Torah Portion for 07/01/2023

The main ideas from this information are: - Yahweh tells Moses to speak to the children of Israel and instructs them to be set apart and to fear their parents and keep the Sabbath. - They are warned against turning to idols and making molded gods. - Instructions are given regarding the slaughtering of peace-offerings and the eating of the meat. - They are instructed to leave the corners of their fields and vineyards for the poor and strangers. - Prohibitions against stealing, lying, deceiving, swearing falsely, oppressing neighbors, and cursing the deaf or blind are given. - They are commanded to love their neighbor as themselves and not take vengeance or bear grudges. - Various laws regarding the treatment of livestock, planting trees, eating meat with blood, divination, cutting hair, and tattooing are given. - Prohibitions against profaning daughters, seeking mediums or spiritists, and mistreating strangers are given. - Instructions regarding right-ruling Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 1 through chapter 20, verse 27. And Yahweh spoke to Moshe, saying, Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, Be set apart, for I, Yahweh, your Elohim, am set apart. Each one of you should fear his mother and his father, and guard my Sabbath. I am Yahweh, your Elohim. Do not turn to idols, and do not make for yourselves molded mighty ones. I am Yahweh, your Elohim. And when you slaughter a slaughtering of peace-offerings to Yahweh, slaughter it for your acceptance. It is eaten the same day you slaughter it, and on the next day, and that which is left on the third day is burned with fire. So if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable, it is not accepted. And he who eats it bears his crookedness, because he has profaned the set-apart offering of Yahweh, and that being shall be cut off from his people. And when you reap the harvest of your land, do not completely reap the corners of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. And do not glean your vineyard, or gather every grape of your vineyard. Leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am Yahweh, your Elohim. Do not steal, do not lie, do not deceive one another. And do not swear falsely by my name, and so profane the name of your Elohim. I am Yahweh. Do not oppress your neighbor, or rob him. The wages of him who is hired is not to remain with you all night until morning. Do not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block before the blind, but fear your Elohim. I am Yahweh. Do no unrighteousness in right-ruling. Do not be partial to the poor, or favor the faith of the great, but rightly rule your neighbor in righteousness. Do not go slandering among your people. Do not stand against the blood of your neighbor. I am Yahweh. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Reprove your neighbor for certain, and bear no sin because of him. Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh. Guard my laws. Do not let your livestock mate with another kind. Do not sow your field with mixed seed. And do not put a garment woven of two sorts of thread upon you. And when a man has intercourse with a woman who is a female servant, engage to a man and to be ransomed, but she has not been ransomed nor set free, there shall be an inquiry. But they are not put to death, because she was not free. And he shall bring his guilt-offering to Yahweh, to the door of the tent of appointment, a ram as a guilt-offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt-offering before Yahweh for his sin which he has done. And the sin which he has sinned shall be forgiven him. And when you come into the land and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall reckon their fruit as uncircumcised. For three years it is uncircumcised to you, it is not eaten. And in the fourth year, all its fruit is set apart, praises to Yahweh. And in the fifth year, you eat its fruit, so that it increases its yield to you. I am Yahweh your Elohim. Do not eat meat with the blood. Do not practice divination or magic. Do not round the corner of your head, nor destroy the corner of your beard. And do not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor put tattoo marks on you. I am Yahweh. Do not profane your daughter by making her a whore, so that the land does not whore, and the land becomes filled with wickedness. Guard my Sabbath and reverence my set-apart place. I am Yahweh. Do not turn to mediums, and do not seek after spiritists to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your Elohim. Rise up before the gray-headed, and you shall favor the face of an old man, and shall fear your Elohim. I am Yahweh. And when a stranger sojourns with you in your land, do not oppress him. Let the stranger who dwells among you be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Mitzrayim. I am Yahweh your Elohim. Do no unrighteousness in right-ruling, in measurement of length, in weight, or in measuring liquids. Have right scales, right weights, a right ephah, and a right hen. I am Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Mitzrayim. And you shall guard all my laws and all my right-rulings, and do them. I am Yahweh. And Yahweh spoke to Moshe, saying, Say to the children of Yisra'el, Any man of the children of Yisra'el, or of the strangers who sojourn in Yisra'el, who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall certainly be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. And I, I shall set my face against that man, and shall cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile my set-apart place, and to profane my set-apart name. And if the people of the land at all hide their eyes from the man, as he gives any of his offspring to Molech, and they do not kill him, then I shall set my face against that man, and against his clan, and shall cut him off, and all who go whoring after him, even go whoring after Molech, for from the midst of their people. And the being who turns to mediums, and to spiritists, to go whoring after them, I shall set my face against that being, and cut him off from the midst of his people. And you shall set yourselves apart, and shall be set apart, for I am Yahweh your Elohim. And you shall guard my laws, and do them. I am Yahweh who sets you apart. For every one who curses his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, his blood is upon him. And a man who commits adultery with the wife of another man who commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, the adulterer and the adulteress shall certainly be put to death. And a man who lies with the wife of his father, has uncovered the nakedness of his father, both of them shall certainly be put to death, their blood is upon them. And a man who lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall certainly be put to death, they have made confusion, their blood is upon them. And a man who lies with a male, as he lies with a woman, both of them have done an abomination, they shall certainly be put to death, their blood is upon them. And a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is wickedness, they are burned with fire, both he and they, that there be no wickedness in your midst. And a man who has intercourse with a beast, he shall certainly be put to death, and the beast you kill. And a woman who approaches any beast, and mates with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast, they shall certainly be put to death, their blood is upon them. And a man who takes his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, is it loving commitment? And they shall be cut off before the eyes of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, he bears his crookedness. And a man who lies with a woman during her sickness, and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood, both of them shall be cut off from the midst of their people. And do not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, nor of your father's sister, for that is laying bare one's own flesh, they bear their crookedness. And a man who lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness, they bear their sin, they die childless. And a man who takes his brother's wife, it is uncleanness, he has uncovered his brother's nakedness, they are childless. And you shall guard all my laws, and all my right rulings, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to dwell does not vomit you out. And do not walk in the laws of the nation which I am driving out before you, for they do all these, and therefore I loathe them. But I say to you, you are going to possess their land, and I myself give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh your Elohim, who has separated you from the peoples. And you shall make a distinction between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean birds and clean. And do not make yourselves abominable by beast or by bird, or whatever creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And you shall be set apart to me, for I am Yahweh, am set apart, and have separated you from the peoples to be mine. And a man or a woman in whom there is a medium, or who are spiritist, shall certainly be put to death. They are to stone them with stones. Their blood is upon them.