The rituals surrounding taharat mishpacha, “family purity,” are some of the more difficult laws for many modern liberal Jews to understand. This week’s Torah portion contains the basis of many of these rules. Leviticus 15:19 is a challenge for the contemporary reader: “And if a woman has a discharge, and the discharge of her...
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“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land” …Leviticus 25:10 “Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families that are with you, which they fathered in your land; and they shall be your possession. And you shall take them as an inheritance...
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And he shall take off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. …Leviticus 6:4 Why did God need to make it a commandment to remove the ashes from the altar and carry them outside the camp? In his work of mussar, Duties...
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If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them…I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will remove evil beasts from the land, nor shall the sword go through your land. …Leviticus 26:3, 6 Are the blessings...
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Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruit; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the Lord; you shall not sow your field, nor prune your vineyard. …Leviticus 25:3-4 And you shall hallow...
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And if a man causes a blemish in his neighbor; as he has done, so shall it be done to him; Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done back to him. …Leviticus 24:19-20 An eye for an eye,...
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