Parashah 30: K’doshim (Holy people) 19:1–20:27

[In regular years read with Parashah 29, in leap years read separately]

19 Adonai said to Moshe, ² “Speak to the entire community of Isra’el; tell them, ‘You people are to be holy because I, Adonai your God, am holy.

³ “‘Every one of you is to revere his father and mother, and you are to keep my Shabbats; I am Adonai your God.

⁴ “‘Do not turn to idols, and do not cast metal gods for yourselves; I am Adonai your God.

⁵ “‘When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to Adonai, offer it in a way that will make you accepted. ⁶ It is to be eaten the same day you offer it and the following day; but if any of it remains until the third day, it is to be burned up completely. ⁷ If any of it is eaten on the third day, it will have become a disgusting thing and will not be accepted; ⁸ moreover, everyone who eats it will bear the consequences of profaning something holy meant for Adonai — that person will be cut off from his people.

⁹ “‘When you harvest the ripe crops produced in your land, don’t harvest all the way to corners of your field, and don’t gather the ears of grain left by the harvesters. ¹⁰ Likewise, don’t gather the grapes left on the vine or fallen on the ground after harvest; leave them for the poor and the foreigner; I am Adonai your God.

¹¹ “‘Do not steal from, defraud or lie to each other. ¹² Do not swear by my name falsely, which would be profaning the name of your God; I am Adonai. ¹³ Do not oppress or rob your neighbor; specifically, you are not to keep back the wages of a hired worker all night until morning.

¹⁴ “‘Do not speak a curse against a deaf person or place an obstacle in the way of a blind person; rather, fear your God; I am Adonai.

(RY: v, LY: ii) ¹⁵ “‘Do not be unjust in judging — show neither partiality to the poor nor deference to the mighty, but with justice judge your neighbor.

¹⁶ “‘Do not go around spreading slander among your people, but also don’t stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake; I am Adonai.

¹⁷ “‘Do not hate your brother in your heart, but rebuke your neighbor frankly, so that you won’t carry sin because of him. ¹⁸ Don’t take vengeance on or bear a grudge against any of your people; rather, love your neighbor as yourself; I am Adonai.

¹⁹ “‘Observe my regulations.

“‘Don’t let your livestock mate with those of another kind, don’t sow your field with two different kinds of grain, and don’t wear a garment of cloth made with two different kinds of thread.

²⁰ “‘If a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave intended for another man, and she has neither been redeemed nor given her freedom, there is to be an investigation. They are not to be put to death, because she was not free. ²¹ In reparation he is to bring a ram as a guilt offering for himself to the entrance of the tent of meeting. ²² The cohen will make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before Adonai for the sin he committed, and he will be forgiven for the sin he committed.

(LY: iii) ²³ “‘When you enter the land and plant various kinds of fruit trees, you are to regard its fruit as forbidden — for three years it will be forbidden to you and not eaten. ²⁴ In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, for praising Adonai. ²⁵ But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, so that it will produce even more for you; I am Adonai your God.

²⁶ “‘Do not eat anything with blood. Do not practice divination or fortune-telling. ²⁷ Don’t round your hair at the temples or mar the edges of your beard. ²⁸ Don’t cut gashes in your flesh when someone dies or tattoo yourselves; I am Adonai.

²⁹ “‘Do not debase your daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the land will not fall into prostitution and become full of shame.

³⁰ “‘Keep my Shabbats, and revere my sanctuary; I am Adonai.

³¹ “‘Do not turn to spirit-mediums or sorcerers; don’t seek them out, to be defiled by them; I am Adonai your God.

³² “‘Stand up in the presence of a person with gray hair, show respect for the old; you are to fear your God; I am Adonai.

(RY: vi, LY: iv) ³³ “‘If a foreigner stays with you in your land, do not do him wrong. ³⁴ Rather, treat the foreigner staying with you like the native-born among you — you are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am Adonai your God.

³⁵ “‘Don’t be dishonest when measuring length, weight or capacity. ³⁶ Rather, use an honest balance-scale, honest weights, an honest bushel dry-measure and an honest gallon liquid-measure; I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. ³⁷ Observe all my regulations and rulings, and do them; I am Adonai.’”

4 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a minor he is no different from a slave, even though he is the legal owner of the estate; ² rather, he is subject to guardians and caretakers until the time previously set by his father. ³ So it is with us — when we were “children” we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe; ⁴ but when the appointed time arrived, God sent forth his Son. He was born from a woman, born into a culture in which legalistic perversion of the Torah was the norm, ⁵ so that he might redeem those in subjection to this legalism and thus enable us to be made God’s sons. ⁶ Now because you are sons, God has sent forth into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, the Spirit who cries out, “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”). ⁷ So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son you are also an heir.

⁸ In the past, when you did not know God, you served as slaves beings which in reality are non-gods. ⁹ But now you do know God, and, more than that, you are known by God. So how is it that you turn back again to those weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to enslave yourselves to them once more? ¹⁰ You observe special days, months, seasons and years! ¹¹ I fear for you that my work among you has been wasted!

¹² Brothers, I beg of you: put yourselves in my place — after all, I put myself in your place. It isn’t that you have done me any wrong — ¹³ you know that it was because I was ill that I proclaimed the Good News to you at first; ¹⁴ and even though my physical condition must have tempted you to treat me with scorn, you did not display any sign of disdain or disgust. No, you welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God, as if I had been the Messiah Yeshua himself! ¹⁵ So what has become of the joy you felt? For I bear you witness that had it been possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶ Have I now become your enemy because I tell you the truth? ¹⁷ True, these teachers are zealous for you, but their motives are not good. They want to separate you from us so that you will become zealous for them. ¹⁸ To be zealous is good, provided always that the cause is good. Indeed, whether I am present with you or not, ¹⁹ my dear children, I am suffering the pains of giving birth to you all over again — and this will go on until the Messiah takes shape in you. ²⁰ I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone of voice. I don’t know what to do with you.

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism, don’t you hear what the Torah itself says? ²² It says that Avraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. ²³ The one by the slave woman was born according to the limited capabilities of human beings, but the one by the free woman was born through the miracle-working power of God fulfilling his promise. ²⁴ Now, to make a midrash on these things: the two women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children for slavery — this is Hagar. ²⁵ Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Yerushalayim, for she serves as a slave along with her children. ²⁶ But the Yerushalayim above is free, and she is our mother; ²⁷ for the Tanakh says,

²⁸ You, brothers, like Yitz’chak, are children referred to in a promise of God. ²⁹ But just as then the one born according to limited human capability persecuted the one born through the Spirit’s supernatural power, so it is now. ³⁰ Nevertheless, what does the Tanakh say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for by no means will the son of the slave woman inherit along with the son of the free woman!”^{[b] 31} So, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman, but of the free woman.