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There
will be so much that your threshing season will last until your
grape harvest, and your grape harvest will last until the time you
plant. You will have your fill of food, and you will live safely
in your land.
I
will grant peace in the land so that you will sleep without being
afraid. I will get rid of dangerous animals in the land, and the
sword will not pass through your land (this means there will be no
war in the land). You will chase away your enemies, and they will
fall before your sword. Five of you will be able to chase away a
hundred (of them), and a hundred of you will beat ten thousand (of
them), as your enemies fall before your sword.
I
will turn to you, making you fertile and numerous, in this way
keeping my covenant with you.
You
will continue eating the previous year’s crops long after their
time, and you will eventually have to clear out the old crops (to
make way) for the new.
I
will keep My sanctuary among you, and not grow tired of you. I
will make My presence felt among you. In this way, I will be
HaShem to you, and you will be a nation (dedicated) to Me.
I
am HaShem your L-rd. I brought you out from Egypt, where you were
slaves. I broke the bands of your yoke, and led you out with your
heads held high.
And
if you do not listen to Me, and do not keep all these
commandments. If you come to ridicule My decrees, and grow tired
of My laws, then you will not keep all My commandment, and you
will have broken My covenant.
I
will then do the same to you. I will bring upon you feelings of
anxiety, along with depression and excitement, destroying your
outlook and making life hopeless.
You
will plant your crop in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I
will direct my anger against you that you will be defeated by your
enemies, and they will dominate you. You will run away, when no
one is chasing you.
If
you do not listen to Me, I will increase the punishment for your
sins times seven. I will break your aggressive pride, making your
skies like iron, and your land like brass. You will exhaust your
strength in vain, since your land will not
yield
its crops, and
the trees of the land will not produce fruit.
If
you are careless toward Me and lose the desire to obey Me, I will
again increase the punishment for your sins times seven. I will
send the wild animals among you, killing your children, destroying
your livestock, and reducing your population, so that the roads
will become deserted.
If
this is not enough to discipline you, and you are still careless
toward Me, then I will also be careless toward you, but I will
increase the punishment for your sins again seven times. I will
bring a vengeful sword (war of revenge) against you to avenge (get
revenge for) My covenant, so that you will huddle in your cities.
I will send the plague against you, and give you over to your
enemies.
I
will cut off your food supply so that ten women will be able to
bake bread in one oven, bringing back only a small amount
of
bread. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.
If
you still do not obey Me and remain careless toward Me, then I
will be careless toward you with a
vengeance, bringing another
increase of seven times to your punishment for your sins. You will
eat the meat of your sons, and make a meal of the meat of your
daughters. When I destroy your altars and smash your sun gods, I
will let your corpses rot on the remains of your idols.
I
will, in this way, have grown tired of you. I will let your cities
fall into ruins, and make your sanctuaries deserted. I will not
accept the soothing scent of your sacrifices any more. I will make
the land so deserted that even your enemies who live there will be
amazed. I will scatter you among the nations, and keep the sword
drawn against you (keep you
threatened
and warred against). Your
land will stay deserted, and your cities in ruins.
Then,
as long as the land is deserted and you are in your enemies’
land, the land will enjoy its Shabbatot (Sabbaths). The land will
rest and enjoy its sabbatical years. In this way, as long as it is
deserted, the land will enjoy the sabbatical rest that you would
not give it when you lived there.
I
will bring such insecurity to those of you who survive in your
enemies’ land, that the sound of a rustling leaf will make them
run away in fear of the sword. They will fall with no one chasing
them. They will fall over one another as if (chased) by the sword,
even when there is no one chasing. You will have no way to stand
up in front of your enemies.
You
will, in this way, be destroyed among the nations. The land of
your enemies will devour you.
The
few of you who survive in your
enemies
lands will realize that your
survival is threatened as a result of your not being observant.
These few will also realize that their survival has been
threatened because of their fathers’ not being observant. They
will then confess their sins and the sins of their fathers for
being false, and remaining careless toward Me. It was for this
that I also remained careless toward them, and brought them to
their enemies’ land.
But
when the time finally comes that their stubborn spirit is made
humble, I will forgive their sin. I will remember My covenant
(contract) with Jacob as well as My covenant with Isaac and My
covenant with Abraham. I will remember the land. Because the land
will have been left behind by them, and will have enjoyed its
Sabbaths
while it lay in desertion without them. Amends will have
been made for the sin they had committed by ridiculing My laws and
growing tired of My decrees.
In
this way, even when they are in their enemies’ land, I will not
become so disgusted with them or so tired of them that I would
destroy them and break my covenant with them, since I am HaShem
their L-rd. I will, therefore remember the covenant with their
original ancestors that I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the
nations, so as to be HaShem for them. I am HaShem.
These
are the decrees, laws and codes that HaShem set between Himself
and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through the hand of Moses.
HaShem
spoke to Moses, telling him to speak to the Israelites and say to
them:
This
is the law when a person makes a vow to donates to HaShem the
donation value of a person.
The
donation value of a 20 to 60 year old male will be 50 shekels
according to the sanctuary standard. For a woman, this donation
value will be 30 shekels.
For
a person between 5 and 20 years old, the donation will be 20
shekels for a male, and 10 shekels for a female.
For
a person between one month and five years old, the donation will
be 5 silver shekels for a male an d3 silver shekels for a female.
For
a person over 60 years old, the donation will be 15 shekels for a
man, and 10 shekels for a woman.
If
a person is too poor to pay the donation, he will present himself
to the priest, so that the priest can determine the donation
value. The priest will then make this determination based on how
much the person making the promised donation can afford.
(Some
say that this donation is speaking
of a case where a person
dedicates himself to HaShem. Talmudic sources, however, say that
it is primarily a donation of money.)
If
the donation is an animal that can be offered as a sacrifice to
HaShem, then anything donated to HaShem automatically becomes
sacred. One may not exchange it, or offer a substitute for it,
whether the substitute is a better or worse animal. If he replaces
one animal with another, both the original animal and the
replacement will be made sacred.
If
it involves an unfit animal that can not be offered as a sacrifice
to HaShem, the owner will present the animal to the priest. The
priest will set the donation value according to the animal’s
good and bad qualities, and its donation value will be what is
determined by the priest. If the owner wishes to buy it back, he
must add 20 percent to the donation value.
If
a person make his house sacred to HaShem, the priest shall set its
donation value according to its good and bad points. The donation
value will remain what the priest determined. If the owner wants
to buy back the house, he has to add 20 percent to its donation
value, and then it goes back to being his.
If
a man makes a field from his inherited property sacred to HaShem,
its donation value will be calculated according to the amount of
seed required to plant it, 50 silver shekels for every chomer
(equal to 220 liters, or 58 gallons, this is equal to 168,750
square feet, or 3.87 acres) of barley seed.
This
is the donation value that must be paid if the field is made
sacred immediately after the jubilee year (every 50th
year is the jubilee year, a year in which fields are not planted).
However, if one makes his field sacred to HaShem later after the
jubilee, then the priest will calculate the donation value based
on how many years remain until the next jubilee year, and the
donation value will be reduced.
If
the person who has made his field sacred to HaShem wants to buy it
back he must add 20 percent to the donation value and then it
returns to him.
However
if he does not buy back the field, or if the sanctuary treasurer
sells it to someone else, it can no loner be bought back. When the
field is then released by the jubilee, it becomes sacred to
HaShem, like a field that has been declared forbidden, and then it
becomes the inherited property of the priest.
If
the field that one makes sacred to HaShem is not his inherited
property, but a field he has bought, the priest will calculate the
amount of its donation value on the basis of the number of years
left until the next jubilee year. On that day, anyone can buy it
back by giving its donation value as something made sacred to
HaShem. In any case, on the jubilee year, the field will return to
the person from whom it was bought, the one who had it as his
inherited property.
Every
donation value will be according to the sanctuary standard, where
the shekel is 20 gerahs. (This value is explained in Exodus
30:13.)
A
firstling animal (an animal that is in the first litter, or is the
first-born) that must be sacrificed as a first-born offering to
HaShem, may not be made sacred to HaShem by an individual.
Whether
it is an ox, sheep or goat, it automatically belongs to HaShem.
If
a non-kosher animal is made sacred, it will be bought back for its
donation valuation plus 20 percent. If it is not redeemed, it will
be sold for its donation value.
However,
anything forbidden that a person declares to be forbidden to
HaShem cannot be sold or bought back. This is true of anything he
owns, whether it is a (non-Jewish) slave, an animal, or his
inherited field. Everything that is forbidden is holy of holies to
HaShem. If a human being is declared forbidden, he can not be
bought back, and must be put to death.
The
lands’ duty, whether of the crops, of the soil, or of the fruit
of trees, belong to
HaShem, and are therefore made sacred to
HaShem. If a person wishes to buy back such duties, he must add 20
percent.
All
duties of the herds and flocks will be given when they are counted
under the rod, with every tenth on being made sacred to HaShem. No
distinction may be made between better and worse animals, and no
substitutions may be made. If a substitution is made, then both
the original animal and the replacement will be made sacred and
not available to be bought back.
These
are the commandments the HaShem gave Moses for the Israelites at
Mount Sinai. |
