Torah Portion for 06/24/2023

The passage from Leviticus 18:1-30 includes Yahweh's instructions to Moses. Yahweh tells the children of Israel not to follow the practices of Egypt or Canaan, but instead to obey his laws. He specifically prohibits sexual relations with close relatives, such as parents, siblings, and in-laws. He also condemns adultery, incest, bestiality, and homosexuality. Yahweh warns that these actions defile the land and those who commit them will be cut off from their people. The Israelites are urged to follow these laws and not defile themselves. Leviticus chapter 18 verses 1 through 30 And Yahweh spoke to Moshe, saying, Speak to the children of Yisrael, and say to them, I am Yahweh your Elohim. Do not do as they do in the land of Mitzrayim, where ye dwelt, and do not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, and do not walk in their laws. Do my right rulings, and guard my laws, to walk in them. I am Yahweh your Elohim, and you shall guard my laws and my right rulings, which a man does and lives by them. I am Yahweh. No one is to approach anyone of his own flesh to uncover his nakedness. I am Yahweh. The nakedness of your father, or the nakedness of your mother, you do not uncover. She is your mother. You do not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of your father's wife, you do not uncover. It is your father's nakedness. The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you do not uncover. The nakedness of your son's daughter, or your daughter's daughter, their nakedness you do not uncover, for theirs is your own nakedness. The nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, brought forth by your father, she is your sister. You do not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of your father's sister, you do not uncover. She is your father's flesh. The nakedness of your mother's sister, you do not uncover, for she is your mother's flesh. The nakedness of your father's brother, you do not uncover. You do not approach his wife. She is your aunt. The nakedness of your daughter-in-law, you do not uncover. She is your son's wife. You do not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of your brother's wife, you do not uncover. It is your brother's nakedness. The nakedness of a woman and her daughter, you do not uncover, nor do you take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness. They are her relatives. It is wickedness. And do not take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness, while the other is alive. And do not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness in her monthly separation of uncleanness. And do not have intercourse with the wife of your neighbor, to defile yourself with her. And do not give any of your offspring to pass through to Molech, and do not profane the name of your Elohim. I am Yahweh. And do not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. And do not have intercourse with any beast, to defile yourself with it. And a woman does not stand before a beast to mate with it. It is perversion. Do not defile yourselves with all these, for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am driving out before you. Thus the land became defiled, therefore I punished it for its crookedness, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you, you shall guard my laws and my right-rulings, and do not do any of these abominations, the native nor the stranger who sojourns among you, because the men of the land who were before you have done all these abominations, and thus the land became defiled. So let not the land vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. For whoever does any of these abominations, those beings who do them shall be cut off from among their people. And you shall guard my charge, so as not to do any of these abominable laws which were done before you, so as not to defile yourselves by them. I am Yahweh your Elohim. Amen. Amen.