20 (16) And if a woman approach any beast, and lie down before it, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

(17) And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a disgraceful deed; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

(18) And if a man shall lie with a woman during her menstrual sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

(19) And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy father’s sister: for he uncovers his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.

(20) And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.

(21) And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

(22) You shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, into which I bring you to dwell, vomit you not out.

20 (23) And you shall not walk in the practices of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

(24) But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, who have separated you from the peoples.

(25) You shall therefore distinguish between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean birds and clean: and you shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by bird, or by any manner of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.

(26) And you shall be holy to me: for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

(27) A man also or woman that is a medium or a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

20 (2) Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, (3) Son of man, speak to the elders of Yisra᾽el, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God; Are you come to inquire of me? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you. (4) Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers: (5) and say to them, Thus says the Lord God; In the day when I chose Yisra᾽el and lifted up my hand to the seed of the house of Ya῾aqov, and made myself known to them in the land of Miżrayim, when I lifted up my hand to them, saying, I am the Lord your God; (6) in the day that I lifted up my hand to them, to bring them out of the land of Miżrayim into a land that I had spied out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is an ornament for all the lands: (7) then I said to them, Cast away every man the abominations of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Miżrayim: I am the Lord your God. (8) But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken to me: they did not cast away every man the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Miżrayim: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Miżrayim. (9) But I acted for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them out of the land of Miżrayim. (10) And I caused them to go out of the land of Miżrayim, and brought them into the wilderness. (11) And I gave them my statutes, and made my judgments known to them, which if a man do, he may live by them. (12) Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctify them. (13) But the house of Yisra᾽el rebelled against me in the wilderness: they did not follow my statutes, and they rejected my judgments, which if a man do, he may live by them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. (14) But I acted for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

22 (1) Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, (2) Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? then make known to her all her abominations. (3) And thou shalt say, Thus says the Lord God, A city that sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. (4) Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and art defiled in thy idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come to thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all countries. (5) Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mock thee, infamous as thou art, and full of tumult. (6) Behold, the princes of Yisra᾽el, each of them amongst thee, putting out his full force, for shedding blood. (7) Amongst thee, they have made light of father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee they have wronged the fatherless and the widow. (8) Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths. (9) In thee are men that did carry slander to shed blood: and in thee they did eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they have committed lewdness. (10) In thee they have uncovered their father’s nakedness: in thee they have abused her who is unclean of her menstrual flow. (11) One has committed a disgusting act with his neighbour’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee has abused his sister, his father’s daughter. (12) In thee they have taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and interest, and thou hast taken unjust gain of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, says the Lord God. (13) Behold, therefore I have struck my hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which has been in the midst of thee. (14) Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. (15) And I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy uncleanliness out of thee. (16) And thou shalt be profaned by thyself in the sight of the nations, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

1. A cupboard standing in the open air: If there is uncleanness within it, vessels in the [niches in the] thickness [of its walls] remain clean. If there is uncleanness in [the niches in] its thickness, vessels inside [the cupboard] remain clean. Rabbi Yose says: half and half. When it is standing inside a house: If there is uncleanness inside [the cupboard], the house is unclean; If there is uncleanness in the house that which is within [the cupboard] remains clean, for the manner of uncleanness is to go out and not to go in. Vessels which are between [the cupboard] and the ground, or between it and the wall, or between it and the roof-beams: If there is a space of one cubic handbreadth there, they become unclean. If not they remain clean. If there is uncleanness there, the house becomes unclean.

2. [With regard to] a drawer of the cupboard, which is one cubic handbreadth, but whose outlet is not a square handbreadth, if there is uncleanness inside it, the house becomes unclean; But if there is uncleanness in the house, that which is within [the drawer] remains clean, for the manner of uncleanness is to go out and not to go in. Rabbi Yose declares [the house] clean, since he can remove [the uncleanness] by halves or burn it where it stands.

3. [In the case where] the cupboard is standing in the doorway and is opened outward, if there is uncleanness inside it, the house remains clean. If there is uncleanness in the house, that which is within [the cupboard] becomes unclean, for the manner of uncleanness is to go out and not to go in. If its wheeled base protruded three fingerbreadths behind it and there was uncleanness inside it under the roof-beams, the house remains clean. When does this ruling apply? When there is a space of one cubic handbreadth, when it is not easily detachable, and when the cupboard is of the stipulated size.

The Gemara relates that Ulla happened to come to Pumbedita, where they brought blood before him for an examination, but he would not see it, as he said: If Rabbi Elazar, who was the master of Eretz Yisrael in wisdom, when he would happen to come to the locale of Rabbi Yehuda, he would not see blood, shall I see blood here?

The Gemara asks: And why would they call Rabbi Elazar the master of Eretz Yisrael in wisdom? The Gemara explains that there was an incident involving a certain woman who brought blood before Rabbi Elazar for examination, and Rabbi Ami was sitting before him. Rabbi Ami observed that Rabbi Elazar smelled the blood and said to the woman: This is blood of desire, i.e., your desire for your husband caused you to emit this blood, and it is not the blood of menstruation. After the woman left Rabbi Elazar’s presence, Rabbi Ami caught up with her and inquired into the circumstances of her case. She said to him: My husband was absent on a journey, and I desired him. Rabbi Ami read the following verse about Rabbi Elazar: “The counsel of the Lord is with those who fear Him; and His covenant, to make them know it” (Psalms 25:14), i.e., God reveals secret matters to those who fear Him.

One who inadvertently reaps any plant, the reaping of which makes it flourish and grow – such as alfalfa or beets – is liable for two sin-offerings. One is on account that he is reaping and [the other] is on account that he is planting. Likewise one who reaps and needs the wood [of the branches] that he cuts is liable on account of harvesting and on account of planting. [If] one lifted a clod of dirt upon which grass grew from the ground and placed it on stakes, he is liable on account of severing. If it was on the stakes and he put on the ground, he is liable on account of planting. One who on Shabbat severs figs that have dried in their source (the tree), and likewise the fruit of any tree that has dried upon it, is liable – even though they are [considered] uprooted regarding impurity.

[In the case of] one who severs endives [or] who prunes reeds: If he does it for eating [by humans], its [requisite] amount is like a dried fig. But if it is for an animal [to eat], its amount] is the fill of a small goat’s mouth. And if it was for burning (fuel), its amount is enough to cook an egg. [In the case of] one who binds edibles: If he does it for eating [by humans], its [requisite] amount is like a dried fig. But if he bound [it] for an animal [to eat], its amount is the fill of a small goat’s mouth. And if it was for burning, its amount is enough to cook an egg. And the egg that is mentioned in every place is a medium egg of a chicken. And every places that it says, “enough to cook an egg,” it [means] enough to cook the size of a dried fig from the egg. And the size of a dried fig is a third of an egg. And [the prohibition] of binding is only with that which grows from the ground.

One who gathers together a cake of dried figs and makes a circle from it or pierces dates and strings them together to the point that are gathered into one body is surely [doing] a subcategory of binding, so he is liable. And likewise anything that is similar to this.

The eighteenth principle is that the his sin always be in front of him. For it is fitting that the soul of the sinner always remember its content and not neglect (forget) them to the end of days. And he should not grab them away from his heart until his relief comes - like the matter that is stated (Psalms 51:5), "For I recognize my transgressions, and am ever conscious of my sin." And this principle will be explained in the third chapter (4:21).

The nineteenth principle is leaving the sin when it chances upon him and he is still at the height of his desire. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Yoma 86b), "Who is the penitent whose repentance reaches the Throne of Glory? When he is tested and comes out clean at the same time in the same place and with the same woman." [This is] meaning to say, when the sin avails itself to him, he is at the height of his impulse and his might is in the muscles of his belly like the first moment when he sinned; but he conquered his impulse and escaped from the iniquity due to his fear of God and the greatness of his fright. But for the one to whom it has not availed itself in this manner, he should augment his fear of God on a daily basis all of his days. And when he has reinvigorated the strength of his fear enough to conquer his impulse with this strength and his power over the power of the desire - does not the Examiner of hearts understand and the Fashioner of his soul know that if a test would come to him and it be like the first [situation], that he would save himself from his impulse? So behold that in front of God he is on the highest level of repentance. And that which King Solomon, peace be upon him, said (Proverbs 16:6), "Iniquity is atoned by kindness and truth; and evil is shunned through fear of the Lord" - its explanation is, and with fear of the Lord, to shun evil if it should chance upon him. And the word, shun, is an infinitive [here]; and the confirmation of this explanation is that it does not say, and shun (which would make shun a command). And that which is stated (Psalms 34:15), "Shun evil and do good"; [and] (Job 1:8), "who fears God and shuns evil" - its sense is that he should shun evil if it should chance upon him. For they do not say, shun the deed, but rather [shun] that which he comes close to doing. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Kiddushin 39b), "If one sits and does not transgress, he receives a reward as one who performs a commandment [...] - it is speaking of a case where an opportunity to commit a sinful act presents itself to him and he is saved from it."