Pgs. 596-609

Ch. 11-16

TARGUM OF PALESTINE

SECTION XLVII.

REEH.

 

MOSHEH the prophet said: Behold, I have this day set in order before you a Blessing and its contrary:[1] the Blessing, if you will be obedient to the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day; and its contrary, if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, [JERUSALEM. And their contraries, if you will not hearken.] but will go astray from the path which I have taught you this day, in turning aside after the idols of the nations whom thou hast not known. And it shall be, when the Lord your God will have brought you to the land into which you are going, to possess it, you shall place six tribes upon the mountain of Gerizim, and six tribes on the mountain of Ebal. They who recite the blessings shall turn their faces towards Mount Gerizim, and they who recite the curses shall turn their faces towards Mount Ebal. Are they not situated beyond Jordan by the way of the sunset, in the land of the Kenaanah, who dwell in the plain over against Gilgela by the side (of the place) of the vision of Mamre? For you are to pass over Jordan to enter and possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and you will hold and will dwell therein. Look well, therefore, that you perform all the statutes and judgments that I have set before you this day.

 

XII. These are the statutes and judgments which you are to observe to do in the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you to inherit all the days that you live upon the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places in which the people (whose land) you will possess have worshipped their idols, upon the high mountains and hills, and under every tree of beautiful form. You shall lay their altars in ruin, break down their pillars, burn their abominations with fire, and utterly destroy the images of their gods, and abolish their names from that place.

 

Not so may you do to blot out the inscription of the Name of the Lord your God. But in the land which the Word of the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes for His Shekinah to dwell there, unto the place of His Shekinah shall you have recourse, and come thither, and bring your sacrifices and consecrated oblations, your tythes, the separation of your hands, your vows, your voluntary offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. And you shall there eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all that you put your hand unto, you and your households, in which the Lord your God will have blessed you.

 

It will not be lawful for you to do (there) as we do here to‑day, whatever any one thinks fit for himself; for you are not yet come to the Sanctuary, to the dwelling of Peace, and to the inheritance of the land which the Lord your God will give you. But when you have passed over Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God will give you to inherit, and He hath given you repose from all your enemies round about, then shall you build the house of the Sanctuary, and afterward shall dwell securely. And to the place which the Word of the Lord will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there, shall you bring all your oblations, firstlings, and tythes, which I command you; there shall you offer your sacrifices and hallowed victims, there eat your tythes and the separation of your hands, and all your goodly vows which you may have vowed before the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and handmaids, and the Levite who is in your cities, for he hath no portion or inheritance with you.

 

Beware lest you offer your sacrifices in any place which thou mayest see; but in the Place which the Lord will choose in the inheritance of one of your tribes, there shall you offer your sacrifices and do whatever I command you. Nevertheless, after every wish of your soul, you may kill and eat flesh according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which He will give you in all your cities; they who are unclean so as not to be able to offer holy things, and they who are clean that they may offer holy things, may eat of it alike, as the flesh of the antelope or of the hart. Only be careful to pour out the blood upon the ground like water. It will not be lawful for you to eat the tenths of your corn, or wine, or oil, or the firstlings of your herd or flock, nor any of the vows that you have vowed, or freewill offerings, or the separation of your hands in your cities; but you shall eat it before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord your God will choose; you, and your sons and daughters, and your handmaids, and the Levites who are in your cities; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. Beware that thou aggrieve[2] not the Levite all your days in which you dwell in your land.

 

            When the Lord your God will have enlarged your border, as He hath said unto you; and thou sayest, I would eat flesh, because thy soul may desire to eat flesh, thou mayest eat flesh according to all thy desire. But if the place which the Lord your God will have chosen that His Shekinah may dwell there be too far off, then may you eat of your herds and flocks which the Lord your God shall give you, as I have com&endash;manded you, in your cities you may eat, according to all the desire of your soul: as the flesh of the antelope or hart so may you eat it; he who is unclean that he may not offer holy things, and he who is clean that he may offer them, may eat of it alike. [JERUSALEM. He who is restrained from holy things, and he who is clean for holy things, may eat alike.] Only put a strong restraint upon your desires, that you eat no blood; for the blood is the subsistence of the life. You may not, with the flesh, eat blood, in which is the subsistence of life: you shall not eat it, you shall pour it out upon the ground like water: eat it not, that it may be well with you, and with your children after you, while you do that which is right before the Lord. Nevertheless, animals which are your consecrated tenths, and your votive offerings, you shall take and bring to the place which the Lord will choose; and thou shalt do (with them) according to the rite of thy burnt offerings, (and offer) the flesh and the blood upon the altar of the Lord thy God: the blood of the rest of thy holy oblations shall be poured out at the altar of the Lord thy God, but of the flesh it is lawful to eat.

 

Observe and obey all these words that I command you, that it may be well with you and with your children after you for ever, while you do that which is good and right before the Lord your God. When the Lord your God shall have cut off the nations among whom you go, and have expelled them from before you, and you inherit and dwell in their land, beware that you stumble not after their idols when they shall have been destroyed before you, or lest you seek after their idols, saying, How did these peoples worship their gods, that we may worship as they did? So shall you not do in serving the Lord your God; for whatever is abominable and hateful to Him have they done to their idols; for even their sons and daughters they have bound and burned with fire unto their idols. Whatsoever I command you, that shall you observe to do; ye shall not add to it nor diminish from it.

 

XIII. When there may arise among you a false prophet or a dreamer of a profane dream, and he give you a sign or a miracle, and the sign or the miracle come to pass, (yet) because he spake with you, saying, Let us go after the gods of the peoples whom thou hast not known, and worship them, you shall not hearken to the words of that lying prophet, or his who hath dreamed that dream; for the Lord your God (thereby) trieth you, to know whether you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the service of the Lord your God, and Him shall you fear, and keep His commandments, hearken to His word, pray before Him, and cleave unto His fear. And that prophet of lies, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be slain with the sword, because he had spoken perversity against the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of the Mizraee, and redeemed you from the house of the affliction of slaves to make you to go astray from the path which the Lord your God hath commanded you to walk in: so shall you bring down the doers of evil among you.

 

When thy brother, the son of thy mother, when even the son of thy father, or thy own son or thy daughter, or thy wife who reposeth with thee, or thy friend who is beloved as thy soul, shall give thee evil counsel, to make thee go astray, speaking out and saying, Let us go and worship the gods of the Gentiles, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; or the idols of the seven nations who are near you round about, or of the rest of the nations who are far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other; you shall not consent to them, nor hearken to him, neither shall your eye spare him or have compassion, nor shall you hide him in secret; but killing you shall kill him; your hand shall be the first upon him to slay him, and afterwards the hand of all the people; and you shall stone him that he die; because he sought to draw them away from the fear of the Lord thy God, who brought you out free from the land of Mizraim, from the house of the affliction of slaves. And all Israel will hear and be afraid, and never more do according to that evil thing among you. [JERUSALEM. When thy brother, the son of thy mother, thy son, thy daughter, or the wife who reposeth with thee, shall turn thee away.]

 

When, in one of your cities which the Lord your God will give you to dwell in, you hear it said that (certain) men of pride are drawing back from the doctrine of the Lord your God, or that even sages of your rabbins have gone forth and led away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and worship the gods of the nations which you have not known: then search you out, and examine with witnesses, and make good inquiry; and, behold, if the thing be true and certain that this abomination hath been really done among you, you shall smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, to destroy it utterly and whatever is therein, even its cattle, with the edge of the sword. You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of the street, and burn the city with fire, together with the whole of the spoil, before the Lord your God; and it shall be a desolate heap for ever, never to be builded again: that the Lord may be turned from the fierceness of His anger, and may show His mercy upon you, and love you, and multiply you, as He hath sworn to your fathers. So be ye obedient to the Word of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, that you may do what is right before the Lord your God.

 

XIV. As beloved children before the Lord your God, you shall not make lacerations in your flesh, nor make bare the crown of the hair over your foreheads on account of the soul of the dead. [JERUSALEM. You are beloved children before the Lord your God; you shall not make divers wounds for strange worship, nor cause baldness above your forehead to mourn for a person who is dead.] For you are to be a holy people before the Lord your God: the Lord your God hath chosen you to be a people more beloved than all the peoples who are upon the face of the earth. You may not eat of any thing that for you is abominable.

 

These are the animals which you may eat: oxen, and lambs of the ewes, such as are not blemished (unclean), and kids of the goats unmixed with what are unclean. Harts and antelopes and fallow deer, rock goats and reems, wild oxen and pygargs;[3] and every animal that hath the divided hoof, and horns, and that cleaveth the cleft, bringing up the cud among animals, that you may eat. [JERUSALEM. Which bringeth up the cud among animals, that may you eat.] But of these you may not eat that bring up the cud, or of those who (only) have the hoof divided, the cast thing (embryo) which hath two heads or a double back, things which are not to be perpetuated in the same species (i.e. as a species); nor the camel, the hare, or the coney, because they chew the cud, but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean to you. [JERUSALEM. Because they bring up the cud, but have not the hoof divided.] The swine, because, though he hath the hoof divided, and there is none produced that like him divideth (the hoof), and yet cheweth not the cud, is unclean to you; of their flesh you shall not eat, nor touch their dead bodies. But this you may eat, of all that are in the waters, whatever hath fins to move, as by flying, and scales upon its skin; and though (some of which) may fall away, yet if there remain on under its jaw, another under its fin, and another under its tail, that you may eat.[4] But whatever hath neither fins nor scales you may not eat; it is unclean to you. Every bird which hath a vesicle or crop which may be picked away,[5] and which (bird) is longer than a finger, and not of the rapacious kind, you may eat. But these are they which you may not eat: the eagle, the ossifrage, the osprey, the daitha (lammer geyer?) white or black, which is a bird of prey, a kind of vulture.[6] [JERUSALEM. 12. And these are they of which you may not eat; the eagle, and the sea eagle (ossifrage), and the osprey. 13. And the rook, the heron also, and the vulture after his kind.] And every raven after his kind; and the owl, and nighthawk, and the cuckoo, and the falcon after his kind; the great owl, and the sea gull (catcher of fish from the sea), and the night owl, and the cormorant[7] white or black, and the pica, and the stork white or black after its kind, and the heathcock, and the bat, [JERUSALEM. And the white daitha, and the ibis according to his kind, and the heathcock, and the bat,] and all flies (bees) and wasps, and all worms of vegetables and pulse, which come away from (materials of) food and fly as birds, are unclean to you, they may not be eaten; but any clean beast you may eat. You shall not eat of anything that is unclean through the manner of its death;[8] you may give it to the uncircumcised stranger who is in your cities to eat it, or sell it to a son of the Gentiles; for you are a holy people before the Lord your God. It shall not be lawful for you to boil, much less to eat, flesh with milk when both are mixed together.

 

Be mindful to tythe your fruitage of whatsoever cometh forth, and which you gather in from the field year by year; not giving the fruit of one year for the fruit of another. [JERUSALEM. My people of the house of Israel, tything you shall tythe all the produce of your seed, of that which you sow upon the face of the field and gather in the produce of each year. Israel, My people, it is not lawful for you to tythe and eat the fruit of one year along with the fruit of (another) year.] And the second tythe you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place which He will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there; the tenths of your corn, your vines, and your oil, and likewise the firstlings of your oxen and sheep, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God all the days. And if the way be too great for you to be able to carry the tenth, because the place which the Lord thy God will choose for His Shekinah to dwell there is too distant from you, when the Lord thy God shall have blessed thee, then thou mayest make exchange for it into silver, and bind the sum in thy band, and proceed to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and give the silver for any thing that thy soul pleaseth, of oxen, sheep, wine new or old, or whatever thy soul desireth; and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and the men of your house. And the Levite who is in your cities forsake not, for he hath not a portion or a heritage with you. At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tenths of your produce for that year, and lay them up in your cities. And the Levite, because he hath no part or heritage with you, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are in your cities, shall come and eat and be satisfied; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands that you do.

 

XV. At the end of seven years you shall make a Release. And this is the indication of the custom of the Release: Every man who is master of a loan, who lendeth to his neighbour, shall give remission. He shall not have power to coerce his neighbour in demanding his loan, nor of his brother, a son of Israel; because the beth din hath published the Release before the Lord. From a son of the Gentiles thou mayest exact, but the lawful right (dina) which is thine with thy brother thou shalt release with thine hand. If you will only be diligent in the precepts of the law, there will be no poor among you; for, blessing, the Lord will bless you in the land which the Lord your God will give you for a possession to inherit; if, obeying, you will only obey the Word of the Lord your God, to observe and do all these commandments which I command you this day. For the Lord your God blesseth you, as He saith to you (that) you shall take from many nations, but they will not take from you; and you will have power over many nations, but they shall not have power over you. But if you be not diligent in the precepts of the law, and there be among you a poor man in one of thy cities of the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor hold back thy hand from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open thy hand to him, and lend to him according to the measure of his want through which he is in need. Beware lest there be a word in thy proud heart, saying: The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and your eye become evil toward your poor brother, so as to be not willing to give to him, and he cry against you to the Lord, and there be guilt upon you. Giving you shall give to him, nor shall your heart be evil when you give to him; for on account of this matter the Lord your God will bless you in all your works that you put your hands unto. But forasmuch as the house of Israel will not rest in the commandments of the law, the poor will not cease in the land: therefore I command you, saying: You shall verily open your hands toward your neighbours, to the afflicted around you, and to the poor of your country. [JERUSALEM. Giving thou shalt give to him, nor let your looks be evil at the time you give to him. If Israel would keep the precepts of the law, there would be no poor among them; but if they will forsake the precepts of the law, the poor shall not cease from the land: therefore I command you, saying: You shall verily open your hands to your poor brethren, and to the needy who will be in your land.]

 

If your brother, a son of Israel, or if a daughter of Israel, be sold to you, he shall serve you six years; and when the seventh comes, thou shalt send him from you free. And when thou lettest him go away from thee at liberty, thou shalt not send him away empty. Comforting thou shalt comfort him out of your flocks, your floors, and your wine presses; as the Lord hath blessed you ye shall give to him. [JERUSALEM. Thou shalt furnish him.] And be mindful that you were servants in the land of Mizraim, and that the Lord your God set you free; therefore I command you to‑day that you do this thing.

 

But if he say to thee, I will not go out from thee, because I love thee and the men of thy house, and because it hath been good for him to be with thee, then thou shalt take an awl, and bore (or apply) it through his ear, and that to the door of the house of judgment, and he shall be thy serving servant until the Jubilee. And for thy handmaid also thou shalt write a certificate of release, and give it to her. It must not be a hardship in thy eyes when thou sendest him away from thee; for double the hire of an hireling hath he been of service to thee six years; and on his account the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all that thou hast done.

 

Every firstling male that cometh of thy herd and flock thou shalt consecrate before the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not work with the firstlings of your herd, nor shear the firstlings of your flocks; you shall eat thereof before the Lord your God from year to year, in the place which the Lord will choose, you and the men of your houses. But if there be any spot in it, if it be lame or blind, or have any blemish, you shall not sacrifice it before the Lord your God: you may eat it in your cities; he who is unclean, (so) that he may not approach to holy things, and he who being clean may approach the holy, may alike (eat), as the flesh of the antelope or hart.[9] Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out upon the ground like water.

 

XVI. Be mindful to keep the times of the festivals, with the intercalations of the year, and to observe the rotation thereof: in the month of Abiba to perform the pascha before the Lord your God, because in the month of Abiba the Lord your God brought you out of Mizraim; you shall eat it therefore by night. But you shall sacrifice the pascha before the Lord your God between the suns; and the sheep and the bullocks on the morrow,[10] on that same day to rejoice in the feast at the place which the Lord will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there. You shall not eat leavened bread with the pascha; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread unto His Name, the unleavened bread of humiliation; for with haste you went forth from the land of Mizraim; that you may remember the day of your out going from the land of Mizraim all the days of your life. Take heed that in the beginning of the pascha there be no leaven seen among you within all your borders for seven days; and that none of the flesh which you sacrifice in the evening of the first day remain till the morning. It will not be allowed you to eat the pascha in (any) one of your cities which the Lord your God giveth to you; but in the place which the Lord your God will choose to make His Shekinah to dwell,there shall you sacrifice the pascha; and in the evening at the going down of the sun you may eat it until the middle of the night, the time when you began to go out of Mizraim. And you shall dress and eat it in the place which the Lord your God will choose, and in the early morn (if need be) thou mayest return from the feast, and go to thy cities. On the first day thou shalt offer the omer, and eat unleavened cakes of the old corn; but in the six remaining days you may begin to eat unleavened cakes of the new corn,[11] and on the seventh day you shall assemble with thanksgiving before the Lord your God; no work shall you perform.

 

Seven weeks number to you; from the time when you begin to put the sickle to the harvest of the field after the reaping of the omer you shall begin to number the seven weeks. And you shall keep with joy the Festival of Weeks before the Lord your God, after the measure of the freewill offerings of your hands, according as the Lord your God shall have blessed you. And you shall rejoice with the joy of the feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons, your daughters, your servants and handmaids, the Levites who are in your cities, and the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are among you, at the place which the Lord your God will choose where to make His Shekinah to dwell. Remember that you were servants in Mizraim; so shall you observe and perform these statutes.

 

The Feast of Tabernacles you shall make to you seven days, when you will have completed to gather in the corn from your threshing floors, and the wine from your presses. And you shall rejoice in the joy of your feasts with the clarinet and flute, you and your sons and daughters, your handmaids, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who are in your cities. Seven days you shall keep the feast before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will have blessed you in all your provision, and in all the work of your hands, and so shall you be joyful in prosperity.

 

Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose; at the Feast of the Unleavened, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; nor must you appear before the Lord your God empty of any of the requirements; every one after the measure of the gifts of his hands, according to the blessing which the Lord your God hath bestowed upon you.