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Vayikra 19:1-20:27

Parashat Kedoshim

פרשת קדושים

The OrQuest app explains two passages of Parashat Kedoshim verse by verse.

When it is read in Israel

The Israeli reading calendar is from Hebcal (CC BY 4.0), checked against Sefaria.

Verse by verse

Vayikra 19:1-4

You Shall Be Holy

The opening of Parashat Kedoshim: the whole assembly is told to be holy, and the first examples given are parents and Shabbat.

For children, teens and adults

Most of Vayikra so far has been aimed at a small professional class: which offering, which blood, which garment, all of it the kohanim’s job. Chapter 19 opens somewhere else entirely, speak to the whole assembly. The message is two words, kedoshim tihyu, and if you are expecting holy to mean withdrawing from life, watch what the very next verse names: your mother, your father, Shabbat. It turns out holiness happens at home.

וַיְדַבֵּר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר׃

Vayikra 19:1

Vaydaber Adonai el-Moshe lemor.

And Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying:

The whole passage, verse by verse

Vayikra 19:16-18

Love Your Neighbour

Three verses in Kedoshim that turn how you feel about another person into something you must actually do.

For children, teens and adults

Parashat Kedoshim opens with Hashem telling Moshe to say these words to the whole community, not just to the leaders, which is unusual, and tells you these laws are meant for everyone’s ordinary day. The chapter mixes laws about offerings and fields with laws about wages, the deaf, the blind and the courtroom. Then come three verses that go straight at the hardest part of being decent: what you do when someone is in trouble, what you do with anger you have not said out loud, and what you are actually meant to feel about the person next to you.

לֹא־תֵלֵךְ רָכִיל בְּעַמֶּיךָ לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל־דַּם רֵעֶךָ אֲנִי ה׳׃

Vayikra 19:16

Lo telech rachil be'amecha, lo ta'amod al dam re'echa, ani Hashem.

Do not go about as a talebearer among your people; do not stand by while your neighbour’s blood is shed. I am Hashem.

The whole passage, verse by verse

The verses are from Miqra according to the Masorah (Wikisource, CC BY-SA 4.0), via Sefaria, without the cantillation marks. On this site the four-letter Name is written ה׳.

The parashah calendar

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