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, as far as the sea of the Arabah^[f], under the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Words

5 Moses called to all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances that I am speaking in your hearing today, learn them and make sure to do them. ² Adonai our God cut a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ Not with our fathers has Adonai cut this covenant but with us—all of us alive here today. ⁴ Adonai spoke with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. ⁵ (I was standing between Adonai and you at that time, to tell you the word of Adonai, because you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.)

‘He said:

⁶ ‘I am Adonai your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

⁷ ‘You shall not have other gods beside Me.

⁸ ‘Do not make for yourself a graven image—no image of what is in the heavens above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁹ Do not bow down to them or worship them. For I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, ¹⁰ but showing lovingkindness to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My mitzvot.

¹¹ ‘You must not take the Name of Adonai your God in vain, for Adonai will not leave unpunished anyone who takes His Name in vain.

¹² ‘Observe Yom Shabbat to keep it holy, as Adonai your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you are to labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Shabbat to Adonai your God. In it you are not to do any work—not you or your son or your daughter, or your slave or your maid, or your ox, your donkey or any of your livestock or the outsider within your gates, so that your slave and your maid may rest as you do. ¹⁵ You must remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Adonai your God commanded you to keep Yom Shabbat.

¹⁶ ‘Honor your father and your mother just as Adonai your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and it may go well with you in the land Adonai your God is giving you.^[g]

¹⁷ ‘Do not murder.

‘Do not commit adultery.

‘Do not steal.

‘Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.^[h][i]

¹⁸ ‘Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

¹⁹ “These words Adonai spoke to all your assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the fog, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

Live and Prolong Your Days

²⁰ “As soon as you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire, you came near to me—all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²¹ Then you said, ‘Adonai our God has just shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. This day we have seen that God speaks with man, and yet he keeps on living. ²² Now then, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us! If we hear the voice of Adonai our God any more, then we will die. ²³ For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁴ You go near and hear all that Adonai our God says. Then you tell us all what Adonai our God tells you, and we will hear it and do it.’

²⁵ “Adonai heard the tone of your words when you spoke to me, and Adonai said to me, ‘I have heard the tone of the words that this people has spoken to you—they have done well in all they have spoken. ²⁶ If only there were such a heart in them to fear Me and keep all My mitzvot always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! ²⁷ Go say to them, “Return to your tents.” ²⁸ But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will tell you the whole commandment—both the statutes and the ordinances that you are to teach them. And they will do them in the land I am giving them to possess.’

²⁹ “So you must take care to do as Adonai your God has commanded you—do not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³⁰ You are to walk in all the way that Adonai your God has commanded you, so that you may live and it may be well with you and you may prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

6 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and ordinances that Adonai your God commanded to teach you to do in the land you are crossing over to possess— ² so that you might fear Adonai your God, to keep all His statutes and mitzvot that I am commanding you and your son and your son’s son all the days of your life, and so that you may prolong your days. ³ Hear, therefore, O Israel, and take care to do this, so that it may go well with you and you may increase mightily, as Adonai the God of your fathers has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Shema Israel, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI Echad

⁴ “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one^[j]. ⁵ Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ^{[k] 6} These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. ⁷ You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets^[l] between your eyes, ⁹ and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

When You Prosper, Do Not Forget

¹⁰ “Now when Adonai your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—to give you great and good cities that you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns dug that you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and you eat and are full, ¹² then watch yourself so that you do not forget Adonai, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. ¹³ You must fear Adonai your God and serve Him,^[m] and swear by His Name. ¹⁴ You must not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; ¹⁵ for Adonai your God in the midst of you is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of Adonai your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you from the face of the earth.

¹⁶ “You are not to test Adonai your God, as you tested Him at Massah. ^{[n] 17} Diligently keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God, and His testimonies and His statutes that He has commanded you. ¹⁸ You are to do what is right and good in the sight of Adonai, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and possess the good land that Adonai swore to your fathers— ¹⁹ to drive out all your enemies from before you, as Adonai has spoken.

When Your Son Asks

²⁰ “When your son asks you in time to come, saying ‘What are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances that Adonai our God commanded you?’ ²¹ then you are to tell your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai brought us out from Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Before our eyes Adonai showed signs and wonders, great and terrible—on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house. ²³ Then He brought us out from there so that He might bring us in, to give us the land that He swore to our fathers. ²⁴ Adonai commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Adonai our God—for our good always, to keep us alive, as is the case this day. ²⁵ It will be righteousness^[o] to us, if we take care to do all this commandment before Adonai our God, just as He has commanded us.’

No Mixing With Idolaters

7 “When Adonai your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out many nations before you—the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you— ² and Adonai your God gives them over to you and you strike them down, then you are to utterly destroy them. You are to make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ³ You are not to intermarry with them—you are not to give your daughter to his son, or take his daughter for your son. ⁴ For he will turn your son away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of Adonai will be kindled against you, and He will swiftly destroy you. ⁵ Instead, you are to deal with them like this: tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images with fire. ⁶ For you are a holy people to Adonai your God—from all the peoples on the face of the earth, Adonai your God has chosen you to be His treasured people.^[p]

⁷ “It is not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that Adonai set His love on you and chose you—for you are the least of all peoples. ⁸ Rather, because of His love for you and His keeping the oath He swore to your fathers, Adonai brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Know therefore that Adonai your God, He is God—the faithful God who keeps covenant kindness for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His mitzvot, ^{[q] 10} but repays those who hate Him to their face, to annihilate them. He will not hesitate with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you are to keep the commandment—both the statutes and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today, to do them.

Parashat Ekev

Adonai Desires to Bless

¹² “Then it will happen, as a result of your listening to these ordinances, when you keep and do them, that Adonai your God will keep with you the covenant kindness that He swore to your fathers. ¹³ He will love you, bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ From all peoples, you will be blessed—there will not be male or female barren among you or your livestock. ¹⁵ Adonai will remove all sickness from you, and He will not inflict on you any of the terrible diseases of Egypt that you knew, but will inflict them on all who hate you.

¹⁶ “You will devour all the peoples Adonai your God gives over to you. Your eye is not to pity them. You are not to serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. ¹⁷ Suppose you say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I—how can I drive them out?’ ¹⁸ You are not to be afraid of them. You are to be sure to remember what Adonai your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ¹⁹ the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm^[r] by which Adonai your God brought you out. So will Adonai your God do to all the peoples you fear.

²⁰ “Moreover, Adonai your God will send the hornet against them, until the survivors and those in hiding perish before you. ²¹ You should not be terrified of them, since Adonai your God is in your midst—a great and awesome God. ²² Adonai your God will drive away those nations before you little by little—you will not be able to put an end to them all at once, or else the beasts of the field will multiply on you. ²³ But Adonai your God will give them over to you, and He will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will hand over their kings to you, and you will blot out their name from under the heavens. No man will stand up to you, until you have destroyed them all.

²⁵ “The carved images of their gods you are to burn with fire. You are not to covet the silver or gold on them or take it for yourself—or you could be snared by it, for it is an abomination to Adonai your God. ²⁶ You are not to bring an abomination into your house—for you, like it, will be a banned thing. You must utterly detest and utterly abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.

Not By Bread Alone

8 “You are to take care to do the whole mitzvah that I am commanding you today, so that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that Adonai swore to your fathers. ² You are to remember all the way that Adonai your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness—in order to humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His mitzvot or not. ³ He afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you manna—which neither you nor your fathers had known—in order to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai. ⁴ Neither did your clothing wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. ⁵ Now you know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Adonai your God disciplines you. ⁶ So you are to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God—to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For Adonai your God is bringing you into a good land—a land of wadis with water, of springs and fountains flowing out in the valleys and hills, ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, ⁹ a land where you will eat bread with no poverty, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ So you will eat and be full, and you will bless Adonai your God for the good land He has given you.

¹¹ “Take care that you do not forget Adonai your God by not keeping His mitzvot, ordinances and statutes that I am commanding you today. ¹² Otherwise, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and lived in them, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks multiply, and silver and gold multiplies for you and all that is yours multiplies, ¹⁴ then your heart will be haughty and you will forget Adonai your God. He brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through the great and terrible wilderness—fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water. He brought forth water for you from the flinty rock. ¹⁶ He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, in order to afflict you and test you, to do you good in the end. ¹⁷ You may say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand has made me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ Rather you are to remember Adonai your God, for it is He who gives you power to make wealth, in order to establish His covenant that He swore to your fathers—as it is this day.

¹⁹ “Now if you do forget Adonai your God, and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you will certainly perish. ²⁰ Like the nations Adonai makes perish before you, so you will perish, since you would not listen to the voice of Adonai your God.

Who Brings Down Giants?

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself—cities great and fortified up to the heavens. ² The people are great and tall, sons of the Anakim. You know them, and you yourselves have heard, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” ³ But you will know today that Adonai your God is the One who is crossing over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them, and He will bring them down before you, so that you may drive them out and make them perish quickly, as Adonai has promised you.

⁴ “After Adonai your God has driven them out from before you, do not say in your heart, ‘It is because of my righteousness that Adonai has brought me in to possess this land.’ It is because of the wickedness of these nations that Adonai is driving them out from before you. ⁵ It is not by your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land. Rather, because of the wickedness of these nations, Adonai your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to keep the word Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ⁶ So you should understand that it is not because of your righteousness that Adonai your God is giving you this good land to possess—for you are a stiff-necked people.

What Happened to the Tablets?

⁷ “Remember, never forget, how you provoked Adonai your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Adonai. ⁸ At Horeb you provoked Adonai to wrath, and Adonai was angry with you—enough to destroy you. ⁹ When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that Adonai cut with you, I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights; I did not eat bread or drink water. ¹⁰ Adonai gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God. Moreover, on them were all the words that Adonai had spoken with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

¹¹ “Now at the end of 40 days and 40 nights, Adonai gave me the two tablets of stone—the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Adonai said to me, ‘Get up! Go quickly down from here, for your people whom you brought out from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ ¹³ Furthermore Adonai spoke to me saying, ‘I have seen this people, and it is indeed a stiff-necked people. ¹⁴ Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵ “So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire. Now the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ When I looked, you had indeed sinned against Adonai your God—you had made yourselves a metal calf. So quickly you had turned aside from the way Adonai had commanded you! ¹⁷ So I took hold of the two tablets, threw them out of my two hands, and smashed them before your eyes.

¹⁸ “Then I fell down before Adonai like the first time, for 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat bread or drink water—because of all your sin that you committed, doing evil in Adonai’s sight, provoking Him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the fierce wrath and fury which Adonai bore toward you—to destroy you.^[s] But Adonai listened to me that time also. ²⁰ Adonai was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ I took your sin—the calf you had made—and burned it in the fire. I crushed it, grinding it up so well that it was as fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the wadi flowing down from the mountain.

²² “Again at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked Adonai to wrath. ²³ When Adonai sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of Adonai your God and didn’t believe Him or listen to His voice. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against Adonai from the day that I knew you.

²⁵ “So I threw myself down before Adonai those 40 days and 40 nights, because Adonai had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to Adonai and said, ‘O Lord, Adonai, do not destroy Your people—Your inheritance that You have redeemed through Your greatness and brought out from Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people or to their wickedness or their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise the land from which You brought us out may say, “Because Adonai was not able to bring them into the land that He spoke of to them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people—Your inheritance that You brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’

Two New Tablets

10 “At that time Adonai said to me, ‘Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones and come up to Me on the mountain. Make yourself an ark of wood. ² I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you smashed, and you are to put them in the ark.’

³ “So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ Like the first inscription, Adonai wrote on the tablets the Ten Words He had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly, then gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made—and there they are, just as Adonai commanded me.

⁶ “(Bnei-Yisrael traveled from the wells of the sons of Jaakan to Moserah—there Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar served as kohen in his place. ⁷ From there they journeyed to Gudgod, and from Gudgod to Jotbah—a land of wadis flowing with water. ⁸ At that time Adonai set the tribe of Levi apart to carry the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai, to stand before Adonai to serve Him and to pronounce blessings in His Name—as is the case to this day. ⁹ Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers—Adonai is his inheritance, just as Adonai your God had promised about him.)

¹⁰ “I stayed on the mountain like the first time—40 days and 40 nights. Adonai listened to me that time also and was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹ Adonai said to me, ‘Rise up, go, journey ahead of the people so that they may go in and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them.’

¹² “So now, O Israel, what does Adonai your God require of you, but to fear Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ to keep the mitzvot of Adonai and His statutes that I am commanding you today, for your own good? ¹⁴ Behold, to Adonai your God belong the heavens and the highest of heavens, the earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵ Only on your fathers did Adonai set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them—you—from all the peoples, as is the case this day.

Circumcise Your Hearts

¹⁶ “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart therefore, and do not be stiff-necked anymore. ¹⁷ For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords^[t]—the great, mighty and awesome God, who does not show partiality or take a bribe. ¹⁸ He enacts justice for the orphan and widow, and loves the outsider, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the outsider, for you were outsiders in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ Adonai your God you will fear—Him will you serve. To Him will you cling, and by His Name will you swear. ²¹ He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with 70 persons, and now Adonai your God has made you like the stars of the heavens in number.

Love and Obey with All Your Heart

11 “Therefore you are to love Adonai your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances and His mitzvot at all times. ² And you should know this day that it was not your children who knew or saw the discipline of Adonai your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm; ³ His signs and the deeds He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴ and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Sea of Reeds flow over them as they chased after you, and how Adonai has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what He did to Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households and tents and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ Rather, it is your own eyes that have seen every mighty deed that Adonai has done.

⁸ “Therefore you are to keep the whole mitzvah that I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land that you are crossing over to possess, ⁹ and so that you may prolong your days on the land that Adonai swore to give to your fathers and to their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰ “For the land you are going in to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. There you planted your seed and watered it by foot, like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land you are crossing over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, drinking from the rain of the heavens it drinks in water. ¹² It is a land that Adonai your God cares for—the eyes of Adonai your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year up to the end of the year.

¹³ “Now if you listen obediently to My mitzvot that I am commanding you today—to love Adonai your God and to serve Him with all your heart and soul— ¹⁴ then I will give rain for your land in its season—the early rain and the late rain^[u]—so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. ¹⁵ I will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶ Watch yourselves, so your heart is not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ Then the anger of Adonai will be kindled against you, so He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain and the soil will not yield its produce. Then you will perish quickly from the good land Adonai is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore you are to set these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul. You are to bind them as a sign on your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You are to teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. ²⁰ You are to write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land Adonai swore to give to your fathers, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

²² “For if you will diligently keep all this mitzvah that I am commanding you to do—to love Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and to cling to Him— ²³ then Adonai will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. ²⁴ Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours—from the wilderness to the Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea will be your border. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand against you—Adonai your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has promised you.

Parashat Re’eh

Blessing or Curse Set Before You

²⁶ “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— ²⁷ the blessing, if you listen to the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am commanding you today, ²⁸ but the curse, if you do not listen to the mitzvot of Adonai your God, but turn from the way I am commanding you today, to go after other gods you have not known. ²⁹ Now when Adonai your God brings you into the land you are going in to possess, you are to set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not across the Jordan toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah—opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹ For you are about to cross over the Jordan to go in to possess the land Adonai your God is giving you—you will possess it and dwell in it, ³² and you will take care to do all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

The Place He Chooses

12 “These are the statutes and ordinances that you are to make sure to do in the land that Adonai, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess—all the days that you live on the earth. ² You must utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you will dispossess served their gods—on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ You are to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their Asherah poles in the fire and cut down the carved images of their gods, and you are to obliterate their name from that place.

⁴ “You are not to act like this toward Adonai your God. ⁵ Rather you are to seek only the place Adonai your God chooses from all your tribes to put His Name to dwell—there you will come. ⁶ There you are to bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, the offering of your hand, your vow and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ There you and your households will eat before Adonai your God and rejoice in every undertaking of your hand, as Adonai your God has blessed you. ⁸ You will not do all the things as we are doing here today—everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. ⁹ For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that Adonai your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when you cross over the Jordan and settle in the land that Adonai your God enables you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you, you will dwell in safety.

¹¹ “Then the place Adonai your God chooses to make His Name dwell, there you are to bring all that I command you—your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, the offering of your hand, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to Adonai. ¹² Then you will rejoice before Adonai your God—you and your sons and daughters, your slaves and maids, and the Levite in your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance among you. ¹³ Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in any place you see. ¹⁴ Rather do so only in the place Adonai chooses in one of your tribes—there you are to offer your burnt offerings, and there you are to do all I am commanding you.

¹⁵ “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates—whatever your soul’s desire, according to the blessing Adonai your God has given you. Either the unclean or clean may eat of it, as they would a gazelle and or deer. ¹⁶ But you are not to eat the blood—you are to pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the offering of your hand. ¹⁸ Rather you are to eat them before Adonai your God in the place Adonai your God chooses—you, your son and daughter, your slave and maid, and the Levite within your gates—and you will rejoice before Adonai your God in every undertaking of your hand. ¹⁹ Be careful that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live on the earth.

²⁰ “When Adonai your God enlarges your territory as He has promised you, and you say, ‘I want to eat meat,’ because your soul craves meat, then you may eat meat—all your soul’s desire. ²¹ If the place Adonai your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of your herd and flock that Adonai has given you—as I have commanded you—and you may eat within your gates, all your soul’s desire. ²² Just as the gazelle or hart is eaten, so you may eat it—the unclean and clean alike may eat it. ²³ Only be sure that you do not eat the blood—for the blood is the life,^[v] and you are not to eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You are not to eat it—you are to pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ You are not to eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in Adonai’s eyes.

²⁶ “Only the holy things and vow offerings that are yours are you to take and go to the place that Adonai chooses. ²⁷ You are to offer your burnt offerings—the flesh and the blood—on the altar of Adonai your God. The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of Adonai your God, but the meat you are to eat. ²⁸ Take care and listen to all these words that I am commanding you, so that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the eyes of Adonai your God.

²⁹ “When Adonai your God cuts off before you the nations that you are going in to dispossess, when you have dispossessed them and settled in their land, ³⁰ be careful not to be trapped into imitating them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.’ ³¹ You are not to act like this toward Adonai your God! For every abomination of Adonai, which He hates, they have done to their gods—they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

Beware of False Prophets

13 “Whatever I command you, you must take care to do—you are not to add to it or take away from it.^[w]

² “Suppose a prophet or a dreamer of dreams rises up among you and gives you a sign or wonder, ³ and the sign or wonder he spoke to you comes true, while saying, ‘Let’s follow other gods’—that you have not known, and—‘Let’s serve them!’ ^{[x] 4} You must not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams—for Adonai your God is testing you, to find out whether you love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁵ Adonai your God you will follow and Him you will fear. His mitzvot you will keep, to His voice you will listen, Him you will serve and to Him you will cling. ⁶ That prophet or dreamer of dreams must be put to death! For he has spoken falsehood against Adonai your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to entice you from the way Adonai your God commanded you to walk. So you will purge the evil from your midst.^[y]

⁷ “Suppose your brother—your mother’s son—or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your best friend of your own soul misleads you secretly, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’—that you and your fathers have not known, ⁸ from among the gods of the peoples around you, near you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other. ⁹ You are not to give in or listen to him, your eye is not to pity him, and you are not to spare or conceal him. ¹⁰ Instead, you will surely put him to death. Your hand should be the first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹¹ You are to stone him with stones to death because he tried to entice you away from Adonai your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. ¹² Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and never again will they do such an evil thing as this in your midst.

¹³ “Suppose you hear it said in one of your cities, which Adonai your God is giving you to dwell in, ¹⁴ that worthless fellows^[z] have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’—that you have not known. ¹⁵ Then you are to investigate, search out and inquire thoroughly. If indeed it is true and the matter certain that this abomination has been done in your midst, ¹⁶ you will surely strike down the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its livestock with the sword. ¹⁷ You are to gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and you are to burn with fire the city and all its plunder—all of it to Adonai your God. It will be a ruin forever—it shall never be built again. ¹⁸ Nothing from the ban should cling to your hand, so that Adonai may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, and have compassion on you and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers— ¹⁹ when you listen to the voice of Adonai your God, keeping all His mitzvot that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the eyes of Adonai your God.

Clean Foods for a Holy People

14 “You are the children of Adonai your God. You are not to cut yourselves or shave your forehead for the dead. ² For you are a holy people to Adonai your God—from all the peoples on the face of the earth, Adonai has chosen you to be His treasured people. ³ You are not to eat any detestable thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ Among the animals, you may eat any animal that splits the hoof—the hoof completely split in two—and chews the cud. ⁷ Yet of those that chew the cud or have a split hoof, you are not to eat the camel, the hare, and the rabbit—because they chew the cud but do not split the hoof, they are unclean to you. ⁸ The pig, because it splits the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you—you are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses. ⁹ Of all that are in the waters, these you may eat: whatever has fins and scales you may eat, ¹⁰ but whatever does not have fins and scales you are not to eat—it is unclean to you. ¹¹ You may eat all clean birds, ¹² but these are the ones you are not to eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³ the red kite, the black kite, and any bird of prey of that kind, ¹⁴ every raven of any kind, ¹⁵ the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, a hawk of any kind, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the Egyptian vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, a heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. ¹⁹ All winged insects are unclean to you—they are not to be eaten. ²⁰ You may eat any clean bird. ²¹ You are not to eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the outsider within your gates so that he may eat it or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people to Adonai your God. You are not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Tithe and Remember the Levite

²² “You will surely set aside a tenth of all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. ²³ You are to eat the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, before Adonai your God in the place He chooses to make His Name dwell, so that you may learn to fear Adonai your God always. ²⁴ Now suppose the way is too long for you, for you cannot carry the tithe because the place Adonai your God chooses to set His Name is too far from you. When Adonai your God blesses you, ²⁵ then you are to exchange the tithe for silver, bind up the silver in your hand, and go to the place that Adonai your God chooses. ²⁶ You may spend the money for whatever your soul desires—cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever your soul asks of you. Then you will eat there before Adonai your God and rejoice—you and your household. ²⁷ But you are not to neglect the Levite within your gates, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. ²⁸ At the end of every three years, you are to bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year and store it within your gates. ²⁹ Then the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, along with the outsider, the orphan and the widow within your gates, will come and eat and be satisfied, so that Adonai your God may bless you in all the work of your hand that you do.

Shmittah: Cancellation of Debts

15 “At the end of every seven years you are to cancel debts. ² This is how you are to cancel debts: every creditor is to release what he has loaned to his neighbor. He must not force his neighbor or his brother to repay, for Adonai’s debt cancellation has been proclaimed. ³ A foreigner you may force, but your hand is to release whatever your brother owes you.

⁴ “However, there should be no poor among you, for Adonai will surely bless you in the land Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess. ⁵ If only you would carefully listen to the voice of Adonai your God, being careful to do all these mitzvah that I am commanding you today! ⁶ For Adonai your God will bless you as He promised you. So you will lend to many nations, but not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

⁷ “If there is a poor man among you—any of your brothers within any of your gates in your land that Adonai your God is giving you—you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother. ^{[aa] 8} Rather, you must surely open your hand to him and you must surely lend him enough for his need—whatever he is lacking. ⁹ Watch yourself, so there is no unworthy thing in your heart saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of cancelling debts, is near,’ and your eye is evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing. Then he may call out to Adonai against you, and it will be a sin upon you. ¹⁰ You must surely give to him, and your heart is not to be grieved when you give to him—for because of this thing Adonai your God will bless you in all your work and in every undertaking of your hand.

¹¹ “For there will never cease to be poor people in the land. Therefore I am commanding you, saying, ‘You must surely open your hand to your brother—to your needy and poor in your land.’

¹² “If your fellow Hebrew—a man or woman—is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you are to set him free. ¹³ When you set him free, you are not to send him away empty-handed. ¹⁴ You are to surely provide for him from your flock and threshing floor and winepress. As Adonai your God has blessed you, you are to give to him. ¹⁵ You will remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God redeemed you; therefore I am commanding you this thing today.

¹⁶ “Now if he tells you, ‘I will not go away from you’—because he loves you and your household since he is well off with you— ¹⁷ then you are to take an awl and put it through his ear to the door, and he will be your servant forever. And to your female slave you are to do the same. ¹⁸ It should not seem hard to you when you set him free from you, for he has served you six years—double the value of a hired worker. So Adonai your God will bless you in all that you do.

¹⁹ “All the firstborn males that are born in your herd and your flock you are to consecrate to Adonai your God. You are to do no work with the firstborn of your herd or shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰ You are to eat it before Adonai your God year after year in the place Adonai chooses—you and your household. ²¹ But if it has any blemish—if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish—you are not to sacrifice it to Adonai your God. ²² You are to eat it within your gates, the unclean and the clean together, just as they eat the gazelle or deer. ²³ Only its blood you are not to eat—you must pour it out on the ground like water.

Three Harvest Festivals

16 “Observe the month of Aviv and keep the Passover to Adonai your God, for in the month of Aviv^[ab] Adonai your God brought you out from Egypt by night. ² You are to sacrifice the Passover offering to Adonai your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place Adonai chooses to make His Name dwell. ³ You are not to eat hametz with it. For seven days you are to eat matzot with it, the bread of affliction—for you came out from the land of Egypt in haste. Do this so that all the days of your life you will remember the day when you came out from the land of Egypt. ⁴ No hametz should be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day may be left overnight until the morning. ⁵ You may not sacrifice the Passover offering within any of your gates that Adonai your God is giving you. ⁶ Rather, at the place Adonai your God chooses to make His Name dwell, there you will sacrifice the Passover offering in the evening at sunset—the time of your coming out from Egypt. ⁷ You are to cook and eat it at the place Adonai your God chooses, then you will turn around in the morning and journey home. ⁸ For six days you are to eat matzot. On the seventh day there is to be a solemn gathering for Adonai your God—on it you are to do no work.

⁹ Seven weeks you are to count for yourself—from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you will begin to count seven weeks. ¹⁰ Then you will keep the Feast of Shavuot^[ac] to Adonai your God with a measure of a freewill offering from your hand, which you are to give according to how Adonai your God blesses you. ¹¹ So you will rejoice before Adonai your God in the place Adonai your God chooses to make His Name dwell—you, your son and daughter, slave and maid, Levite and outsider, orphan and widow in your midst. ¹² You will remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you are to take care and do these statutes.

¹³ “You are to keep the Feast of Sukkot for seven days,^[ad] after gathering in the produce from your threshing floor and winepress.” ¹⁴ So you will rejoice in your feast—you, your son and daughter, slave and maid, Levite and outsider, orphan and widow within your gates. ¹⁵ Seven days you will feast to Adonai your God in the place He chooses, because Adonai your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hand, and you will be completely filled with joy. ¹⁶ Three times a year all your males are to appear before Adonai your God in the place He chooses—at the Feast of Matzot, the Feast of Shavuot, and the Feast of Sukkot. No one should appear before Adonai empty-handed— ¹⁷ the gift of each man’s hand according to the blessing Adonai your God has given you.

Parashat Shoftim

Judges Appointed

¹⁸ “Judges and officers you are to appoint within all your gates that Adonai your God is giving you, according to your tribes; and they are to judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹ You are not to twist justice—you must not show partiality or take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous. ²⁰ Justice, justice you must pursue, so that you may live and possess the land that Adonai your God is giving you. ²¹ You are not to plant for yourself an Asherah pole of any kind of wood beside the altar of Adonai your God that you make for yourself. ²² Nor are you to set up a pillar for yourself—Adonai your God hates this.

Investigations and Witnesses

17 “You are not to sacrifice to Adonai your God a bull or a sheep that has a defect or anything bad—for that would be an abomination to Adonai your God. ² Suppose there is found in your midst—within one of your gates that Adonai your God is giving you—a man or woman who does what is evil in the eyes of Adonai your God by transgressing His covenant. ³ This person goes and serves other gods and worships them—the sun or moon or any of the heavenly host, which I have not commanded. ⁴ It is told to you and you have heard about it, and you investigate thoroughly and indeed it is true and the thing certain—this abomination has been done in Israel. ⁵ Then you are to bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and stone that man or woman with stones to death. ⁶ By the word of two or three witnesses,^[ae] the one who is to die is to be put to death. No one is to be put to death by the word of one witness. ⁷ The hand of the witnesses is to be first to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you are to purge the evil from your midst.

⁸ “Suppose a matter arises that is too hard for you to judge—over bloodshed, legal claims or assault—matters of controversy within your gates. Then you should go up to the place Adonai your God chooses, ⁹ and come to the Levitical kohanim and the judge in charge at that time. And you will inquire, and they will tell you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰ You are to act according to the sentence they tell you from that place Adonai chooses, and take care to do all that they instruct you. ¹¹ You are to act according to the instruction they teach you and the judgment they tell you—you must not turn aside from the sentence they tell you, to the right or to the left. ¹² The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the kohen who stands to serve there before Adonai your God, or to the judge, that man must die. So you are to purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and not act presumptuously again.

Torah for Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land that Adonai your God is giving you, possess it and dwell in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations around me,’ ¹⁵ you will indeed set over yourselves a king, whom Adonai your God chooses. One from among your brothers will be appointed as king over you—you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ Only he should not multiply horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to multiply horses, because Adonai has said to you, “You must never go back that way again.” ¹⁷ Nor should he multiply wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn aside, nor multiply much silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Now when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself a copy of this Torah on a scroll, from what is before the Levitical kohanim. ¹⁹ It will remain with him, and he will read in it all the days of his life, in order to learn to fear Adonai his God and keep all the words of this Torah and these statutes. ²⁰ Then his heart will not be exalted above his brothers, and he will not turn from the commandment to the right or to the left—so that he may prolong his days in his kingship, he and his sons, in the midst of Israel.

18 “The Levitical kohanim, all the tribe of Levi, are to have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They are to eat the offerings made to Adonai by fire as His inheritance. ^{[af] 2} They will have no inheritance among their brothers—Adonai is their inheritance, just as He promised them. ³ So this will be the share due to the kohanim from the people—from those who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or sheep, they are to give the kohen the shoulder, two cheeks, and the stomach. ⁴ The firstfruits of your grain, of your new wine, of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you are to give him. ⁵ For Adonai your God has chosen him from all your tribes to stand and serve in the Name of Adonai—him and his sons forever.

⁶ “Suppose a Levite comes from one of your towns, wherever he is living in all of Israel, and he comes whenever his soul desires to the place Adonai chooses, ⁷ and serves in the Name of Adonai his God like all his fellow Levites who stand there before Adonai. ⁸ They are to eat equal portions, regardless of their fathers’ goods.

Occultism Loathsome to Adonai

⁹ When you enter the land Adonai your God is giving you, you are not to learn to do the abominations of those nations. ¹⁰ There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or a fortune-teller, soothsayer, omen reader, or sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who casts spells, or a medium, a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. ¹² For whoever does these things is an abomination to Adonai, and because of these abominations Adonai your God is driving them out from before you. ¹³ You are to be blameless before Adonai your God.

¹⁴ “For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and fortune-tellers, but as for you, Adonai your God will not allow you to do so.

A Prophet is Promised

¹⁵ “Adonai your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst—from your brothers. To him you must listen. ^{[ag] 16} This is just what you asked of Adonai your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly when saying, ‘I cannot continue to hear the voice of Adonai my God or see this great fire any more, or I will die.’

¹⁷ “Adonai said to me, ‘They have done well in what they have spoken. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him. ^{[ah] 19} Now whoever does not listen to My words that this prophet speaks in My Name, I Myself will call him to account. ^{[ai] 20} But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My Name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet will die.’

²¹ “Now should you say in your heart, ‘How would we recognize the word that Adonai has not spoken?’ ²² When a prophet speaks in Adonai’s Name and the word does not happen or come true, that is a word that Adonai has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously—do not be afraid of him.

Cities of Refuge

19 “When Adonai your God cuts off the nations whose land Adonai your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and houses, ² you are to set apart three cities for yourself within the land He is giving you to possess. ³ You are to prepare the way for yourself and divide into three parts the borders of your land that Adonai your God enables you to inherit, so that anyone who kills may flee there. ⁴ Now this is the case of the one who kills, who may flee there and live—whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally and did not hate him in the past— ⁵ as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and his hand takes a swing with the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron flies off the wood and hits his neighbor so that he dies. He may flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise if the way is long, the avenger of the blood, while his heart is hot, may chase the manslayer, catch up to him and strike him dead. Yet no death sentence is on him, since he did not hate him in the past. ⁷ Therefore I am commanding you—set apart three cities for yourself.

⁸ “Suppose Adonai your God enlarges your territory, as He has sworn to your fathers, and He gives you all the land that He promised to give to your fathers— ⁹ when you take care to do all this mitzvah that I am commanding you today, to love Adonai your God and to always walk in His ways. Then you are to add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. ¹⁰ Then innocent blood will not be shed within your land that Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance, and there would be blood upon you.

¹¹ “But suppose someone hates his neighbor, waits in hiding for him, rises up against him, strikes him dead, then flees to one of these cities. ¹² Then the elders of his hometown should send and take him from there and hand him over to the avenger of blood, to die. ¹³ Your eye should not pity him, but you must purge the innocent blood from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

¹⁴ “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker that the first generations marked out, in the inheritance you will receive in the land Adonai your God is giving you to possess.

¹⁵ A single witness shall not rise up against a person for any offense or sin that he commits. By the word of two or three witnesses is a case to be established. ^{[aj] 16} Suppose a hostile witness rises up against someone to accuse him of wrongdoing. ¹⁷ Then both people who have the dispute will stand before Adonai, before the kohanim and judges in charge at that time. ¹⁸ The judges are to investigate thoroughly, and if indeed the witness is a false witness and has testified falsely against his brother, ¹⁹ then you are to do to him just as he had plotted to do to his brother. So you will purge the evil from your midst. ²⁰ Those who remain will hear and be afraid, and they will no longer do such an evil thing as this in your midst. ²¹ Your eye must not show pity—life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Confidence in Battle

20 “When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horse and chariot—a people more numerous than you—do not be afraid of them. For Adonai your God, the One who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. ² When you draw near to the battle, the kohen will come forward and speak to the people. ³ He will say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are drawing near today to the battle against your enemies. Don’t be fainthearted! Don’t fear or panic or tremble because of them. ⁴ For Adonai your God is the One who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies to save you.’

⁵ “The officers are to speak to the troops saying, ‘What man has built a new house but has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house—otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would dedicate it. ⁶ What man has planted a vineyard but has not put it to use? Let him go back to his house—otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would begin to use it. ⁷ What man has become engaged to a woman but has not married her? Let him go back to his house—otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would marry her.’ ⁸ The officers will speak further to the troops and say, ‘What man is afraid and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house—so he does not weaken his brothers’ heart like his own.’ ⁹ Then when the officers have finished speaking to the troops, they should appoint army commanders at the head of the troops.

¹⁰ “When you go near a city to fight against it, call out shalom to it. ¹¹ Now if it answers you shalom and opens up to you, then all the people found in it will serve you as forced laborers. ¹² If it does not make peace with you but makes war against you, then lay siege against that city. ¹³ When Adonai your God hands it over to you, you are to strike all its males with the sword. ¹⁴ Only the women, children, livestock and all that is in the city—all its spoil—may you take as plunder for yourself. So you may consume your enemies’ spoil, which Adonai your God has given you. ¹⁵ Thus you will do to all the cities that are very distant from you, which are not among the towns of these nations nearby. ¹⁶ However, only from the cities of these peoples, which Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes live. ¹⁷ You must utterly destroy them—the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as Adonai your God has commanded you. ¹⁸ You are to do this so they will not teach you to do all the abominations as they have done for their gods, and so you would sin against Adonai your God.

¹⁹ “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, making war against it to capture it, you are not to destroy its trees by swinging an axe at them. For from them you may eat, so you shall not chop them down. For is the tree of the field human, that it should enter the siege before you? ²⁰ You may destroy and chop down only the trees that you know are not trees for food, so that you may build siege equipment against the city that is making war with you until its downfall.