Parshat Kedoshim

This Shabbat we return to the weekly Torah reading cycle with Kedoshim. Kedoshim is a fascinating parshah; it is only two chapters long, a total of 64 verses, yet according to Sefer HaHinuch it contains fifty one commandments. The overwhelming majority of these commandments have to do with social justice.

The first commandment we find in Kedoshim is perhaps the foundation of all social justice; to have reverence for our parents. We find this commandment linked, it appears, to keeping the sabbath, and both are bracketed by declarations that Ado-nai is our G-d. Here are verses two and three of chapter 19. (if you don’t see Hebrew, but see a strange looking set of characters, you need to add Hebrew support to your computer. If you need help, contact Rabbi Art)

ב דַּבֵּר אֶל-כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם–קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ: כִּי קָדוֹשׁ, אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם. ג אִישׁ אִמּוֹ וְאָבִיו תִּירָאוּ, וְאֶת-שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ: אֲנִי, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם.

In verse two we are told to be kadosh because Ado-nai is kadosh. Then we are instructed to revere our parents and to keep HaShem’s Sabbaths, because Ado-nai is our G-d. After several “ritual” commandments, we are then given a couple of dozen commandments that are concerned with providing food for the poor, acting honestly, and not perverting the natural order of the world.

Regarding the natural order of the world, we are given several commandments that require us to abstain from mixing divergent species, a prohibition against tattoos, and a repetition, with a slight variation, of the commandment to have reverence for our parents. In this last case, we are instructed not to curse our parents.

In all, there are fifty one commandments in Parshat Kedoshim according to Sefer HaHinuch. According to the numbering scheme used, these are numbers #212 to #262.

1. Reverence for father and mother
2. Not to turn astray after idol-worship in thought or word
3. Not to make an idol, for oneself or another
4. Not to eat left-over meat from sacrifices (notar)
5. To leave the edge of one’s field unreaped for the poor
6. Not to reap the very last end of one’s field
7. To leave the gleanings of the harvest for the poor
8. Not to gather stalks of grain that fell away during the harvest
9. To leave a part of a vineyard unreaped for the poor
10. Not to remove absolutely all the fruit of a vineyard
11. To leave fallen grapes in a vineyard for the poor
12. Not to gather the fallen grapes in a vineyard but to leave them for the poor
13. Not to steal anything of value
14. Not to deny it when something of value is in our possession
15. Not to swear over a false denial about something of value
16. Not to swear falsely
17. Not to withhold another person’s property wrongly
18. Not to commit robbery
19. Not to delay the payment of a hired hand
20. Not to curse any Jew, whether man or woman
21. Not to make a trusting person stumble through misleading advice
22. Not to pervert justice in a civil judgment
23. Not to honor an eminent person at a trial
24. That a judge should render judgment with righteousness
25. Not to gossip
26. Not to stand idly by when someone’s blood is shed
27. Not to hate one’s brethren
28. The religious duty to rebuke a fellow-jew for improper behavior
29. Not to shame a Jew
30. Not to take revenge
31. Not to bear a grudge
32. To have affection for a fellow-jew
33. Not to mate two animals of different species
34. Not to sow different kinds of seed together in the land of Israel
35. Not to eat the first three years’ produce of a tree
36. That the fruit of a tree’s fourth year is hallowed
37. Not to eat or drink in the manner of a glutton or drunkard
38. Not to practice augury nor divination
39. Not to practice conjuring
40. Not to round off the temples of the head
41. Not to marr the edges of the beard
42. Not to inscribe any tattoo in one’s flesh
43. To have reverent awe for the sanctuary
44. Not to act as an ov (medium)
45. Not to function as a yidoni (wizard)
46. To honor wise scholars
47. Not to cheat with any kind of measure
48. To make sure that scales, weights and measures are correct
49. Not to curse one’s father or mother
50. That a bet din should burn to death anyone so deserving
51. Not to follow the customs or ways of the Amorites