Texts in Conversation
Numbers 28 calls the new moon goat a purification offering for God, phrased in an unusual way. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Shevuot draws on this to say the offering atones for God himself, who had made the moon the lesser of the two great lights.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 28:15
Hebrew Bible
14 For their drink offerings, include half a hin of wine with each bull, one-third of a hin for the ram, and one-fourth of a hin for each lamb. This is the burnt offering for each month throughout the months of the year. 15 And one male goat must be offered to the Lord as a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering. 16 “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord’s Passover.
Shevuot 9a
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
The Gemara elaborates: Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: What is the reasoning of Rabbi Yehuda? The verse states with regard to additional offerings of the New Moons: “And one goat for a sin-offering to the Lord” (Numbers 28:15). The final phrase, which literally means: A sin to the Lord, alludes to the fact that this goat atones for a sin of which only the Lord is aware, i.e., where there was no awareness either at the beginning or at the end. The Gemara objects: But this phrase is necessary in order to expound it in accordance with the statement of Reish Lakish, as Reish Lakish says: What is different about the goat brought as a sin-offering of the New Moon that it is stated with regard to it: “To the Lord,” a term not written with regard to other sin-offerings? The Holy One, Blessed be He, says, as it were: This goat shall be an atonement for the fact that I diminished the size of the moon. The Gemara resolves the problem: If so, i.e., if the phrase was needed only for that statement, let the verse state only: A sin-offering for the Lord. For what reason does it state: “To the Lord”? In order to expound it in accordance with that which we have said, that it atones only for a sin that the Lord alone is aware of.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... since God saw that its mind was not quieted, he said, ‘Present an offering because I shrank the moon.’ ” (Then follows the saying of S. Simeon b. Laqish above.) — Genesis Rabbah 6 (5A): R. Phineas (circa 360) said, “For all offerings it is written, ‘A shaggy goat as a sin offering’; but concerning the new moon it is written, ‘A shaggy goat as a sin offering for Yahweh’ (Numbers 28:15). God said, ‘Bring an atoning offering for me, because I shrank the moon, for I am the one who caused it to intrude into the arena of its companion.’” ...
Strack, Hermann L., and Paul Billerbeck
Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, Volume 3
(p. Vol. 3, Chullin 60b) Lexham Press, 2022
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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