13 (15) then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you;

(16) thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is in it, and its cattle with the edge of the sword.

(17) And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the open place of the city, and shalt burn with fire both the city and the entire plunder taken in it, for the Lord thy God: and it shall be a heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

(18) And nothing of that which was devoted to destruction shall remain in your hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he has sworn to thy fathers;

(19) when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God.

14 (1) You are the children of the Lord your God: you shall not gash yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

(2) For thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God, and the Lord has chosen thee to be a special possession to himself, out of all the nations that are upon the earth.

(3) Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.

(4) These are the beasts which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

(5) the deer, and the gazelle, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the adax, and the bison, and the wild sheep.

(6) And every beast that parts the hoof, forming thereby two entirely cloven hoofs, and chews the cud among the beasts, that may you eat.

(7) Nevertheless these you shall not eat of those which chew the cud, or of those which divide the cloven hoof; the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but do not divide the hoof; therefore they are unclean to you.

(8) And the swine, because it divides the hoof, yet chews not the cud, is unclean to you: you shall not eat of their meat, nor touch their carcasses.

(9) These you may eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall you eat:

(10) and whatever has no fins and scales you may not eat; it is unclean to you.

(11) All clean birds you may eat.

(12) But these are they of which you shall not eat: the griffon vulture, and the bearded vulture, and the black vulture,

(13) and the buzzard, and the kite, and the hawk after its kind,

(14) and every raven after its kind,

(15) and the dark desert owl, and the kestrel, and the gull, and the sparrow hawk after its kind,

(16) the little owl, and the long eared owl, and the barn screech owl,

(17) and the night prowler, and the gier eagle, and the fish owl,

(18) and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat.

(19) And every creeping thing that flies is unclean to you: they shall not be eaten.

(20) But of all clean fowls you may eat.

(21) You shall not eat of any thing that dies of itself: thou shalt give it to the stranger who is in thy gates, that he may eat it: or thou mayst sell it to an alien: for thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

14 (22) Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field brings forth year by year.

(23) And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thy oil, and the firstlings of thy herds, and of thy flocks; that thou mayst learn to fear the Lord thy God always.

(24) And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; because the place is too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God has blessed thee:

(25) then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thy hand, and shalt go to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose:

(26) and thou shalt bestow that money on all that thy heart desires, on oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever thy soul requires: and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thy household,

(27) and the Levite who is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he has no part or inheritance with thee.

(28) At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth in that year, all the tithe of thy produce, and shalt lay it up within thy gates:

(29) and the Levite, (because he has no part or inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest.

15 (1) At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

(2) And this is the manner of the release: every creditor that lends anything to his neighbour shall release it: he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because he has proclaimed a release to the Lord.

(3) Of a foreigner thou mayst exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thy hand shall release.

(4) But there shall be practically no poor among you; for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee for an inheritance to possess it:

(5) only if thou carefully hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.

(6) For the Lord thy God blesses thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend to many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

(7) If there be among you a poor man, one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God gives thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother:

(8) but thou shalt open thy hand wide to him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he lacks.

(9) Beware that there be not an unworthy thought in thy heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thy eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou give him nothing; and he cry to the Lord against thee; for it shall be reckoned to you as sin.

(10) Thou shalt surely give him, and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest to him: because for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that to which thou puttest thy hand.

(11) For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thy hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

(12) And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold to thee, he shall serve thee six years; and in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.

(13) And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:

(14) thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy threshing floor, and out of thy winepress: of that with which the Lord thy God has blessed thee thou shalt give him.

(15) And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Miżrayim and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing today.

(16) And it shall be, if he say to thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loves thee and thy house, because he is happy with thee;

(17) then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also to thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.

(18) It shall not seem hard to thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he has been worth double a hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.

15 (19) All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify to the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.

(20) Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God year by year in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou and thy household.

(21) And if there be any blemish in it, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it to the Lord thy God.

(22) Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean person alike shall eat it, as the gazelle and the deer.

(23) Only thou shalt not eat its blood; thou shalt pour it upon the ground like water.

16 (1) Observe the month of Aviv, and keep the passover to the Lord thy God: for in the month of Aviv the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Miżrayim by night.

(2) Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover to the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there.

(3) Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Miżrayim in haste: that thou mayst remember the day when thou camest out of the land of Miżrayim all the days of thy life.

(4) And there shall be no leaven seen with thee in all thy border for seven days; nor shall any thing of the meat, which thou dost sacrifice on the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning.

(5) Thou mayst not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God gives thee:

(6) but only at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season when thou camest out of Miżrayim.

(7) And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go to thy tents.

(8) Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work.

(9) Seven weeks shalt thou number to thee: from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn shalt thou commence to number seven weeks.

(10) And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks to the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as the Lord thy God has blessed thee:

(11) and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite who is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God has chosen as the residence of his name.

(12) And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Miżrayim: therefore thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

(13) Thou shalt observe the feast of booths seven days, after thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:

(14) and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.

(15) Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast to the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose: because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy produce, and in all the work of thy hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.

(16) Three times a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty:

(17) every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he has given thee.

54 (11) O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. (12) And I will make thy windows of rubies, and thy gates of beryl, and all thy borders of choicest stones. (13) And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. (14) In righteousness shalt thou be established: keep away from oppression; then thou shalt not fear: and from terror; then it shall not come near thee. (15) Behold, they may well gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. (16) Behold, I have created the smith that blows upon the fire of the coals, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. (17) No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and the recompense of their righteousness appointed by me, says the Lord. 55 (1) Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the water, and he that has no money; come, buy, and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (2) Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. (3) Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure loving promises of David. (4) Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of nations. (5) Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowst not, and nations that knew not thee shall run to thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Yisra᾽el; for he has glorified thee.

1. Everyone can become impure from negaim, except for a non-Jew and a resident alien. All are qualified to inspect negaim, but only a priest may declare them unclean or clean. He is told, "Say: 'unclean,'" and he repeats "unclean," or "Say: 'clean,'" and he repeats "clean." Two negaim may not be inspected simultaneously whether in one man or in two men; rather he inspects one first and isolates him, certifies him as unclean or pronounces him clean, and then he inspects the second. One who is isolated may not be isolated again nor may one who is certified unclean be certified unclean again. One who is certified unclean may not be isolated nor may one who is isolated be certified unclean. But in the beginning, or at the end of a week, he may isolate on account of the one nega and isolate him on account of another one; he may certify him unclean on account of one sign and also certify him unclean on account of another sign; he may isolated the one sign and declare the other clean, or certify the one unclean and declare the other clean.

2. A bridegroom on whom a nega has appeared is given the seven days of the marriage feast [in which he is not examined]; [This grace period is given to] him, and to his house and to his clothing. Similarly during a festival, one is granted exemption from inspection during all the days of the festival.

3. The skin of the flesh becomes unclean for two weeks and by one of three signs: by white hair or by quick flesh or by a spreading. "By white hair or by quick flesh" in the beginning, at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, or after it had been pronounced clean. "Or by a spreading," at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, or after it had been pronounced clean. It becomes unclean for two weeks which are thirteen days.

4. A boil or a burn becomes unclean for one week and by one of the following two tokens: by white hair or by a spreading. By white hair, in the beginning, at the end of the week, or after it has been pronounced clean. "Or by a spreading:" At the end of the week, or after it had been declared clean. They become unclean for a week which is seven days.

5. Head or beard (scall) negaim become unclean for two weeks and by one of the following two signs: by yellow thin hair or by a spreading. "By yellow thin hair" in the beginning, at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, or after they have been pronounced clean. "Or by a spreading," at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week or after they have been pronounced clean. They become unclean for two weeks which are only thirteen days.

6. Scalp baldness or forehead baldness [negaim] become unclean for two weeks and by one of the following two signs: by quick flesh or by a spreading. "By quick flesh," in the beginning, at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, or after they have been pronounced clean. "Or by a spreading," at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, or after they have been pronounced clean. They become unclean for two weeks which are only thirteen days.

7. Garments become unclean for two weeks and by one of three signs: by a greenish color, by a reddish color or by a spreading. "By a greenish colour or by a reddish color," in the beginning, at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, or after they have been pronounced clean. "Or by a spreading," at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, or after they have been pronounced clean. They become unclean for two weeks which are but thirteen days.

8. Houses become unclean for three weeks and by one of the following three signs: by a greenish color or by a reddish color or by a spreading. "By a greenish color or by a reddish color," in the beginning, at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, at the end of the third week, or after they have been pronounced clean. "Or by a spreading," at the end of the first week, at the end of the second week, at the end of the third week, or after they have been pronounced clean. They become unclean for three weeks which are nineteen days. None of the leprosy signs is for less than a week or for more than three weeks.

§ The students asked Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: In the case of a woman who discharges a gestational sac full of flesh, what is the halakha? Does she have the impurity of a woman after childbirth? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to them: I have not heard from my teachers the halakha in this case.

Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yosei, said to him: This is what my father, i.e., Rabbi Yosei ben Ḥalafta, one of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s teachers, said: If a woman discharged a gestational sac full of blood, she is impure with the impurity of a menstruating woman. If it is full of flesh, she is impure with the impurity of a woman after childbirth.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: If you had told us an entirely new statement in the name of your father, no part of which was also stated by another Sage, we would have listened to you, i.e., we would have accepted the statement as halakha. But now that you stated two halakhot, one with regard to a woman who discharged a gestational sac full of blood, and the other with regard to a woman who discharged a gestational sac full of flesh, the entire statement cannot be accepted as halakha.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi explains: From the fact that Rabbi Yosei said this first clause of his statement, with regard to a gestational sac full of blood, in accordance with an individual opinion, i.e., in accordance with the opinion of Sumakhos, who said in the name of Rabbi Meir that the woman is impure, contrary to the opinion of the other Sages, it follows that with regard to this latter statement as well, with regard to a gestational sac full of flesh, one can say that perhaps Rabbi Yosei said it in accordance with the opinion of another individual Sage, Rabbi Yehoshua. And the halakha is not in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehoshua.

As it is taught in a baraita: In the case of a woman who discharges a gestational sac in which tissue did not develop, Rabbi Yehoshua says: It has the status of an offspring, and the woman has the impurity of a woman after childbirth; and the Rabbis say: It is not an offspring, and the woman is pure. The opinion of Rabbi Yosei that a woman who discharged a gestational sac full of flesh is impure might be in accordance with the ruling of Rabbi Yehoshua, which is not accepted as halakha, since the majority of the other Sages disagree with him. Therefore, the halakha cannot be decided in accordance with either part of the statement of Rabbi Yosei.

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says in the name of Rabbi Oshaya: The dispute between Rabbi Yehoshua and the Rabbis applies in a case where the amniotic fluid is turbid, as Rabbi Yehoshua holds that the turbidity indicates that there was likely an embryo in the sac that liquefied. But in a case where the amniotic fluid is clear, everyone agrees that the discharged sac is not considered an offspring. And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: The dispute applies in a case where the amniotic fluid is clear.

A dilemma was raised before the Sages: What does Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi mean? Does he mean that the dispute applies only in a case where the amniotic fluid is clear, but in a case where it is turbid, everyone agrees that it has the halakhic status of an offspring? Or perhaps Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi means that the dispute applies in this case and in that case, i.e., the Rabbis hold that the sac does not have the status of an offspring even if the amniotic fluid is turbid. The Gemara concludes that the dilemma shall stand unresolved.

It is permissible to tie an impermanent knot for the matter of a commandment; for example to tie [a knot] in order to measure a [requisite] amount from the amounts [legislated by] the Torah. We may tie the string of a harp that tore in the Temple, but not in the [rest of the] city. But one should not tie a string at the outset even in the Temple.

We are liable for untying any knot that we are liable for its tying. And one is exempt for untying any knot for which one who ties it is exempt. And it is permissible to untie any knot that it is permissible to tie.