The account of the Tower of Babel

(1) Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words.

(2) ...And the same words - The text did not explain what those words were, rather, it leaves as a hint, as explained in midrashim. But the words themselves are not explained by the text, it just tells us that they were the same words, to teach us that it wasn't because of the content of the words themselves that the Holy One of Blessing was distressed [DR: but because of their uniformity], be they what they were. and in its simplicity there is not sin, and on the contrary all appears well. [DR: This matter, although it would seem not to involve iniquity and, on the contrary, reflects asocial cohesion even in the name of idolatry that can be tolerated (by God)--nevertheless, here it led to considerations that resulted in the disruption of human settlement....]

(1) GOD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they drew too close to GOD’s presence. (2) GOD said to Moses:
Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come at will into the Shrine behind the curtain, in front of the cover that is upon the ark, lest he die; for I appear in the cloud over the cover. (3) Thus only shall Aaron enter the Shrine: with a bull of the herd for a purgation offering and a ram for a burnt offering.— (4) He shall be dressed in a sacral linen tunic, with linen breeches next to his flesh, and be girt with a linen sash, and he shall wear a linen turban. They are sacral vestments; he shall bathe in water and then put them on.—

(7) Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before GOD at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; (8) and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for GOD and the other marked for Azazel. (9) Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for GOD, which he is to offer as a purgation offering; (10) while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before GOD, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.

(16) Thus he shall purge the Shrine of the impurity and transgression of the Israelites, whatever their sins; and he shall do the same for the TentofMeeting, which abides with them in the midst of their impurity.

(29) And this shall be to you a law for all time: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall practice self-denial; and you shall do no manner of work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you. (30) For on this day atonement shall be made for you to purify you of all your sins; you shall be pure before GOD.

(34) This shall be to you a law for all time: to make atonement for the Israelites for all their sins once a year.
And Moses did as GOD had commanded him.

(3) You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws. (4) My rules alone shall you observe, and faithfully follow My laws: I the ETERNAL am your God. (5) You shall keep My laws and My rules, by the pursuit of which humans shall live: I am GOD. (6) Not even one of you shall come near anyone of his own flesh to uncover nakedness: I am GOD.

(24) Do not defile yourselves in any of those ways, for it is by such that the nations that I am casting out before you defiled themselves. (25) Thus the land became defiled; and I called it to account for its iniquity, and the land spewed out its inhabitants. (26) But you must keep My laws and My rules, and you must not do any of those abhorrent things, neither the citizen nor the stranger who resides among you; (27) for all those abhorrent things were done by the people who were in the land before you, and the land became defiled. (28) So let not the land spew you out for defiling it, as it spewed out the nation that came before you.

(2) Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them:
You shall be holy, for I, the ETERNAL your God, am holy. (3) You shall each revere your mother and your father, and keep My sabbaths: I the ETERNAL am your God. (4) Do not turn to idols or make molten gods for yourselves: I the ETERNAL am your God.

(13) You shall not defraud your fellow. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning. (14) You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God: I am the ETERNAL. (15) You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your kindred fairly.

(16) Do not deal basely with members of your people [OR: "Do not act as a merchant toward your own kinsman" (Baruch A. Levine, crediting Rashi) OR: “go about as a talebearer among” - meaning of Hebrew uncertain (note in NJPS) OR "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people" (JPS 1917)]. Do not profit by the blood of your fellow: I am GOD. (17) You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Reprove your kindred but incur no guilt on their account. (18) You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against members of your people. Love your fellow as yourself: I am GOD.

(1) 'וידבר יהוה אל משה אחרי מות שני בני אהרן וגו‎‎ AND THE LORD SPOKE UNTO MOSES AFTER THE DEATH OF THE TWO SONS OF AARON etc. —What is this statement intended to tell us? (i. e. why is it at all stated when God spoke this to Moses?) Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah illustrated this by a parable: It may be compared to the case of a sick person whom the physician visited. He (the physician) said to him: “Do not eat cold things nor sleep in a damp place!" Another physician came and said to him: “Do not eat cold things, nor sleep in a damp place so that thou mayest not die as Mr. So-and-so died!" Certainly this (the latter) put him on his guard more than the former; that is why Scripture states “after the death of the two sons of Aaron" (Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 1 3).

(2) עזאזל AZAZEL — (The word is taken to be a compound of עזז "to be strong" and אל "mighty"). It was a precipitous and flinty rock — a towering peak, for it is said (v. 22) "[and the goat shall bear upon it their iniquities into] an גזר) "ארץ גזרה means to cut) — into a craggy land (Yoma 67b).

(5) This is in order that the Israelites may bring the sacrifices that they have been making in the open—that they may bring them before GOD, to the priest, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and offer them as sacrifices of well-being to GOD; (6) that the priest may dash the blood against the altar of GOD at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and turn the fat into smoke as a pleasing odor to GOD; (7) and that they may offer their sacrifices no more to the goat-demons after whom they stray. This shall be to them a law for all time, throughout the ages.

`Aza'zel: It appears that this was previously the name of the evil god, the Satan, El `Az ("Fierce God"), and that the word עזאזל `Aza'zel derived from עז עז אל "Fierce Fierce God." Those who believed in the oneness of God, who did not believe in the reality of the evil god, retained the word to refer to complete evil and destruction ('avadon), just as today people use the word Satan to refer to any great evil and destruction. The goat was sent to destruction in the wilderness, to die of hunger. ...

The intent of sending the goat to `Aza'zel appears akin to that of the verse, "you will hurl (תשליך tashlich) all their sins into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:9). For the priest had, by his verbal confession, placed all the sins of the people onto the goat. Then an agent would send the goat with all their sins to a cut-off land. The people would then be free of all their sins.

[Thus he shall purge the Shrine of the uncleanness and transgression of the Israelites, whatever their sins; and he shall do the same for] the Tent of Meeting, which abides (שוכן, shochen) with them in the midst of their uncleanness. --

The comment in Sifra, the halachic midrash to Leviticus, is well known: "even though they are impure, the Shechinah (Divine Presence) dwells among them." Why is this relevant particularly to the Tent of Meeting more than to the Holy of Holies? ...

The power of innovation in Halachah, resulting from sharp analysis (pilpul, here used in a positive sense), was aided by the light of the 1) Menorah in the Heichal (the front part of the Tent of Meeting, before the Holy of Holies). 2) The incense (offered on the Golden Altar) calls to mind the power of Acts of Lovingkindness which are essential to strengthen sharp analysis... 3) The Table (of Showbread) increased support for those who learn Torah...

The holiness of sharp analysis of Torah in the Tent of Meeting, the Heichal, dwells forever and causes the Shechinah to dwell among Israel even when they are impure...for the words of Torah are not susceptible to impurity, as it is written, "behold, My word is like fire" (Jeremiah 23:29) [which cannot become impure].

(2) YE SHALL BE HOLY. “Abstain from the forbidden sexual relationships [mentioned in the preceding section] and from [other] sin, because wherever you find [in the Torah] a warning to guard against immorality, you find the mention of ‘holiness.’” This is Rashi’s language.

But in the Torath Kohanim I have seen it mentioned without any qualification [i.e., without any particular reference to immorality, as Rashi expressed it], saying: “Be self-restraining.” Similarly, the Rabbis taught there: “And ye shall sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, for I am Holy. Just as I am Holy, so be you holy. Just as I am Pure, so be you pure.” And in my opinion, this abstinence does not refer only to restraint from acts of immorality, as the Rabbi [Rashi] wrote, but it is rather the self-control mentioned throughout the Talmud, which confers upon those who practice it the name of P’rushim (Pharisees), [literally: “those who are separated” from self-indulgence, as will be explained, or those who practice self-restraint]. The meaning thereof is as follows: The Torah has admonished us against immorality and forbidden foods, but permitted sexual intercourse between man and his wife, and the eating of [certain] meat and wine. If so, a man of desire could consider this to be a permission to be passionately addicted to sexual intercourse with his wife or many wives, and be among winebibbers, among gluttonous eaters of flesh, and speak freely all profanities, since this prohibition has not been [expressly] mentioned in the Torah, and thus he will become a sordid person within the permissible realm of the Torah! Therefore, after having listed the matters which He prohibited altogether, Scripture followed them up by a general command that we practice moderation even in matters which are permitted, [such as in the following]: One should minimize sexual intercourse, similar to that which the Rabbis have said, “So that the disciples of the Sages should not be found together with their wives as often as the hens,” and he should not engage in it except as required in fulfillment of the commandment thereof. He should also sanctify himself [to self-restraint] by using wine in small amounts, just as Scripture calls a Nazirite “holy” [for abstaining from wine and strong drink], and he should remember the evils which the Torah mentioned as following from [drinking wine] in the cases of Noah and Lot.

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[DR Translation.]. You shall be holy-- In response to "the practices of the [people of the] land of Egypt... or [of the land of] Canaan" (see Leviticus 18:3) who desire to violate all rules, this commandment comes to "the whole Israelite community," who should restrain from seeking the objects of their desires even when doing so militates against human wisdom alone. It is as Ramban wrote in his comment on this commandment: to refrain from luxuriousness even in permitted matters.

Scripture opens this verse with the words "[speak] to the whole Israelite community," since the requisite restraint is not the same for every person. The instruction ["Torah"] for each person is in one's own hands. It depends on one's own nature and the ways of one's own household and so forth. HaRav HaMaggid [=Rabbi Vidal of Tolosa/Toulouse, late 14th century commentator on Maimonides] wrote similarly in his comment at the end of the Laws of Neighbors, see there. In any event, every Jew is commanded according to one's own condition. This is not the case for other commandments where, as is well-known, the same rules apply to all.

(1) לא תלך רכיל THOU SHALT NOT GO ABOUT AS A TALE BEARER — I say that because all those who sow discord between people and all who speak slander go into their friends' houses in order to spy out what evil they can see there, or what evil they can hear there so that they may tell it in the streets —they are called הולכי רכיל which it the same as הולכי רגילה, "people who go about spying"; espiement in O. F. A proof of my statement is the fact that we do not find anywhere the term רגיל used in Scripture except in connection with the expression הלך "to go". Examples are: the phrase here, לא תלך רכיל; (Jeremiah 6:28) "[They are all] walking as spies: they are brass and iron". But as for any other expressions for “slander”, the verb הלך is not used with them. Examples are (Psalms 101:5) "whoso privily slandereth his neighbour”; (Psalms 120:2) "false tongue"; (Psalms 12:4) "the tongue that speaketh proud things (slander)". For this reason I say that this expression (הולך רכיל) means "going about ומרגל, and spying out” (רגל = רכל), because the כ may interchange with ,ג since all letters the pronounciation of which are of the same place in the organs of speech may interchange with each other e. g., בי"ת with גימ"ל ,פ"א with כ"ף or with נו"ן ;קו"ף with זי"ן ;למ"ד with צד"י.

[bet with pe, gimel with kaf or with quf, nun with lammed; zayin with tzadi]

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Similarly the רוכל, the trader, is one who goes round and searches for (spies out) all kinds of merchandise, and so also the seller of perfumes which women use to make themselves nice, because he constantly goes about in the villages, he is called רוכל, which has the same meaning as רוגל.

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[DR transl.]. Do not act as a merchant in your people - That is to say, with your people, as I explained above in connection with Maimonides' Laws of Testimony chapter 17 that "You shall not bear false witness in your people" (Exodus 20:13) means 'with your people.' The intent here is that the traveling salesman's way is to sell in various places. Similarly, one who conveys one person's words to his fellow. In this way, he sells that person to his fellow, who will take vengeance upon him. This is called trafficking in human lives. The Torah forbids us from selling one's people. It makes no difference to whom one sells, whether to a Jew or to a non-Jew. The only question is, whom one is selling.

(1) AND THE LAND WAS DEFILED, THEREFORE DID I VISIT THE INIQUITY THEREOF UPON IT, AND THE LAND VOMITED OUT HER INHABITANTS.

...This is the meaning of the saying of the Rabbis: “Whoever lives outside the Land, is as if he had no G-d, for it is said, I am the Eternal your G-d, Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your G-d, and it is further said, for they have driven me [David] out this day that I should not cleave unto the inheritance of the Eternal, saying: Go, serve other gods.” And in the Tosephta of Tractate Abodah Zarah the Rabbis have said: “Now it is said, And I [Jacob] will come back to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Eternal be my G-d, and it is further said, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your G-d. When you are in the land of Canaan I am your G-d. When you are not in the land of Canaan, I am not your G-d if it were at all possible to say so [for He is our G-d under all circumstances and in all places]. ...

Similarly it is said, about forty thousand ready armed for war passed on in the presence of the Eternal unto battle (Joshua 4), and it is further said, and the Land is subdued before the Eternal, and before His people (I Chronicles 22:18). But how could it enter one’s mind that Israel subdued the Land before the Eternal [as if to say that they captured it for His sake]? But [this teaches that] as long as they are upon the Land, it is as if it were subdued [before Him, since He is their G-d, as explained above], but when they are not upon it, it is not subdued.”

It is on the basis of this matter that the Rabbis have said in the Sifre: “And ye perish quickly from off the good Land. (Deuteronomy 11:17). Although I banish you from the Land to outside the Land, make yourselves distinctive by the commandments, so that when you return they shall not be novelties to you. This can be compared to a master who was angry with his wife, and sent her back to her father’s house and told her, ‘Adorn yourself with precious things, so that when you come back they will not be novelties to you.’ And so did the prophet Jeremiah say [to the people in exile in Babylon], Set thee up waymarks. These are the commandments, by which Israel is made distinctive.” Now the verses which state, and ye perish quickly … and ye shall lay up these My words etc. only make obligatory in the exile [the observance of those commandments] affecting personal conduct, such as the [wearing of] phylacteries and [placing of] Mezuzoth [these being specifically mentioned there in the following words of Scripture], and concerning them the Rabbis [in the above text of the Sifre] explained [that we must observe them] so that they shall not be novelties to us when we return to the Land, for the main [fulfillment] of the commandments is [to be kept] when dwelling in the Land of G-d. Therefore the Rabbis have said in the Sifre: “And ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. And ye shall observe to do all the statutes etc. Dwelling in the Land of Israel is of equal importance to all the commandments of the Torah.”

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