Kedoshim

Holiness Laws

19:1 God spoke to Moses, saying,

2 “Generally, when you convey My teachings to the people, their attendance at these lessons is optional, and indeed, not all of them attend. The following passages of the Torah, however, are so fundamental that when you convey them, attendance will be obligatory.1 Therefore, at this lesson you must speak to the entire congregation of the Israelites. Begin this lesson by saying to them, ‘You must be holy, for I, God, your God, am holy, and holiness is achieved chiefly by distancing yourself from forbidden relations—such as were listed above2—in addition to following the instructions that I am about to convey.

3You have been taught that you must honor your parents,3 which means that you must feed, clothe, and escort them whenever necessary. In addition to honoring them, everyone must respect his mother and his father, which means that you must not sit in their seats, not speak when it is their turn to speak, and not contradict them explicitly. Even though children naturally respect their fathers more than their mothers and honor their mothers more than their fathers, you must be careful to respect your mother as much as you do your father and to honor your father as much as you do your mother.

Married women are exempt from the duty to honor their parents4 whenever doing so would conflict with their marital obligation to obey their husbands. Similarly, all of you are exempt from the duty to honor your parents whenever doing so would conflict with your obligation to obey Me. Thus, for example, if your parent tells you to desecrate the Sabbath, you must not obey him; you must instead observe My Sabbaths, for I, God, am God of both of you—and you must both obey My will.5

4You have been taught that you must not worship idols.6 In addition, you must not even turn your thoughts toward worshipping idols, contemplating how you might worship them—even though you know that they are worthless and their worship pointless—in order that you not eventually come to believe in them and thus make them into molten deities for yourselves. You may not make idols for others, even if you do not worship them; nor, as you have been taught, may you possess idols made by others, even if you did not make them yourselves. I am God, your God, who may be relied upon to reward you for fulfilling this commandment and to punish you for transgressing it.

5You have been taught that peace-offerings must be eaten within two days of being slaughtered,7 and additionally, that when you slaughter a peace-offering to God, you must slaughter it with the intention that it be acceptable by Me by being eaten within the time limit that I have set for it, i.e.,

6that it be eaten on the day you slaughter it and, if any meat is left over, on the next day;8 and furthermore, that anything left over until the third day must not be eaten but rather be burned in fire.9If, when you slaughter it, you articulate10 your intention to eat it beyond this time limit, the sacrifice becomes invalid and ineffectual.

7Not only if the sacrifice is slaughtered with the intent that it be eaten on the third day, but also if it is slaughtered with the intent that it be eaten anywhere other than in the prescribed place for eating it, it is contemptible and it will not be accepted as valid. Nevertheless, only a person who eats meat of a sacrifice that was slaughtered with the intent to eat it outside its prescribed time is punishable by excision;11 one who eats meat of a sacrifice that was slaughtered with the intent to eat it outside its prescribed place is only punishable by lashes.12

8In contrast, whoever eats flesh that was slaughtered with the proper intention but has been left over beyond its prescribed time will bear his sin, because he has profaned what is holy to God. Specifically, that person will be cut off from his people, i.e., he will die prematurely and childless.13

Fallen Gleanings

9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not fully reap the last corner of your field that you reap; rather, you must leave some of it uncut.14 Nor may you gather the one- or two-ear gleanings of your harvest that fall from your hand while you are reaping your field; if three or more ears fall from your hand, however, you may pick them up.15

10 You must not glean the young grapes of your vineyard that grow on the part of the vine not sufficiently developed16 to have its grapes hanging from either a stem or ancillary shoots.17 Nor may you collect the fallen individual grapes of your vineyard.18 You must leave all of these required leavings for the poor and the convert, the latter because he has no land-inheritance to farm. I am God, your God, who may be relied upon to punish you—even with death19—if you ignore these obligations.

All these compulsory leavings are exempt from tithes.20

Social Behavior

11 You must not steal money or property. If you do, you may be tempted to deny your sin; therefore be aware that you must not falsely deny someone’s claim that you received an article from him on deposit or as a loan, or that you received money from him in a business partnership or as a loan, or that you robbed him, or that you withheld his wages, or that you found something he lost. And if you do deny such a claim, you may then be tempted to bolster your claim by swearing to that effect; therefore be further aware that you must not lie to one another by swearing falsely regarding having done any of these five things. (The corrective punishment for this misdeed was described previously.21)

12You have been taught that you must not swear in vain using My Name.22 In addition, you must not swear falsely by any other Name of Mine,23or even by an appellation referring to Me (such as “the Merciful One,” etc.), thereby profaning the Name of your God. I am God, who may be relied upon to punish you if you transgress this prohibition.24

13 You must not oppress your fellow, if he is your employee, by not paying him on time.25 You must not rob.

The hired day-worker’s wage, which is due him at sunset, may be paid to him any time during the night, but it must not remain with you through the entire night, i.e., until morning.26

14 You must not curse any living person,27 even a deaf person who cannot hear you cursing him. You are, however, not liable to punishment for cursing someone after he his death.

You must not figuratively “place an obstacle before a blind person,” i.e., when you perceive that someone not fully informed or aware of the issues surrounding a particular situation, you must not give him advice that is in your best interest rather than his, even if your advice is not to his detriment. Even though you may be able to deceive other people into believing that your advice was in his best interest, you cannot deceive Me; you must therefore fear your God.28 I am God, who may be relied upon to punish you if you transgress this prohibition.

Second Reading (Fifth when combined)15 You must commit no injustice in judgment. I consider any judge who perverts justice to be unjust, hateful,29 loathsome,30 condemned to destruction,31 and an abomination.32 Such a judge defiles the Holy Land, desecrates My Name, causes the Divine Presence to depart from the Jewish people, causes the people to die by the sword, and causes them to be exiled from their land.33 When serving as a judge in case where a poor litigant is pitted against a wealthy one, you must not be partial to the poor litigant by ruling contrary to the law in order that the outcome of the case be in his favor, reasoning that the wealthy litigant in any case is required to support the poor. Conversely, you must not show misplaced respect to a great man by ruling in his favor contrary to the law in order not to shame him publicly, reasoning that doing so is a sin.34 Rather, you must judge your fellow with righteousness irrespective of his financial or social status. But whenever possible, judge your fellow leniently.

16 You must not go around as a gossipmonger among your people.

You must not stand idly by when you see your fellow Jew’s blood being shed if it is clear that you can rescue him, even if doing so will entail possible danger to your own life. You are not, however, required to try to rescue him if doing so would entail either (a) certain danger to your life or (b) possible danger to your life that also renders your chances of rescuing him doubtful.35

The only exception to this is someone who attempts to entice others into serving idols; you must not rescue such a person.36

I am God, who may be relied upon to reward you for your good deed and punish you if you transgress these prohibitions.

17 You must not hate your brother Israelite in your heart.

You must indeed rebuke your fellow when you see him committing some misdeed, but you must do so in such a way that you not commit the sin of embarrassing him in public37 on his account.

18 You must not take revenge from a fellow Israelite, i.e., retaliate a wrong he has done you. For example, you must not refuse to loan him something just because he refused to loan you something.Furthermore, you must not even bear a grudge against the members of your people, i.e., be resentful even if you do not retaliate. For example, if you loan something to someone who had refused to loan you something, you must not remind him of his past refusal.

The principle underlying the just-mentioned commandments,38 as well as all others between you and your fellow Israelites, is that you must love your fellow Israelite as yourself, meaning that you must treat him with the same consideration with which you treat yourself.39 I am God, who may be relied upon to reward you for doing so. The only exception to this is someone who attempts to entice others into serving idols;40 such a person is the sole example of someone whom you are not allowed to love.41

Mixing Species

19 You must observe My following rules: You must not crossbreed your livestock. You must not sow your field with a mixture of two or more species of grain or vegetables.42 You must not wear a garment or piece of felt made out of a mixture of wool and linen that has been pressed, woven, or twisted together.43 Separate pieces of raw wool and linen, however, may be worn at the same time, as may separate garments of wool and linen.44

Violating a Betrothed Partial Bondwoman

20As you have been taught,45 a Jewish bondman who is already married to a Jewish woman is allowed to also marry a non-Jewish bondwoman. You have also been taught46 that a non-Jewish bondwoman may gain her freedom before the end of her term of service either if someone pays for her release or if her Jewish master frees her himself, and that once she is freed she assumes the status of a full Israelite woman. Finally, you will soon be taught47 that adultery—even if committed when a couple is only betrothed48—is a capital crime.

Now, if a Jewish man conducts carnal relations with a woman, and this woman happens to be a non-Jewish bondwoman who has been designated by betrothal for her master’s Jewish bondman, and she has not yet been fully redeemed (since only part of the redemption money has been paid), nor has freedom been granted her by her master, there must be an investigation by the court to determine whether she is in fact fully free, for if she is, both she and her paramour are liable to the death penalty, like any Israelite who commits adultery. If it is determined that she is not fully free, then they must not be put to death, because she had not been completely freed, and therefore, her betrothal was not a full betrothal. Nonetheless,

21she is punishable by lashes, and the paramour must bring his guilt-offering to God, i.e., to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting; specifically, he must bring a ram as a guilt-offering.

22 The priest must then effect atonement for him before God—by means of the guilt-offering ram—for the sin that he intentionally committed. If he committed this sin unintentionally (for example, if he was not aware that the woman was betrothed), he will be forgiven by this same means of atonement for the sin that he committed unintentionally.

Fruit

Third Reading 23 When you enter the Promised Land and you plant there any tree that produces fruit that can be eaten as food, you must at first block its fruit from use: Its fruit must be blocked from your use for three years, which you must count from the time the tree was planted. The fruit produced by the tree during these three years must not be eaten—even after these three years have passed.49

24 In the fourth year, all its fruit produced that year will be holy, in that it must be either brought to the Temple city and eaten there or redeemed monetarily; in the latter case, the money must be brought to the Temple city and be used to purchase food that you must then consume there (the same way the second tithe must be treated).50 The purpose of requiring you to visit the Temple city is so that, being there, you will be inspired to offer praises to God.

25 In the fifth year, you may eat its fruit freely; its fruit is from then on subject only to the other rules applicable to produce. SinceI know that you may resent having to care for the tree for four years without being allowed to eat its fruit (either at all or freely), I therefore inform you that as a reward for observing these restricitions, the fruit of the subsequent years will be both exceptionally abundant and exceptionally satisfying. Furthermore, whereas you must usually fulfill My commandments without regard to any reward you might earn thereby, in this case you may fulfill these commandments expressly in order that the tree increase its produce for you in its subsequent fruit-bearing years. I am God, your God, who may be relied upon to fulfill My promise in this regard.51

Blood

26 You must not eat the meat of an animal before its blood is fully shed: although you are permitted to cut flesh from an animal as soon as it has been ritually slaughtered, you may not eat this flesh until the carcass has stopped moving.52

Divination

You must not act on the basis of omens or supposedly auspicious times.53

Haircutting and Shaving

27 You must not round off the hair of your head—thereby making the border of your hair an even circle—by removing the hair that covers the corner of your head in front of the ears, i.e., the temples (See Figure 1).

You must not destroy any edge of the five edges of your beard—the chin, the two cheeks, and the two temples (See Figure 2)—with a razor.54

Mourning

28When a close relative—a parent, a sibling, a child, or a spouse55—dies, you must express your grief by observing the following mourning practices on the day of death, until nightfall:56 (a) you must rend your garments;57 (b) you may not eat the second tithe58 or any sacrifices;59 (c) regular priests must not offer up sacrifices60 or receive a share of the skins of sacrifices offered up during this time.61 In addition, you must eat a “meal of consolation” after the burial, prepared for you by non-mourners,62 and you must let your hair grow uncut for 30 days following the death.63 The high priest, however, is not allowed to observe any of these restrictions.64

It is proper to eulogize the dead. You must also observe mourning practices for Jewish leaders when they die.65

Nevertheless, you must not mourn excessively: You must not make cuts in your flesh for a person who died, as do the Amorites;66if you make multiple cuts in your flesh, you are liable to punishment by lashes for each cut.67 You may not etch a tattoo on yourselves. I am God, who may be relied upon to punish you for transgressing these prohibitions.

Prostitution

29 You must not defile your unmarried daughter by making her a prostitute or otherwise permitting her to engage in extramarital relations,68 lest I punish you by making the land “engage in prostitution,” i.e., yield the produce you sow in it elsewhere, and lest the land be filled with immorality.69

The Sabbath and the Sanctuary

30As you have been taught,70 you must observe My Sabbaths even with regard to the construction of the Tabernacle: You may not violate the Sabbath in order to re-erect the Tabernacle at any encampment in our imminent desert trek, nor in order to build the permanent Temple once we reach the Promised Land. This injunction, however, should not at all detract from your respect for the Tabernacle. You must revere My Sanctuary by not entering the Tabernacle precincts while holding your walking staff, while wearing shoes,71 while wearing a money-belt, or before washing the dust off your feet. I am God, who may be relied upon to punish you for transgressing these prohibitions.

Divination, continued

31 You must not turn to divination by propping up a corpse under your armpit and thereby speaking from it, or to divination by placing the bone of an animal called a yido’a in your mouth and thereby speaking from it.72 You must not seek to divine the future by these means and thereby spiritually defile yourselves through them. I am God, your God; it is wholly inappropriate to seek enlightenment from spiritual sources other than Me.

Respect for the Wise and Elderly

32 You must rise before a wise, elderly person, and, in addition, you must respect one who is wise and elderly by not sitting in his place or explicitly contradicting him. Do not pretend not to notice him and thus avoid troubling yourself to stand up in his presence. Even though you may be able to deceive other people in this regard, you cannot deceive Me; you must therefore fear your God. I am God, who may be relied upon to punish you if you ignore this instruction. However, you are not required to show honor to an elderly person who has not acquired wisdom.

Social Behavior

Fourth Reading (Sixth when combined)33As you have been taught,73 when a convert dwells with you in your land, you must not taunt him by reminding him how he was originally an idolater or living an otherwise inferior type of life and has only recently accepted Judaism.

34Rather, the convert who dwells with you must be treated the same as a native from among you, and you must love him as you love yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt, and therefore he can easily taunt you back. I am God, the God of both of you.

Business Ethics

35In your business dealings, you must not commit a perversion of justice with regard to measures of length and area, weight, or liquid or dry volume.

36Rather, you must have accurate scales, accurate weights, an accurate container holding an ephah [24.768 liter or 6.54 gallon] for measuring dry volume, and an accurate container holding ahin[4.128 liter or 1.09 gallon] for measuring liquid volume. I am God, your God, who brought you out of Egypt for this very purpose: that as a people you be a paragon of honesty in your business dealings. Furthermore, just as I discerned in Egypt who was really a firstborn and who was not,74 so can I discern if someone falsifies his weights in order to cheat in business.75

I refer to such dishonest business dealings as a “perversion of justice” since anyone who deliberately cheats in business is perverting justice no less than a judge who renders an unjust verdict; I therefore consider him, too, unjust, hateful, loathsome, condemned to destruction, and an abomination. Also like an unjust judge, he defiles the Holy Land, desecrates My Name, causes the Divine Presence to depart from the Jewish people, causes the people to die by the sword, and causes them to be exiled from their land.76

37 You must safeguard all My rules and all My ordinances by learning their laws thoroughly, and then fulfill them. I am God, who may be relied upon to reward you for doing so and to punish you for failing to do so.’ ”

Punishment for Serving Molech and for Divination

Fifth Reading 20:1 God spoke to Moses, saying,

2 “After having conveyed the prohibitions just mentioned, you must now tell the Israelites what the punishments are for transgressing them:

‘You have been taught that you must not serve the cult of Molech.77 Any individual of the Israelites or of the converts who dwell among the nation of Israel who hands over any of his offspring to Molech—whether first- or further-generation offspring, and whether legitimate or not78—must be put to death by the court by stoning. As has been mentioned,79 and as will be described fully later,80 if the court’s agents do not succeed in killing him, the people of the land must pelt him with stones until he dies. I refer to the people here as “the people of the land” firstly because I created the earth81 for the sake of the Jewish people,82 and secondly because in the merit of following My laws—particularly those by which they rid the land of idolatry83—they will possess the land.

3If he is not put to death, I will instead set My own attention upon that man,84 and I will cut him off from amid his people—i.e., he will die prematurely and childless—because he gave of his offspring to Molech, thereby spiritually defiling the Israelites, My holy people, and profaning My holy Name.

4Specifically, if the people of the land ignore that man when he gives of his offspring to Molech and do notdeliver him to the court in order to put him to death, even though he was warned and witnessed,85

5 I will, as I said, set My attention upon that man, and upon his family as well, since by harboring him rather than handing him over to the court, his family is implicated in his sin. Nonetheless, I will only cut him off, whereas his family I will only punish with suffering.

This punishment (excision) is only given to individuals, never to the community acting collectively.

You must be vigilant in prosecuting such criminals, for if you ignore one crime, you will accustom yourself to ignoring crime in general. The same applies to the courts: If the lower courts neglect to prosecute and punish criminals, this lackadaisical attitude will eventually pervade the high court, as well.

You have been taught86 that if someone worships an idol in one of the four ways in which you are to worship Me—i.e., by sacrificing to it, offering up incense to it, pouring a libation to it, or prostrating himself before it—it is a capital offense, even if this is not the way in which that particular idol is usually worshipped. To these four I now add a fifth way, the rite particular to Molech-worship: passing a child through twin fires. Thus, I will cut off from amid their people all who stray after the Molech-worshipper by themselves straying after the cult of Molech, even if they perform its rites as a means of worshipping other deities who are not normally worshipped this way. The punishment of excision applies only if they were not properly warned and witnessed; if they were, they are liable to death by stoning.

6You have been taught not to divine.87 Regarding the person who turns to divination by propping up a corpse under his armpit and thereby speaking from it, or to divination by placing the bone of an animal called a yido’a in his mouth and thereby speaking from it, thus straying after them, I will set My attention upon that person, and I will cut him off from amid his people—he will die prematurely and childless—if he was not properly warned and witnessed.88

7 You must similarly sanctify yourselves and be holy by refraining from engaging in all other forms of idolatry, for I am God, your God, who may be relied upon to punish you for transgressing these prohibitions.

Punishments for Forbidden Relations

Sixth Reading (Seventh when combined)8 You must safeguard My rules by studying their laws diligently, and then fulfill them. I am God, who sanctifies you by prohibiting you from engaging in forbidden relations, as stated previously.89

9The prohibitions against forbidden relations90 were followed by the duty to honor your parents;91 conversely here, the punishment for not honoring your parents will be given as an introduction to the punishments for engaging in forbidden relations. For you have been taught92 that any adult man or woman who curses his or her father or mother must be put to death by stoning; the same is true if he cursed his father or his mother after their death. The spilling of his blood is his own fault; none of those who execute him will be held culpable for his death.

10As you have been taught,93 adultery is forbidden. The punishment for this crime is as follows:In the case of a Jewish man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, provided that he commits adultery with the wife of his fellow Jew, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death by strangulation.94 Non-Jews and Jewish male minors, in contrast, cannot legally betroth or marry Jewish women, so someone who fornicates with the Jewish “wives” of either of these is not subject to the death penalty but only to the punishment of lashes.

11 A man who “lies with” his father’s wife has thereby “uncovered his father’s nakedness”:95 Both of them must be put to death by stoning. The shedding of their blood is their own fault; none of those who execute them will be held culpable for their death.

12As for a man who “lies with” his daughter-in-law,96 both of them must be put to death by stoning. They have committed a despicable act by intermingling the father’s and son’s seed in the same woman.97The spilling of their blood is their own fault; none of those who execute them will be held culpable for their death.

13As for a man who “lies with” a male in the same way as one would with a woman,98 both of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death. The spilling of their blood is their own fault; none of those who execute them will be held culpable for their death. If they do not engage in this specific act, however, they are not liable to the death penalty.

14As for a man who takes a woman as a wife and then fornicates with her mother,99such a union is the counsel of their evil inclination. They—the court—must burn him and the mother in fire. If, after marrying a woman, a man then fornicates with both her mother and her mother’s mother, all three must be burned.This is in order that there be no lasting repercussions ofsuchevil counsel in your midst.

15 A man who “lies with” an animal100 must be put to death by stoning, and you must kill the animal by stoning, as well. The animal is technically innocent, but because by Divine providence it occasioned this sin, it must be killed, too. From this law you may conclude a fortiori that a human being who causes another person to sin will surely be punished.

16Similarly, in the case of a woman who approaches any animal in order to fornicate with it,101 you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death by stoning. The spilling of their blood is their own fault (the animal’s only figuratively, due to Divine providence); none of those who execute them will be held culpable for their death.

17As for a man who takes his sister and fornicates with her, whether she be his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and thus he “sees her nakedness” and she “sees his nakedness,”102 it is a disgraceful act. If properly warned and witnessed, the court must punish them with lashes; if they were not warned and witnessed, they will be cut off from life for all the members of their people to see: they will die prematurely and childless. Since the man “uncovered his sister’s nakedness,” he must bear the consequence of his sin. True, I allowed Adam’s children to marry each other, but this was only a temporary expedient—which has remained in force until now—because they had no one else to marry.

18As for a man who “lies with” a woman who is undergoing a menstrual flow,103 thereby becoming ritually defiled: Unless (a) the flow has ceased and (b) she has since purified herself of this defilement through immersion in a mikveh,104 he has thereby “uncovered her nakedness.” Since he has “uncovered” her “fountain of blood” and she has “uncovered” the “fountain of her blood,” then, if they were properly warned and witnessed, they are liable to punishment by lashes; if they were not warned and witnessed, both of them will be cut off from amid their people: they will die prematurely and childless.

19As you have been taught, you must not “uncover the nakedness” of your mother’s sister105 or your father’s sister,106 for one who does so would be “uncovering the nakedness” of his close relative. If the two parties do so, they must bear the consequences of their sin. They are punishable by lashes if properly they were warned and witnessed and by excision if they were not.

20As you have been taught,107 a man who “lies with” his aunt by marriage, i.e., his father’s brother’s wife, has “uncovered his uncle’s nakedness,” so they must bear the consequences of their transgression. They are punishable by lashes if they were properly warned and witnessed and if they were not, by excision: they will die prematurely and childless.

21As for a man who takes his brother’s wife,108 it is a repulsive act; he has “uncovered his brother’s nakedness.” If warned and witnessed, they are punished with lashes. If not, they are punished by excision: they will die prematurely; if they have no children, they will remain childless until they die; if they have children, their children will die in their lifetimes.

22 You must safeguard all My rules and all My ordinances by studying their laws thoroughly, and then fulfill them. If you do so, then, as you have been taught,109 the land to which I am bringing you to dwell therein will not vomit you out.

Seventh Reading23 You must not follow the practices of the nations that I am sending out of Canaan from before you, for they committed all these sins, and I was disgusted with them.

24 So I said to you, “You will take possession of their land in their stead, for I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am God, your God, who has distinguished you from other peoples by giving you My laws.

Spiritual Defilement

Maftir25As mentioned above,110 you must be proficient and practiced in the laws of ritual slaughter and the signs of fatal defects for which you must inspect permitted animals after slaughtering them, in order to know which animals convey ritual defilement if touched. This proficiency is necessary also because consuming improperly slaughtered animals renders you spiritually defiled.111 You must therefore be easily able to distinguish between proper ritual slaughter, which leaves the animal a spiritually undefiled animal, which does not defile you spiritually when you eat it, and improper ritual slaughter, which leaves the animal a spiritually defiled animal, which does defile you spiritually if you eat it. Similarly, you must be proficient in differentiating between ritual slaughter that renders a fowl defiled and ritualslaughter that renders a fowl undefiled. For example, if the trachea was cut only halfway, the slaughter is invalid and eating the animal’s carcass will render you spiritually defiled, whereas if its trachea was cut even slightly more than halfway, the slaughter is valid and eating the meat of the dead animal does not render you spiritual defiled. The difference between these two cases is very slight, so you must learn how to distinguish between them.

Thus, you will not make yourselves disgusting by consuming any spirituallydefiled animal or fowl, besides by consuming any creature that crawls on the earth that I have distinguished from other such creatures by prohibiting it to you, since consuming it renders you spiritually defiled.

26As stated above, you must be holy to Me, for I, God, am holy.112 I have distinguished you from all peoples by giving you all these laws in order that you be Mine. If you spurn these laws, you will forfeit both the privilege of being “Mine” and My attendant Divine protection; instead, you will “belong” to the blind forces of nature, including being subject to the might of conquering nations.

Furthermore, you should not avoid all that I forbid you out of any personal feeling that these things are intrinsically disgusting. Rather, you should acknowledge that were it not for My decrees, you could readily indulge in them, but you refrain from doing so simply and solely because I forbid them to you.

Punishment for Divining, continued

27You were taught113 that a diviner who speaks from his armpit by propping up a corpse under it or who speaks from his mouth by placing the bone of an animal called a yido’a in it will be punished by excision if he was not properly warned and witnessed. If, however, it is clear to the court (because the offenders were properly warned and witnessed) that a man or a woman is a diviner who speaks from his or her armpit by propping up a corpse under it, or is a diviner who speaks from his or her mouth by placing the bone of an animal called a yido’a in it, the offenders must be put to death by the court by stoning,114and if the agents of the court do not succeed in killing them, the people must pelt them with stones until they die. The spilling of their blood is their own fault; none of those who execute them will be held culpable for their death. If they commit this sin inadvertently, they must bring a regular sin-offering, as do all those who inadvertently commit a sin punishable by excision if committed intentionally without proper warning or witnesses.’ ”115