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Onkelos Leviticus

About this book

Festivals and Sacred Times

Chapter 23

1 And the Lord spoke with Moses, saying: 2 Speak with the sons of Israel, and say to them: The Festivals of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy assemblies, these are My festivals. 3 You shall work for six days, but on the seventh day is the rest of the Shabbath; a holy assembly; you shall do no work on it. It is a Sabbath before the Lord in all your dwellings. 4 These are the festivals of the Lord, holy assemblies which you shall proclaim in their seasons. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, at twilight, is the Pascha before the Lord, 6 and on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of unleavened cakes before the Lord; you shall eat for seven days unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy assembly; you shall do no regular work; 8 but you shall offer an offering before the Lord seven days; on the seventh day there shall be a holy assembly; you may do no regular work. 9 And the Lord spoke with Moses, saying: 10 Speak with the sons of Israel, and say to them: When you have entered into the land that I will give to you, and you reap its harvest, you shall bring an omera of the first of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall uplift the omera before the Lord to be accepted for you: the priest shall lift it after the festival day.⁠ 12 And you shall offer an unblemished year-old lamb on the day when you lift the omera, as a burnt offering before the Lord. 13 And the mincha for it shall be two-tenths of flour mixed with oil, an offering to be accepted before the Lord; and its drink offering, wine, the fourth of a hin. 14 You shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor fresh ears of grain until this day when you bring the offering of your God; an everlasting statute for your generations in all your dwellings. 15 And count seven complete weeks for yourselves after the festival day, from the day that you brought the omera of the elevation. 16 Count fifty days, until the day after the seventh week, and then offer a new mincha before the Lord. 17 Bring from your dwellings two loaves for an elevation, two cakes made from two-tenths of flour, baked with leaven, as first fruits before the Lord. 18 And with the bread you shall offer seven unblemished year-old lambs, one young bull, and two rams; they shall be a burnt offering before the Lord, with their mincha and their drink offering, to be received with acceptance before the Lord. 19 And you shall offer one goat as a sin offering, and two year-old lambs for consecrated offerings. 20 And the priest shall lift them with the bread of the firstfruits as a lifted offering before the Lord; with the two lambs the loaves shall be consecrated before the Lord for the priest. 21 And on this same day you shall proclaim that it shall be a holy assembly to you. You shall do no regular work. This is an everlasting statute in all your dwellings for your generations. 22 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap every corner of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God. 23 And the Lord spoke with Moses, saying: 24 Speak with the sons of Israel, saying: In the seventh month you shall have a season of Rest; a memorial of the Trumpet, a holy assembly; 25 you shall do no regular work, but offer an offering before the Lord. 26 And the Lord spoke with Moses, saying: 27 But Yoma de Kippuraia shall be on the tenth day of this seventh month; you shall have a holy assembly, and humble your souls, and offer the offering before the Lord. 28 And you may do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For every man who will not humble himself on that same day, shall be cut off from his people. 30 And any man who does any work on that same day, I will destroy that man from among his people. 31 You shall do no work: an everlasting statute for your generations, in all your dwellings. 32 It shall be a Sabbath of rest for you, and you shall humble your souls, on the ninth of the month at evening: from evening to evening you shall observe your rest. 33 And the Lord spoke with Moses, saying: 34 Speak with the sons of Israel, saying: The Feast of Booths shall be on the fifteenth day of this seventh month, seven days before the Lord. 35 On the first day you shall have a holy assembly; you may do no regular work. 36 For seven days you shall offer offerings before the Lord; on the eighth day you shall have a holy assembly, and offer an offering before the Lord. You shall be gathered together; you may do no regular work. 37 These are the Festivals of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy assemblies, to offer an offering before the Lord, a burnt sacrifice, and a mincha, and a consecrated offering, and drink offerings, each according to what is required for its day. 38 Besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you present before the Lord. 39 Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the ground, you shall celebrate a feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day there shall be rest, and on the eighth day rest. 40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of the citron tree, and branches of palms, and myrtles, and willows of the brook, and rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. 41 And celebrate it, a feast before the Lord, seven days in the year; it is an everlasting statute for your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall live in booths for seven days; everyone who is native born in Israel shall live in booths: 43 so that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell under the shadow of clouds⁠ when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. 44 And Moses declared the order of the Festivals of the Lord, and taught them to the sons of Israel.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 23:43 and Onkelos Leviticus 23:43

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

Leviticus explains Sukkot by saying God made the Israelites live in shelters after the exodus. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos translates the word as the shadow of God's cloud, so the shelters become the protective cloud of the wilderness.

Passages

Leviticus 23:43

Hebrew Bible
42 You must live in temporary shelters for seven days; every native citizen in Israel must live in shelters, 43 so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” 44 So Moses spoke to the Israelites about the appointed times of the Lord.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Onkelos Leviticus 23:43

Targum
42 You shall live in booths for seven days; everyone who is native born in Israel shall live in booths: 43 so that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell under the shadow of clouds when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. 44 And Moses declared the order of the Festivals of the Lord, and taught them to the sons of Israel.
50–500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Onkelos Leviticus

References

“... DWELL IN THE SHADE OF MY CLOUD. Scripture reads “I made the people of Israel live in sukkot.” The basic meaning of sukkah (plural sukkot) is a “covering.” What is the covering within which the Israelites dwelt? Does it refer to physical dwellings of some kind, such as impermanent huts, or a miraculous divine protection, such as protective clouds? The rabbis disputed this issue in Mekhilta d’R. Ishmael, Sifra, and the Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 11a, b. The Targums render it “booths” in verse 42 because this is the obvious intent of the passage, and as “shade of My cloud” here. It is unclear whether our targumist meant the latter as a miraculous divine protection of literal protective clouds or he felt that the natural huts were metaphorically the way that God protected the Israelites. The Targums translate the noun as a name of a city in Exodus 13:20 because the Israelites did not withdraw from God’s protective cover or a hut, but departed the town Sukkot. The Sperber and Berliner Targum texts have “the shade of My cloud,” but some other variant readings use the plural “shades,” others the plural “clouds,” and still others delete “My.” ...”
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Leviticus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2008), 195.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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