Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 1 (Tora) -- Part: 1 (Positive) -- Command: 55 -- Text
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The Sharia of Moses in the TORA
Part 1 - The 248 Positive Commandments of the Tora
55 - SLAUGHTERING THE PASSOVER-OFFERING
The Passover- lamb is to be sacrificed on the fourteenth day of Nisan, even if it should fall on the Sabbath. This commandment is binding on both men and women.
The ceremony observed in connection with this sacrifice is thus described in the Mishnah: “The Passover-offering is slaughtered in three groups… When the first group entered and the temple court was filled, the gates of the temple court were closed. A sustained, a quavering, and again a sustained blast were blown. The priests stood in rows, and in their hands were basins of silver and basins of gold… An Israelite killed (his own) offering and the priest caught the blood. The priest passed the basin to his colleague, and he to his colleague, each receiving a full basin and giving back an empty one. The priest nearest to the Altar sprinkled the blood in one action against the base. When the first group went out the second came in; and when the second group went out the third came in. As the rite was performed with the first group, so was it performed with the second and the third. (In the meantime the Levites) sang the Hallel (i.e. Psalms CXIII- CXVIII). If they finished it (before they finished sacrificing) they sang it again, and if they finished it a second time they sang it a third time; but it never happened that they completed it thrice.”*