Series 07 English pages part 02 chapter 075

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Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 1 (Tora) -- Part: 2 (Negative) -- Prohibition: 75 -- Text
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The Sharia of Moses in the TORA
Part 2 - The 365 Prohibitions of the Tora

75 - AN UNCLEAN PRIEST MINISTERING IN THE SANCTUARY

Leviticus 22:2-3 -- 2 "Speak to Aaron and his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they do not profane My holy name by what they dedicate to Me: I am the LORD. 3 Say to them: 'Whoever of all your descendants throughout your generations, who goes near the holy things which the children of Israel dedicate to the LORD, while he has uncleanness upon him, that person shall be cut off from My presence: I am the LORD.”

Leviticus 22:9 -- “They shall therefore keep My ordinance, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby, if they profane it: I the LORD sanctify them.”

In the ninth chapter of Sanhedrin we read: “How do we know that a priest who performs the service when unclean is liable to death? Because it is written, Speak to Aaron and his sons, that they separate themselves… and that they do not profane My holy name. Now it is said elsewhere (regarding an unclean priest who eats of the heave offering), lest they…die thereby, if they profane it;* and just as in that case profanation involves the penalty of death by the hand of Heaven, so here also the words, that they do not profane My holy name, mean that if they do profane the Name, by performing the service while in a state of uncleanness, they are liable to death by the hand of Heaven.”**

* Lev. XXII, 8; see neg. comm.136
** Sanh. 83b (Sonc. ed. p. 553)

Reverence for the Sanctuary is of such importance in Jewish law that according to the Mishnah: “None may enter the Sanctuary Court for the purpose of performing Diving Service, even though he is clean, until he has immersed himself.”*

* Yoma 30a

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