The Foundation
Our Services
Interactive Resources
Link Maker
Commandments
"On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.(Leviticus 23:21) The literal commandment is that we should do no laborious work on the fiftieth day after Passover: the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot).
"On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations." (Leviticus 23:21) The literal commandment is that we should do no laborious work on the fiftieth day after Passover: the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot).
"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.(Leviticus 23:24) The literal commandment is that we should have a rest [shabbaton] on the first day of the seventh month (The Feast of Trumpets- Yom Teruah).
"'You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD." (Leviticus 23:25) The literal commandment is that we should not do any laborious work on the first day of the seventh month (The Feast of Trumpets- Yom Teruah).
"On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind." (Leviticus 23:24) The literal commandment is that we should do no laborious work of any kind on the fifteenth of the seventh month (the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles- Sukkot).
"On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind." (Leviticus 23:24) The literal commandment is that we should do no laborious work of any kind on the fifteenth of the seventh month (the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles- Sukkot).
"For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work." (Leviticus 23:36) The literal commandment is that we should do no laborious work on the eighth day of the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles (Sukkot).
"For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work." (Leviticus 23:36) The literal commandment is that we should do no laborious work on the eighth day of the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles (Sukkot).
"You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 16:3) The literal commandment is that we should not eat leavened bread with the Passover lamb" (Deuteronomy 16:2) on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan: the day of Passover.
"Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel." (Exodus 12:15) The literal commandment is that on the first day (of the Feast of Unleavened Bread) we should remove leaven from our houses.
"Moses said to the people, "Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the LORD brought you out from this place. And nothing leavened shall be eaten."" (Exodus 13:3) The literal commandment is that nothing leavened shall be eaten (during the Feast of Unleavened Bread).
"You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread." (Exodus 12:20) The literal commandment is that we should not eat anything leavened (during the Feast of Unleavened Bread).
"Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders." (Exodus 13:7) The literal commandment is that no leaven shall be seen in all your borders (during the Feast of Unleavened Bread).
"Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land." (Exodus 12:19) The literal commandment is that there shall be no leaven found in your houses (during the Feast of Unleavened Bread).
"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening." (Exodus 12:18) The literal commandment is that we should eat unleavened bread on the fourteenth day of the first month at evening (i.e. the first night of Passover).
"Now in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall also have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. It will be to you a day for blowing trumpets." (Numbers 29:1) The literal commandment is that the first day of the seventh month (Yom Teruah) shall be a day for blowing trumpets.
"You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 23:42-43) The literal commandment is that we should live in "booths" (temporary structure) for seven days during Sukkot: the Feast of Tabernacles.
"Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days." (Leviticus 23:40) The literal commandment is to take the foliage [literally "fruit"] of beautiful trees, palm branches, and boughs of leafy trees and willows and rejoice before G-d for seven days during Sukkot: the Feast of Tabernacles.
"When you go to war in your land against the adversary who attacks you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the LORD your God, and be saved from your enemies." (Exodus 30:13) The literal commandment is to sound an alarm with trumpets when going to war in the Land of Israel against those who attack you.
"None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute." (Deuteronomy 23:17)
This commandment literally says that none of the daughter of Israel should be a cult prostitute.
The general meaning is "there shall be no licentious women of the daughters of Israel" (i.e. they should be married before having sexual relations).
"God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." " (Genesis 1:28) The literal commandment is that a man and his wife should be fruitful and multiply their offspring.
"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house..." (Deuteronomy 24:1) The literal commandment is that a man should should write a certificate of divorce to a wife in whom has been found some indecency.
"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife, and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance." (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) The literal commandment is that a man should not re-marry the wife he divorced if she remarries after their divorce and her new husband dies or divorces her.
"When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her." (Deuteronomy 25:5) The literal commandment is that a man should marry his deceased brother's childless widow.
"When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.' Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, 'I do not desire to take her,' then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall declare, 'Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.' In Israel his name shall be called, 'The house of him whose sandal is removed.' " (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) The literal commandment is that a childless widow should perform a certain ceremony to indicate that a levirite marriage with her brother-in-law will not occur.
"When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.' Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, 'I do not desire to take her,' then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall declare, 'Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.' In Israel his name shall be called, 'The house of him whose sandal is removed.'" (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) The literal commandment is that a childless widow should not be married outside of her family... unless a certain ceremony takes place to free the brother and the widow from the levirite marriage.
"If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged, and lies with her, he must pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the dowry for virgins." (Exodus 22:16-17) The literal commandment is that a man who seduces a virgin should pay a dowry for her whether or not she becomes his wife.
"If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days." (Deuteronomy 22:28) The literal commandment is that a man who seizes and lies with a virgin must pay fifty shekels of silver and must marry the woman without possibility of divorce.
"No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you." (Deuteronomy 23:3-4)
"A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is profaned by harlotry, these he may not take; but rather he is to marry a virgin of his own people, so that he will not profane his offspring among his people; for I am the LORD who sanctifies him." (Leviticus 21:14) The high priest (verse 10) may not take a widow for a wife.
"'A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is profaned by harlotry, these he may not take; but rather he is to marry a virgin of his own people, so that he will not profane his offspring among his people; for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.'"" (Leviticus 21:15) The literal commandment is that the high priest (verse 10) should not profane his offspring [literally: seed] among his people. Since that would occur through sexual relations with someone G-d has forbidden to him this prohibition is understood that he cannot have sexual relations (even outside of marriage) with a widow.
"They shall not take a woman who is profaned by harlotry, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God." (Leviticus 21:7) The priests, the sons of Aaron (verse 1) may not take a woman who has been "profaned by harlotry". The Hebrew phrase translated as "profaned by harlotry" uses a word (tzanah) that implies willful and harlotrous behavior.
"These, moreover, you shall detest among the birds; they are abhorrent, not to be eaten: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, and the kite and the falcon in its kind, every raven in its kind, and the ostrich and the owl and the sea gull and the hawk in its kind, and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, and the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture, and the stork, the heron in its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat." (Leviticus 11:13-19) The literal commandment is that we are not to eat birds (flying animals) that are forbidden in this list.
"These you may eat, whatever is in the water: all that have fins and scales, those in the water, in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. But whatever is in the seas and in the rivers that does not have fins and scales among all the teeming life of the water, and among all the living creatures that are in the water, they are detestable things to you, and they shall be abhorrent to you; you may not eat of their flesh, and their carcasses you shall detest. Whatever in the water does not have fins and scales is abhorrent to you." (Leviticus 11:9-12)