Weekly Bible Reading

Parashat Tzav | Leviticus 6:1-8:36

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Torah of Burnt Offering

1Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:

2“Command Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the Torah of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall remain on the hearth atop the altar all night until the morning, while the fire of the altar is kept burning on it.

3The kohen is to put on his linen garment, with his linen undergarments on his body. He is to remove the fat ashes from where the fire has consumed the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar.

4Then he is to take off his garments, put on other ones, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place.

5The fire on the altar is to be kept burning on it—it must not go out. Each morning the kohen is to burn wood on it, laying the burnt offering in order upon it, and burning up as smoke the fat of the fellowship offerings.

6Fire is to be kept burning on the altar continually—it must not go out.

Torah of Grain Offering

7“Now this is the Torah of the grain offering. Aaron’s sons are to offer it to Adonai in front of the altar.

8So he is to lift up from it his handful of the fine flour of the grain offering, with some of its oil and all the frankincense which is on the grain offering, and burn it up as smoke on the altar for a soothing aroma, as its memorial portion to Adonai.

9Then what is left from it Aaron and his sons are to eat. It is to be eaten as matzah in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.

10It must not be baked with hametz. I have given it as their portion of My offerings made by fire. It is most holy, like the sin offering and like the trespass offering.

11Every male among the children of Aaron may eat it, as their portion forever throughout your generations from the offerings of Adonai made by fire. Whoever touches them will become holy.”

12Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:

13“This is the offering of Aaron and his sons, which they are to offer to Adonai on the day when he is anointed: the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a continual grain offering, half of it in the morning, and half of it in the evening.

14It is to be made with oil on a pan. When it is soaked, you shall bring it in. You are to present the grain offering in baked pieces as a soothing aroma to Adonai.

15The anointed kohen who will be in his place from among his sons is to offer it. As an eternal statute, it must be entirely burnt up as smoke to Adonai.

16Thus every grain offering of a kohen is to be a whole-offering—it shall not be eaten.”

Sin and Guilt Offerings

17Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:

18“Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: ‘This is the Torah of the sin offering. In the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, the sin offering is to be slaughtered before Adonai. It is most holy.

19The kohen who offers it for sin should eat it. It must be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the Tent of Meeting.

20Whatever touches its flesh will be holy. When any of its blood is splattered on a garment, you are to wash it in a holy place.

21But the earthen vessel in which it is boiled is to be broken, and if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, it is to be scoured, then rinsed in water.

22Every male among the kohanim is to eat of it—it is most holy.

23But no sin offering from which any of the blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place is to be eaten—it must be burned up with fire.

Chapter 7

1“This is the Torah of the trespass offering. It is most holy.

2In the place where they slaughter the burnt offering, he is to slaughter the trespass offering. And he is to splash its blood around on the altar.

3He should offer all of its fat, the fat tail and the fat that covers the innards,

4along with the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, plus the cover on the liver that he is to remove with the kidneys.

5Then the kohen should burn them up as smoke on the altar for an offering made by fire to Adonai. It is a trespass offering.

6Every male among the kohanim may eat it. It is to be eaten in a holy place—it is most holy.

Fellowship Offerings for Kohanim

7“As is the sin offering, so is the trespass offering, there is one Torah for them: they are for the kohen who makes atonement with them.

8The kohen who offers anyone’s burnt offering, that kohen is to have for himself the hide of the burnt offering which he has offered.

9Every meal offering that is baked in the oven, and all that is prepared on the flat plate and on the pan, is to belong to the kohen who offers it.

10Every grain offering, whether mixed with oil or dry, belongs to all the sons of Aaron equally.

11“Now this is the Torah of the sacrifice of fellowship offerings which may be offered to Adonai.

12If he brings it for a thanksgiving, then he is to present it with the sacrifice of thanksgiving matzah cakes mixed with oil, matzah wafers anointed with oil, and fine flour cakes mixed with oil.

13He is to present his offering with the sacrifice of his fellowship offerings for thanksgiving along with cakes of bread with hametz.

14From each he is to offer one out of every offering as a gift to Adonai. It will belong to the kohen who sprinkles the blood of the fellowship offerings.

15The meat of the sacrifice of his fellowship offerings for thanksgiving is to be eaten on the day of his offering. He is not to leave any of it until the morning.

16“But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a freewill offering, it is to be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice. On the next day what remains of it may be eaten.

17But what remains of the meat of the sacrifice on the third day is to be burned up with fire.

18If any of the meat of the sacrifice of his fellowship offerings is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted, nor will it be credited to him who offers it. It will be a foul thing—and the soul who eats any from it will bear his own iniquity.

19“The meat that touches any unclean thing is not to be eaten. It is to be burned up with fire. As for the meat, everyone who is clean may eat it,

20but the soul who eats of the meat of the sacrifice of fellowship offerings belonging to Adonai, having his uncleanness on him, that soul is to be cut off from his people.

21If anyone touches any unclean thing, whether the uncleanness of man, or an unclean animal or any unclean detestable thing, and eats some of the meat of the sacrifice of fellowship offerings belonging to Adonai, that soul is to be cut off from his people.”

22Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:

23“Speak to Bnei-Yisrael, saying: You are to eat no fat of a bull or sheep or goat.

24The fat of a dead animal and the fat of a torn animal may be used for any other service, but you must not eat it.

25For if anyone eats the fat of the animal from which an offering is made by fire to Adonai, then the soul who eats it is to be cut off from his people.

26“You are not to eat any blood, whether it is from a bird or an animal, in any of your dwellings.

27Whoever it is who consumes any blood, that soul is to be cut off from his people.’”

28Then Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:

29“Speak to Bnei-Yisrael, saying: Whoever brings the sacrifice of his fellowship offerings to Adonai is to present his offering to Adonai out of the sacrifice of his fellowship offerings.

30With his own hands he is to bring Adonai’s offerings by fire. He is to present the fat with the breast, so that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before Adonai.

31The kohen is to burn up the fat as smoke on the altar, but the breast will belong to Aaron and his sons.

32The right thigh you are to give to the kohen for a contribution out of the sacrifices of your fellowship offerings.

33The one among Aaron’s sons who offers the blood of the fellowship offerings and the fat is to have the right thigh for a portion.

34For the breast of the wave offering and the thigh contribution I have taken from Bnei-Yisrael out of the sacrifices of their fellowship offerings and have given them to Aaron the kohen and to his sons as their portion forever from Bnei-Yisrael.”

35This is the anointed portion of Aaron and the anointed portion of his sons out of the offerings of Adonai made by fire, on the day when he presented them to serve Adonai in the office of kohen.

36Adonai commanded these to be given to them from Bnei-Yisrael on the day that he anointed them. It is their portion forever throughout their generations.

37This is the Torah of the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the ordination offering, and the sacrifice of fellowship offerings,

38which Adonai commanded Moses at Mount Sinai, on the day He commanded Bnei-Yisrael to present their offerings to Adonai, in the wilderness of Sinai.

Chapter 8

Consecration of the Kohanim

1Then Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:

2“Take Aaron and his sons with him, the garments, the anointing oil, the bull of the sin offering, the two rams and the basket of matzot.

3Then assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.”

4So Moses did as Adonai commanded him. When the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,

5Moses said to the congregation, “This is what Adonai has commanded to be done.”

6Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water.

7He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash on him, clothed him with the robe, put the ephod on him, and tied the skillfully decorated sash of the ephod around him and fastened it on him.

8He then placed the breastplate on Aaron, and inside the breastplate he put the Urim and the Thummim.

9He set the turban on his head, and on front of the turban he set the golden plate, the holy crown, just as Adonai commanded Moses.

10Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the Tabernacle and all that was in it, and so consecrated them.

11He sprinkled the oil on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all its utensils, the basin with its stand, to consecrate them.

12He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him.

13Then Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and clothed them with tunics, tied sashes on them, and fastened headbands on them, as Adonai had commanded Moses.

14Then he brought the bull of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering.

15Moses then slaughtered it, took the blood and dabbed it onto the horns of the altar with his finger, and so purified the altar. Then he poured out the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it, to make atonement for it.

16He then took all the fat that was on the innards, the cover of the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat, and burned it up as smoke on the altar.

17But the bull and its hide, its flesh and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as Adonai had commanded.

18He then presented the ram of the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.

19Then Moses slaughtered it and splashed the blood around on the altar.

20After he cut the ram into its pieces, Moses burned the head, the pieces, and the fat.

21He washed the innards and the legs with water. Then Moses burned the whole ram up in smoke on the altar. It was a burnt offering for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Adonai, as Adonai had commanded Moses.

22Then he presented the second ram, the ram of ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.

23Moses slaughtered it, took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot.

24Then Moses brought Aaron’s sons and put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet. Then Moses splashed the blood around on the altar.

25He took the fat, the fat tail, and all the fat that was on the innards, as well as the cover of the liver, the two kidneys with their fat and the right thigh.

26Then out of the basket of matzah that was before Adonai, he took one matzah cake, one cake of oiled bread and one wafer, and placed them on the fat and on the right thigh.

27He put all these in Aaron’s hands and in the hands of his sons, and waved them for a wave offering before Adonai.

28Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them up in smoke on the altar with the burnt offering. They were a consecration for a soothing aroma. It was an offering by fire to Adonai.

29Moses took the breast and waved it for a wave offering before Adonai. It was Moses’ portion of the ram of ordination, just as Adonai commanded Moses.

30Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood which was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, and on his sons, and on his sons’ garments with him. So he consecrated Aaron, his garments, his sons and his sons’ garments with him.

31Moses then said to Aaron and to his sons, “Boil the meat at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and eat it there, along with the bread that is in the basket of ordination, as I commanded, saying: ‘Aaron and his sons are to eat it.’

32What remains of the meat and of the bread you should burn with fire.

33You are not to go out from the entrance of the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are fulfilled, for he will be filling your hands for seven days.

34What has been done this day, Adonai has commanded to be done, in order to make atonement for you.

35You are to stay at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting day and night for seven days, and keep Adonai’s command, so that you do not die, for so I have been commanded.”

36Thus Aaron and his sons did all the things that Adonai commanded through Moses.

HafTorah Portion | Mal. 3:4-24

4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Adonai, as in days of antiquity and years of old.

5“Then I will draw near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers those who extort a worker’s wage, or oppress the widow or an orphan, those who mislead a stranger. They do not fear Me,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

6“For I am Adonai. I do not change, So you, children of Jacob, are not consumed.

Bring the Whole Tithe

7“From the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. Yet you say: “How should we return?”

8“Will a man rob God? For you are robbing Me!” But you say: “How have we robbed You?” “In the tithe and the offering.

9You have been cursed with the curse, yet you keep robbing Me—the whole nation!

10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Then there will be food in My House. Now test Me in this”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out blessing for you, until no one is without enough.

11I will rebuke the devouring pest for you, so it will not destroy the fruit of your land, nor will your vine be barren in the field,” Adonai-Tzva’ot says.

12“All the nations will call you blessed. For you will be a land of delight,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

13“Your words against Me are grievous,” says Adonai. Yet you say: “What did we say against You?”

14You say: “Serving God is worthless.” Also: “What good is it that we kept His service or that we walked as mourners before Adonai-Tzva’ot?

15So now we are calling the proud blessed. Those who practice iniquity are built up. Indeed, they have tested God, and escaped!”

16Then those who revere Adonai spoke with each other, and Adonai took notice and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written before Him, for those who revere Adonai, even those who esteem His Name.

17“So they shall be Mine,”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“ in the day I make My own special possession. So I will spare them, as one spares his son serving him.

18Then you will return and distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

The Day Is Coming

19“For behold, the day is coming —it will burn like a furnace— when all the proud and every evildoer will become stubble. The day that is coming will set them ablaze” —says Adonai-Tzva’ot— “leaving them neither root nor branch.”

20“But for you who revere My Name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings. Then you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

21You will trample on the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I am making,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

22“Remember the Torah of Moses My servant, whom I commanded at Horeb—statutes and ordinances for all Israel.

23“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of Adonai.

24He will turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and the hearts of children to their fathers—else I will come and strike the land with utter destruction.”

New Covenant | Hebrews 9:11-28

11But when Messiah appeared as Kohen Gadol of the good things that have now come, passing through the greater and more perfect Tent not made with hands (that is to say not of this creation),

12He entered into the Holies once for all—not by the blood of goats and calves but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

13For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,

14how much more will the blood of Messiah—who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God—cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that those called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—since a death has taken place that redeems them from violations under the first covenant.

16For where there is a covenant, the death of the one who made it must be established.

17For a covenant is secured upon the basis of dead bodies, since it has no strength as long as the one who made it lives.

18That is why not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

19For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Torah, he took the blood of the calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people.

20He said, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.”

21And in the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

22And nearly everything is purified in blood according to the Torah, and apart from the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

23Therefore it was necessary for the replicas of these heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices—but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24For Messiah did not enter into Holies made with hands—counterparts of the true things—but into heaven itself, now to appear in God’s presence on our behalf.

25And He did not offer Himself again and again—as the kohen gadol enters into the Holy of Holies year after year with blood that is not his own.

26For then He would have needed to suffer again and again from the foundation of the world. But as it is, He has been revealed once and for all at the close of the ages—to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

27And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this judgment,

28so also Messiah, was offered once to bear the sins of many. He will appear a second time, apart from sin, to those eagerly awaiting Him for salvation.