meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Torah/Exodus/English/Torah Yesharah, translated and edited by Chas. Kahane. New York, 1963.txt"}
text: Exodus
  שמות
  Torah Yesharah, translated and edited by Chas. Kahane. New York, 1963
  
  
  Exodus
  
  
  
  
  
  These are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt with Jacob; each came with his offspring and became the founder of a great nation:(אונקלוס, א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  Reuben, Shimeon, Levi, and Judah
  Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin
  Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher
  Now all the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons, besides the wives of the sons and grandsons, and the husbands of the daughters and the granddaughters and their servants; and Joseph was already in Egypt, but he had remained loyal to his father's house.(רש"י, א"ע בפסוק א.)
  Joseph continued to hold high office throughout his lifetime and all his brothers were held in high esteem, until the time that they and all that generation of Egyptians died.(א"ע.)
  The children of Israel were fruitful — their wives gave birth to sextuplets — and they increased, and became exceedingly mighty; the land was filled with them in every branch of business and entertainment; but a large portion of them forgot the religious traditions of their ancestors.(רש"י, מדרש.)
  Now a king of a new dynasty arose over Egypt, who ignored the benefits Joseph had bestowed on the land.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  And he said to his people: “A people, called the Children of Israel, are too many, inasmuch as they are everywhere and too mighty for us, as they impose themselves on all important positions in the land.(מדרש.)
  Be ready; let us deal craftily with them, lest they continue to increase; and when the hardships of war befall us, they also will join our enemies, fight against us, and we shall then have a pretext to drive them out of the land."(רש"י, ספורנו, רשב"ם, ד"ע.)
  They therefore set taskmasters over the Israelites and conscripted them for forced labor, supposedly to do their patriotic duty. In reality, however, the Egyptians afflicted them to break their spirit by hard labor; and they built for Pharaoh the fortress cities of Pithom and Raamses.(עפ"י רש"י ורמב"ן.)
  But the more they afflicted them, the more did they increase, and the more did they continue to spread out as before the affliction, so that the Egyptians loathed the presence of the Children of Israel.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  It reached the point where not only Pharaoh but any Egyptian felt at liberty to enslave the Children of Israel with crushing oppression.(מלבי"ם.)
  Their aim was to embitter their lives with hard labor, with mortar and with bricks, and in all manner of labor in the field, so that they would be forced to be away from their wives. In all the hard labor they imposed on them, the motivation was to crush their spirit.(מלבי"ם.)
  The king of Egypt spoke to the chief midwives, specially appointed for the Hebrew women, one of whom bore the name of Shiphrah, and the other the name of Puah.(א"ע.)
  He said: “When you attend the Hebrew women at childbirth, you shall look upon the birthstool. If the child be male, then you shall slay him secretly, but if it is a female, let her live so that she may serve as a slave."(א"ע, הירץ.)
  But the midwives revered the Almighty and did not do what the king of Egypt had ordered them to do, but kept the boys alive. Moreover, they provided them with food and drink.(רש"י.)
  The king of Egypt summoned the midwives, and said to them: “Why have you done this thing to keep the boys alive?”
  And the midwives said to Pharaoh: 'Tor the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; they are themselves skilled as midwives. Ere the midwife comes to them, they have given birth.”(רש"י.)
  And the Almighty dealt well with the midwives, in that Pharaoh did not punish them. And so the people multiplied, and increased abundantly.(מלבי"ם.)
  Because the midwives revered the Almighty and the plan of the king miscarried, Pharaoh made special houses where the Hebrew women should give birth,(מלבי"ם.)
  and Pharaoh commanded all his people as follows: “Every male that is born to the Israelites you shall cast into the river, and every female you shall keep alive as a slave.”(אונקלוס.)
  
  
  
  Amram, a man of the tribe of Levi, went and remarried the daughter of Levi, son of Jacob.(רש"י.)
  The woman became pregnant, and bore a son; when she saw that he was a good child, and did not betray his presence by crying, she hid him for three months.(שד"ל.)
  But eventually she could no longer hide him, for fear that the Egyptian neighbors would hear him crying. So she took for him a box made of long reeds and lined it with slime and pitch to make it water-tight. Into this box she put the child and placed it among the reeds by the banks of the river, to obey the king’s decree.(א"ע, רשב"ם, ספורנו.)
  And his sister remained standing at a distance, to see what would happen to him, whether he would be picked up as a foundling.(ספורנו.)
  Providence had ordained that the child should be brought up in the tyrant’s palace. Thus it came about that Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the public river, instead of in her private bath. And as her ladies-in-waiting walked by the river-side, she saw the box among the reeds, and sent her personal attendant for it, and she took it.(מלבי"ם, ספורנו.)
  When she opened it, she perceived the Divine Presence with the child, and the boy was weeping like a grown-up lad. She had compassion on him and said: “He is circumcised, therefore he must be one of the Hebrew children.”(רש"י, תלמוד, סוטה יא.)
  When his sister noted that the child refused the milk of other women, she joined the attendants and said to Pharaoh’s daughter: “Shall I go and call for you a wet nurse from among the Hebrews so that she may nurse the child for you?”(רש"י.)
  And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her: “Go!” And the young women sped away and called the child’s mother.(רש"י.)
  And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her: “Here is your child. Nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” Unknowingly the daughter of Pharaoh implied that the woman was the mother of the child. And the woman took the child, and nursed him.(רש"י.)
  And the child grew up under his mother’s care. She instilled into him the belief in the Eternal and imparted to him the sacred traditions of his people. Then she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who reared him as her son. The Almighty had ordained it so that the child should not have the humble disposition of a slave, so that he would be able to help his people. And she called his name Moshe — Moses: meaning “drawn from the waters." She said: “Because I drew him out of the water."
  In those days, when Moses had become„great in the nobility, but nevertheless remembered his mother's teachings of mercy, he went out from the royal palace to his brethren and he saw the difficulties they were experiencing. He beheld an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew man, one of his kinsmen.(רש"י, מלבי"ם.)
  He turned to all sides to see whether anyone would come to the aid of the Hebrew. When he saw that there was no man of courage to come to the Hebrew's aid, he fought with the Egyptian, slew him, and hid him in the sand.(מפרשים.)
  When he went out the next day, and saw two Hebrew men quarreling, Moses said to the aggressor: “Why should you want to fight your brother Israelite?"(רש"י, א"ע.)
  And the aggressor replied: “Who appointed you a ruler or a judge over us? Do you look for an excuse to kill me, just as you killed the Egyptian?" And Moses was distressed that such wicked men should be found among his brethren, and he said: “Now I know the reason why the Israelites suffer more than all others in Egypt; it is because there is no harmony among them."(רש"י בשם מדרש.)
  When Pharaoh learned of this thing, he wanted to kill Moses. But Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and he settled in the land of Midian, and he stayed by a well.(ספורנו.)
  Now the Chieftain of Midian had seven daughters, and they would come and draw water, and fill the troughs to water their father's flocks.(אונקלוס.)
  But the shepherds who wanted to water their sheep first came and drove them away. So Moses stood up, helped them, and watered their flocks.(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  When they came to their father, Reuel, whose title was Jethro, (meaning: “His Excellency") he said: “How is it that you came so soon today?"(מפרשי אחרונים, הירץ.)
  They said: “A man, whose garb and speech are Egyptian, rescued us from the hands of shepherds, and he even drew water for us, and watered the flock."(מדרש.)
  He said to his daughters: “Where is he? How is it that you have left such a gallant man? Go, call him that he may break bread with us."(ספורנו.)
  And Moses agreed to stay with the man and to be his shepherd, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage.(אונקלוס, ספורנו.)
  She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, meaning: “Foreigner," for he said: “I have been an alien in a foreign land."
  And it happened in the course of those many days, sixty years after Moses had fled, that the king of Egypt died, so Moses could return to Egypt. The Children of Israel sighed, for their hope that the new king would relieve them from their hard work had been in vain. They cried, and their cry of agony came up to the Almighty though it was not the voice of prayer to Him but the cry of bondage.(א"ע, רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  The Almighty heard their groaning, and the Almighty remembered the covenant He had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not to abandon their descendants.(מדרש.)
  The Almighty saw the violence done to the children of Israel openly, and the Almighty also knew the cruel plans that had been devised against them in secret.(א"ע.)
  
  
  
  Now Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the Chieftain of Midian, and he led the flock beyond the wilderness. There he left the flock behind him, and came to pray at the place which was later called: “The Mountain of the Almighty." since He revealed Himself there to Israel. This is Mount Horeb.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  An angel of the Eternal appeared to him in the midst of fire from among the thorn-bush. He looked, and saw a fire burning in the thorn-bush, but the thorn-bush was not consumed. The thorn-bush was symbolic of the state of the Children of Israel — lowly and humiliated yet indestructible, for the Eternal dwells within them.(רש"י, א"ע, מלבי"ם.)
  Moses said: “I will turn from there and look from another side at this wonderful sight, and see why the thorn-bush is not burnt up."(רש"י.)
  When the Eternal saw that Moses turned aside to look, wondering how the small nation symbolized by the bush would be able to survive such searing anguish, the Almighty called him from among the thorn-bush, and lovingly said: “Moses, Moses." He replied: “Here am I."(מכילתא, מפרשים.)
  And He said: “Do not come near, for you have not yet reached the full state of holiness. Remove your shoes from your feet, for the place upon which you stand is holy ground."(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  And He continued: “I am the Almighty of Whom your father Amram spoke to you in your childhood; the Almighty of Abraham, the Almighty of Isaac, and the Almighty of Jacob, constant in fulfilling the promise I made to them." And Moses covered his face, for he felt awe at beholding the holiness of the Almighty.(עפ"י שמו"ר ויונתן.)
  And the Eternal said: “The secret plans of affliction the Egyptians have made My people suffer are revealed before Me, and I have heard their cry from their suffering at the hands of the taskmasters. Indeed I know their sorrow.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  I revealed Myself through you to deliver them from the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to replace the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.(אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
  Now since I have decided to redeem them, for the cry of the Children of Israel has reached Me, and the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them exceedingly was also revealed to me, and the sufferings are greater even now than the oppression that had been foretold; namely, that they would have to dwell in an alien land for four hundred years,(אונקלוס, ספורנו.)
  come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh to give him warning of his punishment, and in the end you will succeed in bringing forth from Egypt My people, the Children of Israel."(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  But Moses said to the Almighty: “Who am I, a simple fugitive, to approach a mighty monarch such as Pharaoh? And, then, do the Children of Israel deserve that I should bring them forth from Egypt?"(רש"י.)
  And He said: “Fear not to face Pharaoh, for I will be with you, and you will find favor in his eyes, and this burning bush is a sign for you that I have sent you. Israel is not yet deserving of redemption, but when you will bring forth the people from Egypt you will be ready to worship the Almighty upon this mountain."(ע"פ רש"י, רשב"ם, ספורנו.)
  Moses said to the Almighty: “Assuming that I come to the Children of Israel, and I shall say to them: The Almighty of your ancestors has sent me to you'; and they will ask me: ‘In what quality? Is it as the Almighty of powerful force, or is it as the Eternal of Mercy? Shall we be passive, and will He in His mercy redeem us?’ What shall I say to them?"(עפ"י רמב"ן.)
  And the Almighty said to Moses: “I am One and Eternal, so you, too, shall be united as one and you will be an eternal people." He further said: “Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: 'The Eternal Who is determined to remove cruelty from all human existence, has sent me to you.'"(רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  And the Almighty further said to Moses: “Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: 'The Merciful Eternal, the Almighty of your ancestors, the Almighty of Abraham, the Almighty of Isaac, and the Almighty of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, the Eternal of Mercy, but when the wicked disobey My warning I act as the Almighty of Judgment to punish them, and this is how you shall remember Me throughout all generations.'(עפ"י מלבי"ם ומפרשים.)
  “Go and assemble the leaders of Israel and say to them: 'The Merciful Eternal, the Almighty of your ancestors has appeared to me; the Almighty of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying: I have remembered you because you are their descendants, and also because of the evil done to you in Egypt,(ספורנו.)
  “'and I have decided that I will bring you up from the affliction of Egypt into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.'(א"ע.)
  “They will heed your message. Then you shall go, you and the leaders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and shall say to him: 'The Eternal, the Almighty of the Hebrews, has revealed Himself to us. Now, therefore, let us go through the wilderness on a three days' journey that we may offer sacrifices to the Eternal our Almighty. For this is not allowed in Egypt; and we shall find out what it is that the Eternal requests of us.'(עפ"י מלבי"ם, וד"ע.)
  “And as it is revealed before Me that the king of Egypt is an incorrigible and relentless sinner beyond return, he will not voluntarily let you go, unless he is under pressure of a mighty power,(עפ"י מלבי"ם ואונקלוס.)
  So I will manifest My Power and smite Egypt, with all My wonders which I will perform in its midst. And after that he will let you go.(עפ"י אונקלוס.)
  And I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that when you will leave you will not leave empty-handed.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  For every Egyptian woman will ask her Israelite neighbor, and also the tenant of her house to sell their Israelite property for articles of silver and articles of gold, and for raiment. And you shall put these upon your sons, and upon your daughters, thus will you be able to recover the landed property from the hands of the Egyptians."(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  
  
  
  But Moses answered and said: “When Pharaoh will refuse to let the people go, then the faith of the elders in me will be shaken, they will not believe me, nor hearken to my message; for they will say: 'The Eternal has not appeared to you.'"(ספורנו.)
  The Eternal said to him: “What do you hold in your hand?" And Moses replied: “A staff!"
  He said: “Cast it upon the ground." When he cast it upon the ground it became a snake, and Moses fled from before it.
  Then the Eternal said to Moses: “Stretch out your hand, and take hold of it by its tail." When he stretched out his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand, a symbol of the Eternal's rod that will triumph over the snake, the emblem of Pharaoh.(עפ"י הירש.)
  “As a result of this wondrous act they will believe that the Eternal, the Almighty of their ancestors, the Almighty of Abraham, the Almighty of Isaac, and the Almighty of Jacob has appeared to you."(רמב"ן.)
  The Eternal further said to him: “Put now your hand into the sleeve of your garment.” And Moses put his hand into the sleeve of his garment, and when he took it out, behold his hand was leprous, white as snow.(א"ע.)
  And He said: “Put back your hand into the sleeve of your garment.” And Moses put back his hand into the sleeve of his garment; and when he took it out again it had turned as his other flesh, a symbol of the Eternal's healing of Israel from their ills.(עפ"י מפרשים.)
  And He reassured Moses: “Even if some of the people should not believe you or heed the message of the first sign, they will believe in the message of the other sign.”(א"ע.)
  But if they should not believe even these two signs, nor heed your message, then you shall take some of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land, and the water of which you have taken from the river will become blood on dry land, to remind them of the blood of the children that had been shed in the river.”(מלבי"ם.)
  Moses said to the Eternal: “O Master, even if they believe, my mission may yet fail because of my failing. I am not a man of eloquence, neither from yesterday nor from the day before, and you have not remedied my defect since You have spoken to Your servant, I am still slow of speech, and slow of tongue.”(עפ"י א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  And the Eternal said to him: “Who caused man to speak, and who has caused man to be speechless or deaf, seeing or blind? It is not I, the Eternal, doing it for a purpose? And the purpose of your defect of speech is that people should not claim that redemption came through your eloquence.(מלבי"ם.)
  Now, therefore, go. My words will come through your mouth, and I will direct you what you shall speak.”(אונקלוס, מלבי"ם.)
  But he said: “O Master, I will accept the punishment due me for refusing to accept this mission. I beg of you, send Aaron, whom You have sent before.”(א"ע בפסוק י, מלבי"ם.)
  And the anger of the Eternal burned against Moses, and He said: “Do I not know that Aaron your brother, the Levite, can speak well? But I do not want a messenger of perfect speech! However, he will come out to meet you; and when he will see you he will rejoice in his heart.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  When you speak to him, and put the words into his mouth, My words will speak through you and through his mouth, and direct you what you shall do,(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  and he will be your spokesman to the people, so that he shall be the speaker for you, and you will be his Divine inspiration.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  And this staff with which you shall perform the miraculous signs you shall take into your hand as an emblem of authority.”(ספורנו.)
  Moses returned from the wilderness to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him: “Permit me now to go to my kinfolk in Egypt, and see whether they are yet alive, and then I will return to you.” And Jethro said to Moses: “Go in peace.”(רשב"ם.)
  But the Eternal said to Moses, in Midian: “Go back to Egypt to stay for a long period, and fear not, for all the men who sought your life have died.”(מלבי"ם.)
  So Moses took his wife and his sons and sent them on the donkey back to Jethro in Midian while he prepared to return to Egypt; and Moses took the miraculous staff with him.(א"ע, ספורנו, מלבי"ם.)
  And the Eternal said to Moses: “The reason I told you to tarry in Egypt was that you might see all the wonders that I will set, and you shall perform them before Pharaoh. And since his sin against human beings can be made good no more by repentance, I will cause him to be stubborn and he will not let the people go, so that you will stay there a long time.”(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  “Then you shall say to Pharaoh: 'Thus said the Eternal: Israel is My first-born; any Divine message to the world shall come through Israel first, because their ancestors were the first to acknowledge the Eternal.'(עפ"י א"ע.)
  "'And I warn you: Let My son go that he may serve Me, and receive the inspiration for My message; but if you refuse to let him go I will ultimately slay your firstborn son.'”(עפ"י א"ע ורש"י ומפרשים.)
  On the way, at the lodging place, an angel of the Eternal met Moses, and sought to kill him by smiting him with illness for deferring the circumcision of his son.(אונקלוס, רש"י, א"ע.)
  Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at Moses’ feet; and she said, "You must finish the circumcision, for you are my bridegroom, a male, eligible to perform circumcision."(א"ע עפ"י הגמ' ע"ז כז, ועיין ביו"ד סי' רסד א.)
  When the illness subsided from him, he completed the circumcision. Then she called him "bridegroom of blood with regard to circumcision.”(עפ"י הג', וע' בתורה תמימה בראשית יז, יח.)
  The Eternal said to Aaron: "Go to the wilderness to meet Moses.” He went, and met him at the Mount Horeb, the mountain of the Almighty, and he kissed him.(רמב"ן.)
  Moses told Aaron all the words of the Eternal, how He had sent him on a mission, and all the signs with which He commanded him to perform.
  Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the leaders of the Children of Israel.
  Aaron, as the spokesman, retold all the words which the Eternal had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs in the presence of the representatives of the people.
  And the leaders of the people believed, and when they heard that the Eternal had remembered the Children of Israel and that their affliction was revealed before Him, they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves in gratitude.
  
  
  
  After they had won the confidence of the people, Moses and Aaron (the leaders of Israel having deserted them because of fear,) came to Pharaoh alone, and said to him: "Thus said the Eternal, the Almighty of the People of Israel: 'Let My people go that they may offer a festival sacrifice in the wilderness, for they cannot offer up animals in the presence of the Egyptians.’”(רש"י, א"ע.)
  But Pharaoh said contemptuously: "Who is the Eternal of Mercy, that I should hearken to His message to let Israel go? I know not an Eternal of Mercy, neither will I let Israel go.”(עפ"י מדרש.)
  They said: "He is not only the Eternal of Mercy but also the Almighty of Judgment of the ancient Hebrews, who has revealed Himself to us. Let us go now on a three days’ journey in the wilderness, and offer sacrifices to the Eternal our Almighty, lest He strike all of us, Egyptians and Israelites alike, with pestilence, or with the sword.”(רשב"ם, א"ע, ספורנו.)
  But the king of Egypt said to them: "Why do you, Moses and Aaron, divert the people from their work? You are their representatives; tell them to go back to their labors.”(עפ"י א"ע.)
  And Pharaoh continued: "Oh, there are now too many leaders of your people in this land, and you take the people away from their labors.”(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  On that same dav Pharaoh commanded the Egyptian taskmasters over the people, and their subordinate Hebrew officers as follows:(רש"י.)
  "You shall no longer give the people straw for holding together the bricks as heretofore. Let them go and gather the straw for themselves.
  But you shall still exact from them the daily quota of bricks, which they made in previous days. You shall not diminish anything from it, for they are idle; therefore they cry: 'Let us go and offer sacrifices to our Almighty.'
  Let harder work be put upon the men, that they may labor there, and let them not rely upon words of falsehood."(א"ע.)
  So the Egyptian taskmasters of the people and their Israelite officers went out from the palace of the king, and spoke to the people as follows: “Thus commanded Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw’.
  Go yourselves and get your straw wherever you can find it, but nothing will be diminished from your daily quota.’”
  Then the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble in place of straw.
  And the taskmasters rushed them saying: “Fulfill your quota, your daily task, even as you did when we gave you straw.”
  Also the officers of the Children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had appointed over them, were beaten and told: “Why have you not supplied your quota of bricks both yesterday and today as in former days?”
  Then the officers of the Children of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you act in such a manner with your servants?
  “No straw is being given to your servants, but the taskmasters tell us to accomplish our labor of making bricks, and your servants are being beaten, then you cause your own people to sin.”(ד"ע.)
  But he said: “You are idle, you are idle; therefore you say: 'Let us go offer sacrifices to the Eternal.’
  Go therefore now' and work, straw shall not be given to you, but you must deliver the quota of bricks.’”
  Now the officers of the Children of Israel saw their brethren in an evil plight because they had to order them: “You shall diminish nothing from your daily quota of bricks,”(עפ"י רש"י.)
  so when coming out from the palace of Pharaoh they met Moses and Aaron standing awaiting them,(א"ע.)
  they said to them: “May the Eternal look upon you, and punish you, for you have caused us to lose our reputation in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants and given them a pretext to put a sword in their hand to slay us.”(וישפוט מל' עשה שפטים, ראה מלבי"ם.)
  Then Moses returned to the Eternal and said: “O Master! Why have You brought misfortune upon this people? If they deserve what has happened to them, why have You sent me to be the cause of it?(ספורנו.)
  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has afflicted this people with more evil; surely You have not saved Your people.”(עפ"י רש"י.)
  
  
  
  Then the Eternal said to Moses: “Now the time has come for their punishment. Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for only because of My strong power will he let them go, and because of My mighty power wall he urge them to depart from his land.”(עפ"י רש"י.)
  The Almighty spoke to Moses, and said to him, “I will have to exert My mighty power against Pharaoh, yet I am still the Eternal of Mercy, the Dispenser of reward to the loyal.(רש"י.)
  I have appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as the Beneficient Almighty, but I did not make Myself known to them in My real attribute, 'I the Eternal,' for My promise was not fulfilled in their lifetime.(רש"י.)
  However, I have established My covenant with them for the future to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their temporary abode, in which they resided as strangers.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  I have heard the groaning of repentaifce of the Children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.(א"ע.)
  Therefore say to the Children of Israel: I am the Eternal of Mercy, ready to honor My promise. I will free you from the oppression of the Egyptian taskmasters, and I will deliver you from their bondage, for you will leave Egypt, and I will redeem you at the Red Sea, protecting you with an outstretched arm, and I will inflict great punishment upon the Egyptians.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  And I will take you to Me as My people, by having you accept the Torah at Sinai, and I will remain to you the Eternal, and you will acknowledge the First of the Ten Commandments that I am the Eternal, Your Almighty, Who brought you out from under the oppression of the Egyptians.(רמב"ן, מלבי"ם.)
  I will bring you into the land which I affirmed to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will bequeathe it to you as an inheritance. I am the Eternal to fulfill the promise."
  Moses repeated these same words to the Children of Israel, but they could not understand the lofty message of Moses, because of their spiritual impoverishment and because of their hard labor.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  And the Eternal said to Moses as follows:
  ‘'Now that you have delivered My message to the Children of Israel, come and speak to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, that he may let the Children of Israel go from his land.”(מפרשים.)
  But Moses spoke before the Eternal: “Now the Children of Israel have not understood me, shall Pharaoh then understand me, especially when my speech is impeded?”
  So the Eternal spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and instructed them to speak to the Children of Israel, and to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, that they would surely deliver the Children of Israel from the land of Egypt.(מלבי"ם, כדי לתרץ למה מונה שנותם.)
  These are the heads of their father’s houses: the sons of Reuben, the first born of Israel: Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben, and none of them were worthy of the great mission to redeem Israel.(ד"ע.)
  The sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin, and Ohad and Jachin, and Zohar and Shaul the son of Dinah who had been captured by Shechem the Canaanite; these, too, were not worthy of the great mission.
  These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their birth: Gershon and Kohath and Merari. And the years of Levi, who survived all his twelve brothers, were a hundred and thirty-seven.(רש"י.)
  The sons of Gershon; Libni and Shimei, according to their families, were also not worthy of the great mission.
  The sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar, and Hebron,and Uzziel. And the life of Kohath, whose family was worthy of the great mission, was a hundred and thirty-three years.(ד"ע ראה פסוק יד.)
  The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their birth.
  Amram took his aunt Yochebed to be his wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of Amram’s life were one hundred and thirty-seven, and he was worthy of seeing his sons be the redeemers of Israel.(ד"ע ראה פסוק יד.)
  The sons of Izhar were: Korah, and Nepheg and Zichri.
  The sons of Uzziel were: Mishael, and Elzaphan and Sithri.
  Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon, the founder of the royal family of Judea, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.(ד"ע ראה פסוק יד.)
  The sons of Korah were: Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph: These are the families of the Korahites, the singers and musicians in the Sanctuary.(ד"ע ראה פסוק יד.)
  And Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel, descendants of Joseph, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the forefathers of the Kohanites and Levites, according to their families.(ספורנו.)
  This is the tribe that brought forth Aaron and Moses, to whom the Eternal said: "Take the Children of Israel from the land of Egypt, according to their tribes.” (רש"י, ד"ע.)
  They were the ones worthy of the mission to speak to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to bring out the Children of Israel from Egypt. This was the mission of Moses and Aaron.(ספורנו, ד"ע.)
  And when the day came that the Eternal should speak to Moses in the land of Egypt;(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  and when the Eternal had spoken to Moses saying: "I am the Eternal of Mercy; tell Pharaoh, King of Egypt, all that I will speak to you.”
  and Moses had said before the Eternal: "Oh, I am with impeded lips, and how will Pharaoh understand me?”(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  
  
  
  Then the Eternal said to Moses: "Mark! I have appointed you to convey the Divine message to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your inspired spokesman.(לפי רשב"ם וא"ע, מלבי"ם.)
  You shall say all that I command you, and your brother shall tell it to Pharaoh, and demand that he shall let the Children of Israel go from his land.(רשב"ם.)
  But it is known to Me that Pharaoh cast away his chance to repent. I will, therefore, harden his heart, and I will increase My natural signs and My supernatural wonders in the land of Egypt.(רמב"ן ומלבי"ם.)
  Pharaoh will still not listen to you. Then I will manifest My power in Egypt, and bring forth My tribes, My Children of Israel, by force of great punishment.(עפ"י ספורנו, א"ע, אונקלוס.)
  And the Egyptians will recognize that I am the Eternal Ruler, when I stretch forth My power against Egypt, and bring forth the children of Israel from their midst.”(רשב"ם.)
  Moses and Aaron did so. Just as the Eternal commanded them, so they did.(עפ"י ספורנו.)
  They undertook the difficult mission at an advanced age, for Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.(עפ"י ספורנו.)
  The Eternal spoke to Moses and Aaron as follows:
  "When Pharaoh will speak to you, demanding: ‘Display a supernatural wonder as proof that He who sent you has power,' you shall tell Aaron to take his staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it becomes a crocodile, showing that the staff will overpower the crocodile, the emblem of Pharaoh.”(רש"י, מלבי"ם.)
  When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, they did just as the Eternal had commanded them. And Aaron cast down the staff, which he took from Moses, before Pharaoh and in the presence of his officials, and it became a crocodile.(א"ע בפסוק ט.)
  Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers; and they, the magicians of Egypt, also could do the same by their secret arts;(אונקלוס.)
  for each cast down his staff, and they became crocodiles, though only in appearance; thy could not move. And Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs, proving that only that which is Divine has the power to move and act.(ספורנו.)
  But the signs failed to impress Pharaoh, so that his heart was hardened and he did not listen to them, even as the Eternal had said.(רשב"ם.)
  And the Eternal said to Moses: 'The heart of Pharaoh is stubborn. He refuses to let the people go, therefore I shall have to strike him with plagues.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  Go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes out to the water to worship the River Nile. You shall stand by the bank of the river to meet him, and you shall take in your hand the staff which was turned into a crocodile.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  And say to him: The Eternal, the Almighty of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying: 'Let My People go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness,' You have not listened to the message until now.
  Thus said the Eternal: 'O you, who said, I know not the Eternal, by this you shall know that there is One Who can claim: 'I am the Eternal.' Your idol, the river, will be the first to feel the weight of the Eternal's might. Mark, with the staff that is in my possession I shall strike the waters in the river, and they shall be turned to blood;(רש"י, א"ע, מלבי"ם.)
  and the fish in the river will die. The river shall become foul, and the Egyptians will wear themselves out in search of a remedy to make the water fit for them to drink.'”(רש"י.)
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Tell Aaron: Take the staff, stretch out your hand, and wave it over all the waters of Egypt in every direction; over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their wells of water — that they may become blood. And there will be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even the waters that they have gathered in vessels made of wood and stone.”(א"ע, מלבי"ם.)
  Moses and Aaron did so, as the Eternal had commanded, and Aaron lifted up the staff, and struck the waters that were in the river, in the presence of Pharaoh and in the presence of his officials; and all the waters in the river turned to blood,
  and the fish in the river died. The river became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from it, and the blood was throughout all the land of Egypt.
  The magicians of Egypt obtained water from the Hebrew settlements in Goshen, and did the same as Aaron with their secret arts, but they succeeded with the stagnant waters only and not with the flowing ones. And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he did not listen to them, even as the Eternal had said.(א"ע, מפרשי אחרונים.)
  And Pharaoh turned and went to his palace, and he paid no attention to this miracle.
  All the Egyptians dug around the river for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the river.
  And the plague endured seven full days, after the Eternal had struck the river.(רשב"ם.)
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Enter into Pharaoh's palace, and warn him: ‘Thus said the Eternal: Let My People go, that they may serve Me.'(רשב"ם, מלבי"ם.)
  ‘But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your borders with frogs.
  ‘And the river from which you were expecting prosperity and blessing will turn into a curse, for it will teem with frogs which will rise and go into your home, into your bed, and into the house of your officials, upon your people, into your ovens and into your kneading-troughs.(מלבי"ם.)
  ‘The frogs shall enter into your bodies, and the bodies of your people, and the bodies of all your official servants.'"(רש"י.)
  
  
  
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Tell Aaron: ‘Stretch forth your arm and wave it in every direction with the staff, over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and bring up the frogs upon the land of Egypt.'"(א"ע.)
  Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and a swarm of frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.(רש"י.)
  But the magicians did the same with their secret arts, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
  And since the magicians could not remove the frogs from Egypt, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and said: “Beseech the Eternal to take away the frogs from me and my people; and I will let the people go to offer sacrifices to the Eternal."(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  And Moses said to Pharaoh: “Lest you should boast over me that the frogs were removed by chance only, therefore appoint a time when I should intercede for you, and for your officials, that the frogs be removed from you and your houses, and remain in the river only."(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  And he answered: “Let it be tomorrow." And he said: “Be it as you said, in order that you shall know that there is none like the Eternal, our Almighty,
  the frogs will depart from you, from your houses, from your officials, and from your people, and they shall remain in the river only."
  Then Moses and Aaron went forth from the presence of Pharaoh, and Moses prayed fervently to the Eternal to confirm the promise He had made concerning the removal of the frogs which He had brought upon Pharaoh.(א"ע.)
  And the Eternal did as Moses prayed; the frogs died out in the houses, the courts, and the fields.
  And they piled them up in heaps, and there was a foul smell in the land.
  But when Pharaoh saw that relief had come, he hardened his heart, and did not listen to them, even as the Eternal had said.
  Then the Eternal said to Moses: “Tell Aaron: ‘Stretch out your staff, and strike the dust of the earth that it may become vermin throughout the land of Egypt-’”
  And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there was vermin upon man, and upon animals; all the dust of the earth became vermin, throughout the land of Egypt.
  The magicians also struck the ground with their secret arts to bring forth vermin, but they could not do it; and there was vermin upon man and beast.(רמב"ן.)
  And the magicians said to Pharaoh: “This is indeed an act of higher powers, but not of the Eternal." And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to Moses and Aaron, as the Eternal had said.(א"ע ומלבי"ם.)
  And the Eternal said to Moses: “Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh when he goes out to the water, and say to him: Thus said The Eternal: Let My People go, that they may serve Me,
  if you will not let My People go, I will send a mixture of wild beast upon you, and upon your officials, and upon your people, and into your houses; the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of the mixture of beasts and also the ground they stand on, even where no houses stand.(רש"י.)
  And on that day I shall confine the province of Goshen, in which My people dwell, that no mixture of beasts shall be there, in order that you may acknowledge that I am the Eternal, not only in heaven, but also in the social order of the world.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  And I will set a sign of deliverance among My oppressed people, and among your oppressed people. The sign shall be tomorrow.'"(עפ"י רש"י וא"ע.)
  And the Eternal did so. A mighty swarm of wild beasts came into the palace of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his officials; and the earth was ruined in all the land of Egypt because of the swarm of wild beasts.
  Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and said: “Go, offer sacrifices to your Almighty in the land of Egypt, but not in the wilderness."(רש"י וא"ע.)
  But Moses said: “It is not proper that we should offer as a sacrifice, in Egypt, the sheep, which is the idol of Egypt, to the Eternal our Almighty. If we sacrifice the idol of Egypt in the presence of the Egyptians, will they not stone us?(רש"י ומלבי"ם.)
  Let us go on a three days’ journey in the wilderness, and we shall offer sacrifices to the Eternal our Almighty, as he shall direct us."(א"ע.)
  Pharaoh said: “I will let you go that you may offer sacrifices to the Eternal your Almighty in the wilderness; hut you shall not go far away, and pray for me also."(אונקלוס.)
  And Moses said: T depart from you, and I will pray to the Eternal that He remove tomorrow the mixture of beasts from Pharaoh, from his officials, and from his people. But Pharaoh shall scoff no more, he shall no longer refuse to let the people go to offer sacrifices to the Eternal."(הירץ.)
  So Moses departed from Pharaoh, and prayed- to the Eternal.
  And the Eternal did as Moses prayed. He removed the mixture of beasts from Pharaoh, from his officials, and from his people; not even one remained.
  But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.
  
  
  
  The Eternal said to Moses: "Enter into Pharaoh's palace and tell him: ‘Thus said the Eternal, the Almighty of the Hebrews: Let My People go, that they may serve Me.(א"ע.)
  For if you refuse to let them go, and will still hold them,
  a slaughter of the Eternal shall come upon your cattle which are in the field; the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks shall be stricken with rinderpest.
  But the Eternal will make a distinction between the cattle of the Israelites and the cattle of the Egyptians grazing in the Israelitish districts, and none of the cattle belonging to the Children of Israel shall die.'"(רמב"ן.)
  The Eternal set a fixed time, saying: "Tomorrow the Eternal will do this thing in the land." 
  And the Eternal did this thing on the next day; the greater part of the cattle of the Egyptians died; but of the cattle of the Children of Israel not even one died.(א"ע.)
  And Pharaoh sent to see if it was so, and indeed, not even one of the Israelite cattle had died. But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he did not let the people go.
  Then the Eternal said to Moses and Aaron: "Take for yourselves handfuls of soot from the furnace, and let Moses throw it heavenward in the presence of Pharaoh.
  This small quantity of soot will produce sufficient dust over all the land of Egypt; it shall become a boil breaking forth with blisters upon men and upon animal, throughout the land of Egypt."(רש"י.)
  So they took soot from the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; Moses threw it heavenward, and it became a boil breaking forth with blisters upon man and animal. 
  The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians.
  But the Eternal hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, even as the Eternal had said to Moses.
  The Eternal said to Moses: "Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him: Thus said the Eternal, the Almighty of the Hebrews: Let My People go, that they might serve me.
  For this time I will send a multitude of plagues, to affect your hardened heart, your officials, and your people, so that you will acknowledge that there is none like Me in all the universe.(א"ע, ספורנו.)
  For I could have sent My power that would strike you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.(רש"י.)
  But I spared you in order to show you My power, and so that My Name shall be proclaimed throughout the earth.(רש"י.)
  For you still tread down upon My people, and will not let them go.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  To-morrow about this time I will cause a very severe hail to come down such as has not been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.(עיין רמב"ן.)
  Now, therefore, gather your cattle and all you have in the field, for the hail shall come down on every man and animal that be found in the field and will not be brought home, and they will die.'"(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  Those of Pharaoh's officials who respected the Eternal's warning hurried their workmen and their cattle into the house,
  But those who disregarded the warning of the Eternal left their laborers and their cattle in the field.
  The Eternal said to Moses: "Stretch forth your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt; upon man, and beast, and upon every herd in the field, throughout the land of Egypt."
  Moses stretched forth his staff toward heaven. And the Eternal sent thunder and hail, and thunderbolts ran down to the ground. Thus did the Eternal cause the hail to rain down upon the land of Egypt.(מלבי"ם.)
  So there was hail, and thunderbolts flashing up amidst the land, a very severe storm such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
  Throughout the land of Egypt the hail struck down all that was in the field, both man and animal, and the hail struck also all the herbs in the field, and broke all the trees of the field.
  Only in the district of Goshen, where the Children of Israel were, there was no hail.
  Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: “This time I admit my sin; the Eternal is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong.(רשב"ם, הירץ.)
  Pray to the Eternal, and let there be an end to this supernatural thunder and hail; and I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer."(א"ע.)
  Moses said to him: “I cannot pray in the city which is full of idols, since the animals you worship were gathered from the field, but as soon as I am gone out of the city I will spread forth my hands in prayer to the Eternal; the thunder shall cease, and there shall be no more hail, so that you may know that the Eternal rules the world.(מדרש, ספורנו.)
  But I know that you and your officials still do not respect the Eternal Almighty, and as soon as the plague will cease you will return to your wickedness."(רש"י.)
  Now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley had ripened, and the flax was in the stalk.
  But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they were still in the ground and unseen.(א"ע.)
  And Moses went out of the city from before Pharaoh and spread forth his hands in prayer to the Eternal; and the thunder and the hail ceased, and rain no longer poured upon the earth.
  But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned even more, and hardened his heart; he and his officials.
  And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the Children of Israel go, just as the Eternal had said through Moses.
  
  
  
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Enter Pharaoh's palace to warn him. For I have hardened his stubborn heart and also the heart of his officials in order that I may impress My signs upon them,(רש"י ומלבי"ם.)
  and also in order that you may tell your son and your grandson how I have mocked the Egyptians, and of My miracle which I have performed against them, so that you will acknowledge that I am the Eternal."(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him: “Thus said the Eternal, the Almighty of the Hebrews: 'How long will, you continue to refuse to submit to Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.(רש"י.)
  But if you still refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.
  They vvill cast a shadow over the ground, that no one will be able to see the ground, and they will destroy the wheat and the spelt that remained to you from the hail, and they will destroy all the leaves of the trees which grow for you from the field.(רש"י, ספורנו, מלבי"ם.)
  They will fill up your houses and those of your officials, and of all the Egyptians, a multitude such as neither your fathers nor your forefathers have seen from the day that they were upon the earth to this day.'" And they turned and went out from the presence of Pharaoh without first obtaining his leave.
  Then Pharaoh's officials said to him: “How long shall this man be a snare for us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Eternal their Almighty. Do you not know yet that Egypt is ruined?"(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh and he said to them: “Go, serve the Eternal, your Almjghty! But who, exactly, is to go?"
  Moses said: “We will go with our young, and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, even with our flocks and with our herds shall we go; for we must make a feast to the Eternal where all must participate."(א"ע.)
  And he said to them with irony in his voice: “May the Eternal be with you as assuredly as I will let you go with your little ones. Mark! You have evil intentions; you wish to leave Egypt altogether.(א"ע ורשב"ם.)
  It shall not be as you have said, that you will take the children with you. Let now the men go and serve the Eternal, for what you seek is to escape from Egypt.” And they were driven out from the presence of Pharaoh.(רש"י ועפ"י א"ע ורשב"ם.)
  Then the Eternal said to Moses: “Stretch out your staff over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt and destroy every herb of the land; yes, whatever the hail has left.”
  Moses stretched forth his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Eternal led an east wind into the land all that day and all that night; and in the morning the east wind bore the locusts.
  And the locusts went up over all the space of the land of Egypt and descended on all the territory of Egypt. It was a heavy plague; before them there had not been such a multitude of locusts in Egypt, nor would there ever be such in Egypt after them.(מלבי"ם, עפ"י רש"י והירץ.)
  For they cast a shadow over the ground, so that the land was darkened, and they destroyed every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which grew after the hail, and there remained not a green thing, either tree or herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  Pharaoh hastily summoned Moses and Aaron and said: “I have sinned against the Eternal your Almighty, and against you, by driving you away in disgrace.(א"ע.)
  Now, please forgive my sin this time, and pray to the Eternal, your Almighty, that He remove from me this plague which can only end in death.”(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  He departed from Pharaoh, and prayed to the Eternal.
  And the Eternal turned a very strong west wind which carried the locusts, and thrust them into the Red Sea; there was not one locust left in all the territory of Egypt.
  But the Eternal hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he did not let the Children of Israel go.
  Then the Eternal said to Moses: “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt; and the darkness will eclipse all things.”(אברבנאל.)
  Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.
  For three days they did not see one another, nor did any one rise from his place to go outside. But all the Children of Israel had light in their dwellings, even those that lived near the houses of Egyptians.(רשב"ם.)
  After three days when the darkness ceased, Pharaoh called Moses, and said: “Go, serve the Eternal; only your flocks and your herds shall be detained. Your young children may also go with you.”
  But Moses said: “Though you should give us from your cattle for holy slaughtering and for burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Eternal our Almighty —(מלבי"ם.)
  Still, more cattle shall go with us. Not a hoof shall be left behind because we must take from them to serve the Eternal our Almighty; for we shall know neither the type of animal nor the number needed to serve the Eternal until we come there.”(א"ע, מלבי"ם.)
  But the Eternal hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he would not let them go.
  Pharaoh said to him: “Depalt from me! Watch that you do not see me again, for on the day that you will see my face you will be put to death.”
  And Moses answered: “You have spoken rightly, more talk would be idle. I will not see your face again until you come to see me.”(מלבי"ם.)
  
  
  
  While he was still in Pharaoh's palace, the Eternal had said to Moses: “Yet one more plague will I bring upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; then he will let you go from here. When he shall let you go, it will not be for three days, as you asked, but he will surely send you away from here entirely.(רש"י, רשב"ם ומלבי"ם. א"ע מפרש המלה נא - עתה. ראה בראשית כג פסוק י, הירץ.)
  Because they will leave in haste, speak, therefore, now publicly to the people that every man shall ask of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold in exchange for the property that they will leave in Egypt.”(עפ"י מלבי"ם בשמות.)
  The Eternal gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that they were very generous and friendly, and the man Moses, too, gained favor in the eyes of Pharaoh's officials, in the eyes of the Egyptians and the Israelites.(רמב"ן, א"ע.)
  Moses said: “Thus said the Eternal: About midnight I will appear in the midst of Egypt,(אונקלוס.)
  and all the first-born, from the son of Pharaoh who is due to succeed him upon his throne, to the first-born of the maidservant who is a captive, working behind the mill, and all first-born of the animals — shall die.(א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  And there will be a sharp cry of rebellion throughout the land of Egypt, such as there has never been before, nor shall the like of it ever be again in the future,(מלבי"ם.)
  but against any of the Children of Israel not a dog shall bark; not against their men, nor against their animals, so that you will recognize that the Eternal made a distinction between the Egyptians and the Children of Israel.(א"ע.)
  Then, at your request, all your officials shall come down to me, and bow before me, saying, 'Depart, you and your people who follow you,' and then I will depart, with my people, from Egypt.” And he went out from Pharaoh in fierce wrath.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Pharaoh will not heed your last warning, so that My wonders will be multiplied in the land of Egypt, by the slaying of the first-born and the division of the Red Sea.”(רמב"ן ורש"י.)
  And thus Moses and Aaron completed their mission by performing all these wonders before Pharaoh. But the Eternal hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not let the Children of Israel go out of his land.(רמב"ן.)
  
  
  
  The Eternal told Moses and Aaron, in the land of Egypt, to tell the people: “As deliverance from Egypt is to be not only from physical bondage, but also from spiritual slavery, you must break away from Egyptian influence altogether.(הירץ.)
  “This month of deliverance shall be for you the beginning of the months. It shall be the first of the civil year, but not of the religious year.(רמב"ן. ראה המשנה הראשונה בר"ה.)
  Speak today to the entire community of Israel, as follows: 'On the tenth day of the month of this year, every man shall take for himself a lamb — which is the deity of the Egyptians — for the family group, or a lamb for the household.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  If there will be too few people in the household to eat the lamb in one meal, then he and his Israelite neighbor, living next to his house,- shall take one lamb according to the number of persons; according to a normal man's portion — you may include in the number for the lamb all, except the sick and the aged.(רש"י.)
  Your lamb shall be perfect, without defect, a male within the year of its birth; you may take it either from among the sheep or from among the goats.(רש"י.)
  It is upon you to watch it against any defect until the fourteenth day of this month, and a deputy of the whole assembly of the community of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon towards evening, to indicate the significance of the lamb as the deity of Egypt.(רש"י.)
  They shall take of its blood and smear it upon the two door posts and upon the upper beam over the houses in which they will eat it.
  They shall eat the meat of the Paschal lamb on that night. They shall eat the meat roasted on fire with Matzoth together with bitter herbs, to remind them of their bitter experiences in Egypt.(רש"י.)
  You shall not eat it half-roasted, nor cooked in any liquid, but roasted in fire together with its head, with its legs and with its inwards.(תלמוד פסחים כ"ז.)
  You shall let nothing remain of it until the break of the day. If anything remains, you shall burn it in fire after the holiday.(מכילתא שבת כ"ד.)
  In order to be ready for the departure, you shall eat it in this manner: your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, for traveling in. the wilderness; and you shall eat it in haste. All this preparation shall be made for the sake of the Passover of the Eternal.(רש"י, א"ע, מכילתא.)
  For I will pass through the land of Egypt, and will strike all the first-born, also the strangers staying in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. And I will execute punishments against the idols of Egypt: thus I shall show that I am the Eternal.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  As for Me, I have no need of a sign, but the blood upon the houses shall be a token for you, where you are. And when I see that you obeyed the precept to smear the blood over your houses, I will spare you, and no plague shall come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.(מכילתא, אונקלוס.)
  This day shall be to you a remembrance in the future: vou shall celebrate it as the feast of the Eternal; by an ordinance you shall celebrate it, throughout all your generations forever(רש"י.)
  Seven days you shall eat matzoth; on the day preceding the festival you shall remove fermentation from your homes, for whoever knowingly eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cast out of the people of Israel by Heavenly punishment.(עפ"י תלמוד פסחים.)
  The first ancl the seventh day shall be reserved for you as holy gatherings. ■ No manner of work shall be done on them, except for the preparation of food which a person needs to eat on the same day; this you may do, but not the work preliminary to the preparation of food.(רש"י, תלמוד.)
  You shall observe the feast by eating matzoth; for on this very day I shall have brought out your multitudes from the land of Egypt, therefore shall you refrain from work on this day throughout your generations as an everlasting decree.(רשב"ם, א"ע, רש"י.)
  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat matzoth, until the twenty-first day in the month in the evening.
  For seven days nothing which causes fermentation may be found under your control: whoever eats leaven shall be cast out from the community of Israel, whether he be a converted Israelite, or one who is an Israelite born in the land.
  You shall not eat leaven, or a mixture of leaven. You shall eat matzoth in all your habitations.”(רש"י.)
  Moses summoned all the leaders of Israel, and told them to tell the people: “Draw out lambs from the herds, according to your household; and those who have no herd, buy your lambs and slaughter the Paschal lamb.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  Take a bunch of hyssop herbs, to be used as a sponge, and dip it in the blood which is in the basin and apply some of the blood in the basin to the upper beam and to the two door posts of your homes. None of you shall go out of the gate of his house until the morning.(אונקלוס.)
  For the Eternal will pass through to smite the first-born of Egypt, and when He will see that you observed the commandment to smear the blood over the upper beam and upon the two door posts, the Eternal will spare the people within the gate and will not allow the destroyer to come into your homes to smite you.(ספורנו, אונקלוס, רשב"ם.)
  You shall observe this practice of offering the Paschal sacrifice, as a statute for yourselves and future generations forever.(רמב"ן.)
  And when you will come to the land which the Eternal will give you, as He had promised to your fathers, you shall observe this service of the Paschal lamb.(רש"י.)
  And when your children will say to you: 'What is the meaning of this your strange service?'(א"ע.)
  You shall tell them: 'This Paschal sacrifice is dedicated to the Eternal; for He spared the homes of the Children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptian, and saved our houses.'” The people knelt, in gratitude for the good tidings that they would be delivered, and bowed, in gratitude for the promise of the Holy Land.(ספורנו ורש"י.)
  And the Children of Israel went out to prepare the Paschal sacrifice, and they fulfilled every detail that the Eternal had commanded Moses and Aaron.(רש"י.)
  At midnight the Eternal struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the son of Pharaoh who was due to succeed him on his throne, to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the animals.(א"ע, רש"י.)
  And Pharaoh awoke from his sleep at midnight, he and his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a sharp cry of rebellion in Egypt for there was not a house where there was not one dead.(רש"י.)
  He summoned Moses and Aaron at night and said: “Arise, depart from among my people, your adults and your young children alike. Go, serve the Eternal as you have said.(רש"י.)
  Take your flocks and your cattle, I will also give you airfmals for sacrifices, as you have said, and be gone: and when you sacrifice these animals which I give you, pray for me also."(רש"י, א"ע.)
  The Egyptians urged the people on, making haste to send them out of the land; for they said: “We all may die from plagues yet to come."(הירץ.)
  So the people carried their dough, for the Egyptians did not permit them to wait till it had risen; their remaining matzoth and bitter herbs were bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.(רש"י.)
  The Children of Israel did as Moses said; they asked the Egyptians to give them articles of silver and articles of gold and raiment in exchange for their property which they left in Egypt.(מלבי"ם.)
  And the Eternal had caused the people to find favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they granted their request; thus they recovered what they had left in Egypt.(מלבי"ם.)
  The Children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men marching on foot, in addition to women and children who did not march on foot.(מכילתא.)
  Also a multitude of mixed nationalities went up with them; and flocks and herds; their possessions were abundant.
  And they baked the dough which they brought out from Egypt in the form of round cakes of matzoth, for it was not leavened, because when they were set free from Egypt, they could not linger; nor had they provided for themselves any other food besides dough.(ד"ע.)
  The settlement of the Children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, had begun at the time Abraham had come there four hundred and thirty years before,(מלבי"ם.)
  at the end of four hundred and thirty years, that very day, all the hosts of the Eternal (the people of Israel) went forth from the land of Egypt.(מלבי"ם.)
  That day was set aside by the Eternal to bring them forth from the land of Egypt; that night has been set aside to The Eternal by all the Children of Israel throughout their generations.(רמב"ן.)
  The Eternal said to Moses and Aaron: “This is the statute of the Paschal sacrifice: No one who has alienated himself and left the folds of the people of Israel shall partake of it.(אונקלוס, רמב"ן.)
  But every man's non-Israelite servant who is bought for money may partake of it once you have circumcised him, with his consent.(א"ע.)
  A non-Israelite alien resident, or a hired non-Israelite servant shall not partake of it.(רמב"ן.)
  It shall be eaten in one group in the house; you shall not carry any of its flesh outside, away from the group, in the house, neither shall you break any of its bones.(רש"י.)
  This law shall be observed by the entire community of Israel.(א"ע.)
  If a proselyte resides with you and wants to offer the Paschal sacrifice to the Eternal, let all his males be circumcised, and then he shall be taken in to perform it, like any native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall partake of it.(אונקלוס.)
  There shall be one law for both the native and the proselyte who resides with you.”(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Thus did the Children of Israel; they did so in every detail as the Eternal commanded Moses and Aaron.
  And it was on the very same day when the Eternal brought out the Children of Israel from the land of Egypt, by their hosts, that —(א"ע.)
  
  
  
  The Eternal spoke to Moses, as follows:(רשב"ם.)
  "Sanctify to Me, to perform priestly service, every first-born of his mother from among the Children of Israel; for the first-born of both man and beast are Mine.”(רשב"ם.)
  And Moses said to the people: "Remember, always, this day on which you came forth from Egypt, out of the house where you were slaves; for by mighty power had the Eternal brought you out from this place; therefore no leavened bread shall be eaten.(עפ"י רש"י.)
  This day you go forth, in the month of Spring.
  So when the Eternal will bring you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he promised to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall perform this service of the Paschal lamb in this month.(רש"י.)
  Seven days shall you eat matzoth, and the seventh day shall be a feast of special offerings to the Eternal.(רמב"ן.)
  Matzoth shall be eaten throughout the seven days, no leaven, belonging to you, shall be seen, nor shall anything that causes fermentation, belonging to you, be found in all your territory.
  And you shall tell your son on that day: It is because I performed this service of the Paschal lamb, and of eating matzoth with bitter herbs, that the Eternal performed the miracle for me when I came out of Egypt.(א"ע.)
  And these miraculous signs shall be written in the Tephilin that you wear on your left hand and in the Tephilin that you wear on your forehead across your eyes as a remembrance, in order that the teaching of the Eternal may be fluent in your mouth, that with mighty power has the Eternal brought you out from Egypt.(רש"י.)
  Therefore you shall observe this statute of the Paschal offering, in its season, from year to year.(ר' יוסי הגלילי מנחות לו ע"ב.)
  And when the Eternal will bring you into the land of the Canaanite, as He promised you and your forefathers, and He will give it to you,
  you shall set aside all male first-born of the mother for the Eternal to minister in the Sanctuary and all the male firstlings of kosher animals as a sacrifice to the Eternal.(רש"י.)
  But every firstling of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb and give the lamb to the Kohen; and if you do not redeem it, you shall kill it by breaking its neck; and all the first-born of man among your sons you may redeem with five silver Shekolim.(רש"י.)
  And when your son will ask you in days to come: 'What is the meaning of this law?’ You shall say to him: ‘With mighty power did the Eternal bring us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage.
  When Pharaoh hardened himself and did not let us go. the Eternal slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of beast. But He spared our own first-born, therefore I sacrifice to the Eternal all male firstlings of the animals, and all the first-born of my sons I redeem.'
  And this precept shall be written upon the Tephilin which is on your left hand, and upon the Tephilin upon your forehead across your eyes that with mighty power has the Eternal brought us out from Egypt."
  Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, the Almighty did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that route would have been shorter; for the Almighty said: “The people might have regrets when they encounter war and may want to return to Egypt.”(רש"י.)
  Therefore the Almighty led them round about the way of the wilderness, to mislead Pharaoh so that the Egyptians would be defeated by the Red Sea. The Children of Israel went up from the land of Egypt armed with weapons of war.(מלבי"ם.)
  And Moses took the remains of Joseph with him; for Joseph had made the sons of Israel promise him to tell the future generations: “The Almighty will surely remember you, and then you shall carry up my remains with: you from here.”(רש"י.)
  They traveled from Succotli, and encamped in Etham, at the edge of the wilderness.
  The Eternal guided them by day, by a column of clouds extending from heaven, to lead them on by day, and by night by a column of fire, to give them light, that they might march day and night.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  The Eternal did not remove the column of cloud by day and the column of fire by night, all the years, from before the people.(רש"י.)
  
  
  
  The Eternal spoke to Moses as follows:
  “Speak to the Children of Israel, that in order to mislead Pharaoh, they shall turn back and encamp before the station Pi-Hahirotli, between Migdal and the sea, before the idol Baal-Zephon; across from it shall you encamp by the sea.(רש"י.)
  Pharaoh will think that the Children of Israel are astray in the land, and that the idol Baal-Zephon has closed the wilderness upon them.(ספורנו.)
  And I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, that he will pursue them; then I shall be glorified through Pharaoh and through all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Eternal.” And the Israelites did so and turned back.(רש"י.)
  When it was reported to the King of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart of Pharaoh and of his officials changed toward the people, and they said: “What have we done? What have we done, that we have let Israel leave our service?”
  He gave orders to harness his horses to his chariots and took his warriors with him.
  He took six hundred chosen chariots, besides other chariots of Egypt, and he appointed captains over all of them.(רש"י, אונקלוס.)
  The Eternal hardened the heart of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and he pursued the Children of Israel. But the Children of Israel were marching on courageously.(מלבי"ם.)
  The Egyptians pursued them; and the horses of Pharaoh, and the chariots, and his horsemen, and his infantry, all of them overtook them while they were encamped by the sea, at the side of Pi-Hahiroth, in front of Baal-Zephon.(א"ע.)
  When Pharaoh brought his army closer, and the Children of Israel looked up and saw the Egyptians marching against them, they were greatly frightened. Some of the Children of Israel prayed to the Eternal —(רמב"ן.)
  but others protested to Moses: “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt?(רמב"ן.)
  Were we not right when we told you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone, and let us serve the Egyptians?’ It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
  And Moses said to the people: “Fear not, stand still and watch the salvation of the Eternal, which He will perform for you to-day; for as you have seen the Egyptians this day, you will never see them again.
  The Eternal will wage your fight, but you remain silent.”(מלבי"ם.)
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Your prayers that you have cried out have reached Me. Tell the Children of Israel to march forward to the sea.(אונקלוס, מלבי"ם.)
  And you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand toward the sea, then I will send an east wind and it will divide the sea, so that the Children of Israel shall go in the midst of the sea as on dry land.(א"ע.)
  I will harden the heart of the Egyptians so that they will go after them, then I will be glorified through Pharaoh, and through all his army, his chariots and horsemen.’
  And the remaining Egyptians will acknowledge that I am the Eternal when I will be glorified through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”(א"ע.)
  The angel of the Almighty, who went before the camp of Israel, guiding the column of clouds in front of them, changed his course, and now went behind them, and he removed the column of clouds that was in front of them and now stood behind them, in order to separate the camp of Israel from the Egyptians,(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  and the angel came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and there was the dark cloud; but for Israel the cloud of fire gave light that night, and the Egyptian camp could not approach the Israelite camp all that night.(רש"י, א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  Then Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Eternal turned back the sea by a strong east wind the whole night, and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.
  The Children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground; and the waters were a wall of protection for them at their right hand and at their left.(א"ע, מלבי"ם.)
  The Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen.
  In the latter part of the night toward morning, the angel of the Eternal looked down, between the columns of fire and cloud, upon the Egyptian camp, and threw the Egyptian camp into confusion.(א"ע.)
  The wheels of the chariots were taken off, which caused them to drive with difficulty, and the Egyptians said to one another: “Let us flee from before Israel; for the Eternal is waging their fight against the Egyptians."
  After the Israelites had reached the opposite shore, the Eternal said to Moses: “Stretch out your hand toward the sea, so that the waters which formed a wall may turn upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen."(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  Moses stretched forth his hand toward the sea, and towards morning the sea returned to its regular flow, and the Egyptians, instead of fleeing from the sea, fled in their confusion toward it, and the Eternal shook the Egyptians from their chariots into the midst of the sea.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  The waters returned and covered the chariots, and the horsemen which belonged to the army of Pharaoh that went in after them into the sea; not one escaped.(רמב"ן.)
  But the Children of Israel walked upon dry ground in the midst of the sea, and the waters were for them a wall of protection on their right and on their left.
  On that day Israel was convinced that the Eternal saved them from the hand of the Egyptians, when Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore.(רש"י, א"ע, ספורנו.)
  And when Israel saw the severe punishment which the Eternal had exacted from the Egyptians, the people revered the Eternal; they put their trust in the Eternal and they believed that Moses, His servant, was indeed carrying out a mission that had been entrusted to him.(א"ע, ספורנו.)
  
  
  
  Then Moses composed this song and sang it with the Children of Israel, who in turn sang it to their children: “I will sing praises in honor of the Eternal, for He demonstrated His glory when He threw the horse and its rider into the sea.(א"ע, מדרש.)
  The Almighty is the source of my strength and the theme of my praise for He is my salvation. He is my mighty Savior; and for Him I will build a Sanctuary. He was the Almighty of my forefathers, too, and I will glorify Him.(רש"י, רשב"ם, ספורנו.)
  The Eternal is a master of war, but His name is the Eternal of Lovingkindness.(אונקלוס, רש"י.)
  Pharaoh's chariots and his army He did cast into the sea, and his choice captains were sunk in the mire of the Red Sea.(רש"י, מלבי"ם.)
  The depths covered them; they sank to the bottom like a stone.
  Your right hand, O Eternal, which is glorious in power — O Eternal, may that same right hand dash to pieces also the enemy yet to be.(עפ"י רמב"ן וספורנו.)
  And with the abundance of Your strength You will destroy Your foes; You will send forth Your wrath, it will consume them like stubble.(עפ"י ספורנו.)
  By Your command were the waters gathered; the flowing waters became solid as a wall. The depths were congealed in the center of the sea.(אונקלוס, א"ע.)
  The enemy said: ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils, my vengeance shall be satisfied from them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall impoverish them.'(רש"י.)
  But You commanded by Your authority: 'Cover them, O sea.' Then the mighty ones sank like lead in the waters.(עפ"י אונקלוס ומלבי"ם.)
  There is none mighty like You; You are the Eternal. There is none like You, majestic in holiness, revered in praiseworthy acts, doing wonders.(עפ"י אונקלוס.)
  You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them.
  In your kindness You led the people whom You have redeemed by means of the pillars of cloud and fire; by Your strength You have guided them toward the land of Canaan, Your holy Habitation.(רמב"ן ורשב"ם.)
  The nations heard and they tremble, pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.(הירץ.)
  Then the chiefs of Edom were alarmed; the mighty men of Moab are seized with trembling, all the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away by despair.(הירץ.)
  Drop upon them terror and dread; by the greatness of Your mighty arm let them be still as a stone, till Your people pass over the river Arnon, O Eternal, till the people that You have acquired pass over the river Jordan.(אונקלוס.)
  O Eternal, bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, the place which You have prepared for Your dwelling, into the Divine Sanctuary which Your hands have established.
  O Eternal, reign forever and ever; even as He saved Israel, now, may He protect the righteous also in the future.”(עפ"י רמב"ן וספורנו.)
  That was the song of Moses and the Children of Israel when the horses of Pharaoh entered with the chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Eternal brought back the waters of the sea upon them; but the Children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea.(רמב"ן.)
  Then Miriam the prophetess, sister of Aaron her first-born brother, took a drum into her hand; and all the women followed her with drums and with dances.(רשב"ם.)
  And Miriam led them in song: "Sing ye to the Eternal, for He demonstrated His glory when He threw the horse and its riders into the sea.”(רש"י.)
  The Israelites wanted to linger on to gather the booty the foe had left behind, but Moses urged them to journey from the Red Sea. They went on into the wilderness of Shur; they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.(רש"י.)
  They came to Marah, but they could not drink of the water of Marah, for the water was bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah, meaning "bitter.”
  But instead of praying to the Eternal, the people murmured against Moses, saying: “What shall we drink?”(מלבי"ם.)
  Moses prayed to the Eternal, and the Eternal instructed him to take a bitter tree and cast it into the water; the tree was bitter and yet the water was made sweet by it. There he made the people understand that Israel’s destiny is ruled by Divine decrees and laws, and that obedience to these laws can turn bitterness into sweetness, and there, too, he taught them, that man is tested by the Eternal.(עפ"י מכילתא ומלבי"ם.)
  And He said: “Tell them: ‘If you will truly hearken to the voice of the Eternal, Your Almighty, to accept His commandments, and will practice that which is right in His eyes, dealing honorably with your fellow man, and heed His prohibitions, and observe all His decrees, then hear His promise: I will not inflict on you the incurable diseases of Egypt, for I am your physician, and even as patients obey their physician’s advice in order to remain well, you must obey My instructions if you are to prosper.’”(מכילתא, רש"י, מלבי"ם.)
  And they arrived at Elim, and there were only twelve springs of water, and seventy palm-trees; nevertheless it was sufficient to satisfy all the great mass of the people; and they encamped by the water.(מכילתא.)
  
  
  
  They traveled from Elim, and the entire community of the Children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt, and the provisions they had brought with them from Egypt were spent.(רש"י.)
  So the entire community of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron for having brought them ito the wilderness.(עפ"י רש"י, רמב"ן ומלבי"ם.)
  The Children of Israel said to them: “We wish we had died by the hand of the Eternal in the land of Egypt where we sat by the fleshpots which the taskmasters supplied to the slave gangs, and where we ate our fill of bread. For you have brought us into this wilderness only to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”(הירץ.)
  Then said the Eternal to Moses: “I will throw down food from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them to see how they will behave in a life of ease, whether they will walk in the ways of My Torah or not.(אונקלוס, א"ע, ספורנו.)
  But on the sixth day of the week when they assort that which they have brought in, they will find double the amount that they gather on other days of the week.”(רש"י.)
  Moses and Aaron said to all the Children of Israel: “By evening, you will know that it was the Eternal and not we, as you falsely claimed, that has brought you out from the land of Egypt,(רשב"ם.)
  and in the morning you will see the glory of the Eternal manifested by the manner in which the food will come down to you, for He has heard your complaints against the Eternal. What are we that you should complain against us? We have only carried out the command of the Eternal.”(רשב"ם, א"ע.)
  Moses explained further: “This manifestation will lie in the fact that the Eternal will give you meat to eat in the evening, and your fill of bread in the morning: for the Eternal heard the complaints which you caused other to murmur against Him. But of what importance are we? You should direct your complaints not to us but toward the Eternal.”(עפ"י רש"י ומלבי"ם.)
  Then Moses said to Aaron: “Tell the entire community of the Children of Israel: 'Come near the place where the Eternal will appear, for He has heard your complaints.'”(רש"י.)
  As Aaron spoke to the whole community of the Children of Israel; they directed their eyes toward the wilderness, and beheld the Divine Light appearing in the cloud.(מורה נבוכים.)
  They observed Moses approaching the cloud, and the Eternal spoke to Moses:(א"ע.)
  "I have heard the complaint of the Children of Israel. Speak to them as follows: 'Towards evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that it is I, the Eternal, your Almighty, Who brought you out of Egypt.'”(רשב"ם.)
  In the evening quails came up from the direction of the sea, and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.(א"ע.)
  When the layer of dew was melted away by the sun, there was upon the ground of the wilderness a thin, flaky substance, thin as the hoar-frost on the ground.(רש"י, אונקלוס.)
  When the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another: "It looks like the Egyptian food called Mannah,” for they did not know what it was. And Moses' said to them: "This is the food which the Eternal has given you to eat.(רשב"ם.)
  This is what the Eternal has commanded: 'Let every man gather of it according to his portion, an omer for every head, according to the number of your persons, each shall take it for those in his tent.'”(עיין ספורנו.)
  The children of Israel did so, some gathered more and others less than an omer.
  Yet when they came home and measured what they had gathered, there was just an omer, he who gathered more had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no less; each found that he had just one omer for every person in his household.(רשב"ם.)
  And Moses said to them: "Let no one save any of it for the morning, but trust in the Eternal that the food will descend on the next day also."(א"ע.)
  But they disobeyed Moses; some of them saved of it until the morning, and some of it bred worms, and some rotted. And Moses was angry with them for their lack of faith in Providence.(עיין רש"י.)
  So they would gather it in the morning, everyone as much as he needed to eat, but when the sun grew warmer it melted.(עפ"י טפורנו.)
  On the sixth day of the week when they gathered the food and measured it at home they found a double quantity of food, two omers for each person, and all the leaders of the assembly came and told it to Moses, asking him what they should do with the additional portion.
  He said to them: "This is what the Eternal has spoken: 'Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Eternal. On the sixth day bake and cook sufficient for two days, and whatever remains uneaten on that day, save for yourselves to be kept until the morning.'”(א"ע, רש"י.)
  And they saved of it until the morning, as Moses had instructed; and it did not rot, nor were there any worms in it.
  When they saw that no food came down on that day, they feared that it had ceased altogether and wanted to hoard it. Then Moses said "Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath dedicated to the Eternal; today you will not find it in the field, but tomorrow it will come down again.(רש"י.)
  All through your journey you will gather it on six days: but on the seventh day is the Sabbath, on it there shall be none.”(א"ע.)
  However, on the seventh day some of the people doubted the words of Moses and went out to gather the food, but they found none.(א"ע.)
  And the Eternal instructed Moses to tell the people: "How much longer will you refuse to keep My commandments not to save the food until the morning, and My laws concerning the Sabbath?(א"ע.)
  From the fact that a double portion comes down the sixth day you can see that the Eternal has ordained the Sabbath for you; it is for this reason that He gives you food for two days on the sixth day. Let everyone stay in his tent; no one shall go out to gather the food on the seventh day.”(רש"י, א"ע.)
  From that time on the people rested on the seventh day.(רשב"ם.)
  The House of Israel called the name of the food Mannah; its round shape was like that of a coriander seed, but its color was white: when it was eaten boiled its taste was like cake baked with oil, and when it was eaten raw, it tasted like wafers fried in honey.(רש"י, א"ע.)
  Moses said: "This is the thing which the Eternal has commanded: Till up an omer of it to keep for your future generations, that they may see the food with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt, and thereby learn to put their trust in the Almighty.'”(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  And after the Tabernacle had been erected, Moses said to Aaron: "Take an earthen jar and put an omerful of Mannah in it, and leave it in the Holy Ark before the Eternal to be kept for future generations.”(רש"י.)
  As the Eternal commanded Moses, so Aaron left it before the Ark wherein lay the Testimonial Ten Commandments, to be kept.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  And the Children of Israel ate the Mannah for forty years until they came to an inhabited land; until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan did they eat the Mannah.
  Now an omer is the tenth part of an epha measure, a supply sufficient for one person.(א"ע.)
  
  
  
  And the entire community of the Children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the direction of the Eternal. They encamped in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.
  And the people quarreled with Moses, and said, "The water we brought with us from the other stations will not suffice; provide, therefore, water that we may drink that which we have with us.” And Moses said to them: "Why do you argue with me? Why do you wish to test the Eternal to see whether He will send you His blessing by giving you water?”(עפ"י א"ע ומלבי"ם.)
  But when the sparse supply of water came to an end and the people thirsted for water, they forgot the humiliation and the slavery they had suffered in the house of bondage, and the miracles done for them at the Red Sea, and they complained against Moses, and said: "Why have you brought us from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?”(מלבי"ם.)
  Moses prayed to the Eternal, saying: "What shall I do to this people to save them from despair and sin? If I wait a little longer, they will stone me.”(רש"י, הירץ.)
  And the Eternal said to Moses: "Pass on without fear before the people; they will not stone you; take with you some of the leaders of Israel that they may witness the miracle of water flowing from the rock, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile River and go to the rock of Horeb.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  I will appear before you there upon the rock in Horeb. You will strike the rock, and water will come out of it which will flow to the camp of Rephidim that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the presence of the leaders of Israel. Thus he showed them that the staff was not only an instrument of punishment, as they had seen in Egypt, but that it could also be an instrument for food.(רש"י.)
  He called the name of the place Massah Umeribah, meaning: “Trial and Quarreling." For the Children of Israel-had quarreled with Moses, and they had tried the Eternal, saying: “Is the Eternal among us to give us water, or not?"(רשב"ם.)
  On hearing of their strife and their doubt of the Eternal, Amalek, a murderous tribe, came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.(רש"י, מדרש.)
  Moses said to Joshua, the brave prince of Ephraim: “Choose for us brave and pious men, and go out of the camp and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow, when the battle is waged, I will stand on the top of the hill with the divine staff in my hand."(רש"י, א"ע.)
  So Joshua did as Moses had said, to mobilize for war against Amalek, whilje Moses, Aaron and Hur, the son of Miriam, ascended the top of the hill.(רש"י.)
  Whenever Moses held up his hand, the Israelites turned their courage and trust to the Almighty and triumphed, but when he let down his hand Israel forgot to trust in the Almighty, and then Amalek triumphed.(רש"י.)
  But the hands of Moses were heavy with weariness, so Aaron and Hur took a stone and placed it beneath him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and one on the other side; thus his hands were firm in prayer and faith in the Almighty until the setting of the sun.(רש"י.)
  And Joshua conquered Amalek and his foreign soldiers by the sword.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  Then the Eternal said to Moses: “Write this down in the Book of the Torah as a remembrance that Amalek was the first to wage against Israel, and impress it upon Joshua, that I want to blot out utterly the memory of Amalek from under the heavens, so when Israel comes to the land of Canaan they may wage war against Amalek for his treacherous conduct."(עפ"י רש"י.)
  And Moses built an altar on Mount Horeb and worshipped at it before the Eternal who had performed this miracle for him.(ספורנו.)
  He said: “Because Amalek lifted up his hand against the kingdom of the Eternal, therefore the Eternal has commanded war against Amalek throughout the generations."(מלבי"ם.)
  
  
  
  When Jethro, the Chieftain of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard all that the Almighty had done for Moses, how He had supplied them with Mannah and water: and above all, that the Eternal has brought his people Israel out of Egypt,(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife (Moses had sent her away while he was occupied with his mission, and she stayed with her father);(עפ"י א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  together with her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom, meaning: “Alien," for he said: “I have been an alien in a foreign land,"
  And the name of the other was Eliezer, meaning: “Almighty's Help." For Moses had said, “The Almighty of my father was my help, when He saved me from the sword of Pharaoh."
  Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, Moses' sons, and his wife left their home and came to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the mountain of the Almighty.(רש"י ומלבי"ם.)
  And Jethro, in a letter, said to Moses: “I, your father-in-law, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her."
  Out of respect, Moses went out to meet his father-in-law; he bowed and kissed him; they inquired each of the other's welfare, and they went to the tent reserved for Moses.
  Moses related to his father-in-law all that the Eternal had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, not to punish them but for the sake of Israel, all the difficulties that had befallen them on the way, and how the Eternal had saved them, thus showing His special Providence to Israel.
  Jethro rejoiced, not because of the destruction of the Egyptians, but because of all the good which the Eternal had done to Israel, providing them with food and water, and above all in that He had saved them from the hand of the Egyptians.
  And Jethro said: "Blessed be the Eternal, Who has saved you, Moses and Aaron, the leaders of the people, from the hands of the cruel Egyptians, and from the hand of the cruel Pharaoh, and Who has saved the people from the hard bondage of Egypt.
  Now more than ever I recognize that the Eternal is great, and there is no other power besides His, for in every instance where the Egyptians dealt viciously with Israel, the Eternal put them to shame."
  Jethro then embraced the faith of Israel. As a token of this, he brought burnt offerings and sacrifices to the Almighty; and Aaron and all the leaders of Israel came to participate in the feast in honor of Moses’ father-in-law before the altar of the Almighty.
  On the day after Jethro's arrival, Moses judged the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning to evening, waiting until he finished dispensing justice all by himself.
  When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did with the people (acting alone), he said: "What is this thing that you do with the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people must stand around you from morning to evening?"
  Moses answered his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to seek instruction of the Almighty.
  And when they have a dispute it also comes before me, and I have a double function: I decide between a man and his neighbor, and I instruct them in the statutes of the Almighty, and His doctrines."
  And Moses' father-in-law said to him: "The thing that you do does not seem good to me.
  Surely you will be worn out, both you and this people who are with you. For this thing is too difficult for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.
  Listen now to me. I will advise you, and the Almighty will be with you to help you carry out this advice. You be the intermediary between the Almighty and the people, and bring the difficult cases before the Almighty,
  and enjoin upon them the decrees and the doctrine, and show them the way in which they must walk and the practices they are to follow. These responsibilities you cannot delegate to others.
  But for civil disputes, you shall select, by prophetic vision, from among all the people, men with powers of leadership. These must also be pious men, who do not fear others, frutliful men to inspire confidence, incorruptible men, immune to bribery. Appoint them to be officers of thousands, officers of hundreds, officers of fifties, and officers of tens.
  They will judge the people at all times, as cases arrive; and every major case they shall bring to you, but every minor case they shall judge themselves. It will be easier for you because they will bear the burden with you.
  If you will make this arrangement, and the Almighty will sanction it, then you will be able to endure; and all those people will go home contented.”
  Moses followed the advice of his father-in-law, and did all that he said.
  Moses chose men with powers of leadership out of all Israel, and appointed them heads over the people, officers of thousands, officers of hundreds, officers of fifties, and officers of tens.
  And they judged the people at all times, whenever cases arose; the difficult cases they brought to Moses, but every minor case they judged themselves.
  Then Moses sent off his father-in-law with ceremonial honors, and Jethro left for his own land.
  
  
  
  In the third month after the Children of Israel had departed from the land of Egypt, on the first day of the month of Sivan, on the same day when they left Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai,
  when they traveled from Rephidim, and arrived in the wilderness of Sinai, encamping in the wilderness, then for the first time Israel was united as one man, as they faced the Mountain of the Eternal.
  On the second day of the month, Moses went up on the Mountain of the Almighty. The Eternal called to him from out of the cloud that enveloped the mountain, saying: ‘Thus shall you say to (the women of) the House of Jacob, and tell (the men) of the Children of Israel.
  ‘You have seen with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you as on eagles' wings to protect you from their arrows that could not penetrate the pillar of clouds and I brought you to My service.
  ‘Now then, if you will indeed accept My command, and keep My covenant which I made with the Patriarchs, then you shall be My chosen treasure from among all the nations: for all the earth is Mine, but you alone have I chosen to be a light to the nations.
  ‘And you, the leaders of Israel, shall be to Me a priestly kingdom and a holy community. These are the words which you shall speak to the leaders of Israel only.'"
  Moses came to the camp of Israel and summoned the leaders of the people and submitted before them all these words which the Eternal had commanded him, and asked them to reject or accept the words of the Eternal.
  But all the people answered as one and said. “Let there be no distinction between the leaders and the people: all that the Eternal has spoken we shall do, the entire people will be a holy nation." And Moses reported the words of the people to the Eternal.
  And the Eternal said to Moses: “I will come to you in a thick cloud on the mountain, so that you may not be able to look upon the Divine Presence, and in order that the entire people, and not only the leaders, may hear it when I speak with you, and they, too, will have the privilege of sharing this experience. Then they will believe in your divine mission, and also in the prophets who will come after you." This was because Moses had told the words of the people to the Eternal, that they all were willing to become a holy nation.
  And the Eternal said to Moses: “Go to the people to instruct them to prepare themselves, and bid them to sanctify themselves today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, as an outward sign of purification.
  Let them be ready on the third day of preparation, which is the sixth of the month, for on the third day the Eternal will reveal Himself on Mount Sinai, in the presence of all the people who will behold the glory of the Eternal.
  Set signs for the people around the mountain to serve as boundaries, and the signs shall read: 'Take care not to go up into the mountain, or to touch the border of it, for whosoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.'
  No hand shall touch the trespasser, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through with arrows: whether it be animal or man, he shall not remain alive if he touches the mountain. Only when a long blast of the ram's horn is sounded may they come up to the mountain."
  Moses came down from the mountain directly to the people; he sanctified them, and they washed their garments.
  And he said to the people: “Be ready for the third day; come not in contact with women."
  On the third day, early in the morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a dense cloud was upon the mountain, and the sound of the Shofar was very loud; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.
  Moses brought forth the people from their tents in the camp toward the Almighty, and they took their stand at the lower part of the mountain within the boundaries that had been worked out.
  Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, because the Eternal had revealed Himself on it in fire; the smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook greatly.
  When the sound of the Shofar grew louder, Moses spoke, and the Almighty granted him a strong voice that rose above the sound of the Shofar.
  The Almighty revealed Himself on Mount Sinai on the summit of the mountain; the Eternal called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Go down, warn the people not to ascend the mountain lest in their eagerness to gaze on the glory of the Eternal they break through the barrier to the Eternal and many of them will perish.
  The first-born who serve as priests and come near the Eternal to offer sacrifices must also sanctify themselves for this occasion, lest the Eternal make a breach in their lines.”
  But Moses was undecided whether to warn them a second time and he said to the Eternal: “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You have already warned us, saying, 'Set signs at boundaries around the mountain and sanctify it.'"
  And the Eternal said to him: “Go, descend to give the people another warning; you will come up after hearing the Ten Commandments, you, and Aaron with you. When you stand beneath the mountain, the first-born who serves as priest and the people will not dare to break through to come up to the Eternal, lest He make a breach in their lines."
  So Moses went down to the people, and repeated the warning.
  
  
  
  The Almighty spoke all these commandments, as follows: 
  “I, the Merciful Eternal, am also your Almighty, as you have witnessed when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Therefore you must acknowledge the sovereignty of the Almighty as your Benefactor and Redeemer.
  You shall not possess any gods besides Me, not even such as are made by someone else.
  You shall not make for yourselves, for the purpose of worship, any sculpture, nor any image of anything that is in heaven above, such as angels and heavenly bodies, or of anything that is in the water beneath the earth, such as the bottom of the ocean and what dwells there.
  You shall not worship them, nor offer sacrifice to them: for I, the Eternal, your Almighty, am an Almighty Who retaliates, but I also take in consideration the evil influence of the sins of the fathers upon the children even to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me,
  and show kindness indefinitely to those who influence their children to love Me and to keep My commandments.
  You shall not swear by the name of the Eternal your Almighty in vain, to affirm that which is evident, and in particular the Eternal will not leave any one unpunished who swears falsely by His Name.
  Always remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy through prayer and benediction.
  Six days shall you labor in the fields, and do all your work for your physical well-being,
  but the seventh day must be set aside as a Sabbath to the Eternal, your Almighty. On that day you shall not do, nor produce any work, not you, the adults, nor your minor son, nor your minor daughter, nor your man-servant, or maidservant, whether they be Israelites or not, nor your cattle; nor the alien who resides within the borders of your state. 
  For in six days the Eternal made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and he desisted on the seventh day. Therefore the Eternal declared the Sabbath day as blessed, and hallowed it above the other days.
  After the duty to your Creator, you owe a duty to your parents. Therefore honor your father and your mother, by giving them respect, obedience and love, both while they are alive and after their death, and your reward will be that you will live long on the earth which the Eternal your Almighty gave you, as well as in the world to come.
  The Eternal has created man in His image. Therefore you shall not destroy His handiwork bv murdering a human being. There shall be no illicit relations between the sexes. Therefore you shall not profane the sacred covenant of marriage. You shall not steal, cheat, embezzle, forge, or deceive. You shall not accept an offer to be a false witness against your fellowman, nor slander, defame, nor misrepresent.
  Do not act upon your impulse to covet your fellow-man’s house, do not set your heart upon your fellow-man’s wife, nor on his man-servant, nor on his maid-servant, on his ox, on his donkey, or upon anything which belongs to your fellow-man.”
  And all the people saw and heard the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the Shofar, and the smoking of the mountain; and when the people saw all this, they drew back and stood at a distance.
  And they said to Moses: “You speak to us and we will obey, but let not the words come directly from the Almighty, lest we die."
  Moses said to the people: “Do not be terrified, for the glory of the Almighty has come to elevate you in the eyes of the world, so that His awe shall be before you, so that you shall not sin."
  And the people remained standing at a distance, but Moses approached the dense cloud where the glory of the Almighty was.
  The Eternal said to Moses: “Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel: You, from personal experience, have perceived that I have spoken to you through heavenly signs.
  You shall not make idols of silver to act as intermediaries before Me, nor shall you make idols of gold for yourselves.
  It is sufficient that you make a simple altar of earth for Me, to sacrifice there your burnt offerings and your peace-offerings, your sheep and your oxen. Wherever I command you to build a sanctuary to worship My Name, I will send My blessing to you, and bless you.
  But if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for when you lift up an iron instrument from which a sword is forged, you desecrate it.
  Neither shall you ascend to My altar by way of stairs, only by a ramp, so that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it.”
  
  
  
  “And these in detail are the civil judgments told on Sinai which you shall set before the judges:
  I released you from bondage, therefore you, too, shall be lenient with servants. When you acquire a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and at the beginning of the seventh year from the time he was sold, or when the Jubilee Year occurs, he shall go out free, without paying for his release.
  If he came into your service alone, without a wife, he shall go out alone. The master cannot force him to marry a slave to raise children by her, but if he be married, then his wife shall leave with him.
  If his master gave him a wife, with his consent, and she bore, sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone.
  But if the servant explicitly declares: ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free.'
  his master shall bring him before the judges, before whom he again makes the declaration; he shall be brought to the door or the doorpost which were the symbols of freedom at the time of the Exodus of Egypt from slavery, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl as a form of slave-brand, and he shall serve him until the Jubilee.
  When a man sells his minor daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do, but she shall become free when she reaches majority.
  If her master designated her to be his wife, but she did not please him, then he must assist her redemption by deducting the sum of money due her for the service she performed for him. He has no right to sell her to other people, for he has dealt deceitfully with her.
  And if he designates her for marriage to his son, the son shall deal with her after the manner of other girls; to give her dowry.
  If he marries another wife in addition to her, he shall not withhold food, raiment and marital rights from his first wife.
  If he does not do these three things for her: marry her, or designate her for his son, or reduce the ransom, then she shall be released, without payment. If he spent money for her illness, she need not reimburse him.
  If someone strikes a man a fatal blow, so that he dies, he shall surely be put to death by the court.
  If it was not done deliberately, but it happened accidentally, an act of the Almighty, I will appoint a place of refuge for you to escape from the vengeance of the next of kin.
  But if a man acts intentionally against his fellowman to slay him with guile, even if he is holding on to My altar in the Sanctuary, you shall take him from there to be put to death.
  He who bruises his father or his mother, though not fatally, shall surely be put to death.
  He who kidnaps a person, and sells him, or if he be found in his possession by witnesses, he shall surely be put to death.
  He who curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.
  When men quarrel and one strikes the other with an object that can be fatal, such as a stone, or with a lighter weapon such as his fist, and he did not die, but had to remain in bed, unable to work,
  if the victim recovers and can walk in the street unaided, the attacker shall go free, except that he shall pay the loss of his time of earning, and his physician's bills.
  When a man strikes his heathen bondsman, or his heathen bondswoman with the rod used for correcting him, and the bondsman or bondswoman died under these blows, he shall surely be avenged by death.
  But if he survives a day or two, he shall not be avenged, for he is his master's property, and he has the right to discipline him.
  When men fight, and unintentionally injure a pregnant woman and she loses her unborn child, but she suffers no other injury apart from her miscarriage, then the responsible party shall surely be fined, according to the woman's husband's claim against him. But when the parties disagree as to the sum, he shall pay as the judges shall determine.
  But if she suffers fatal harm, then you shall assess the value of her life, and he shall pay in money, since there had been no intent to kill her,
  the value of an eye for an eye, the value of a tooth for a tooth, the value of a hand for a hand, the value of a foot for a foot.
  A burn is assessed according to the sum a person would accept to undergo the pain of burning, a wound according to the sum a person would accept to suffer the pain of a wound, a bruise according to the sum he would accept to suffer the pain of a bruise.
  When a man strikes the eye of his heathen bondsman, or the eye of his heathen bondswoman, and destroys it, he shall let them go free, on account of their destroyed eye.
  If he knocks out his heathen bondsman's tooth, or his heathen bondswoman's tooth, he shall let them go free, on account of their tooth.
  If an ox or another animal gores a man or a woman, and they die, the ox shall surely be stoned; you must remove the cause of the destruction of a human being. If the owner had slaughtered the ox ritually after the court's decision, its flesh shall not be eaten, nor shall the owner derive any benefit from it. The owner of the ox, however, shall be acquitted.
  But if the ox was wont to gore in time past, so that it had gored three times before, and warning had been given to its owner by witnesses, and he did not guard it, and it has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner will also be punished by death from Heaven.
  But as he is not the actual killer, he may redeem himself with money. When the court assesses ransom against him to pay to the next of kin, for the redemption of his life, whatsoever is assessed against him he must pay.
  Regardless of whether the ox had gored a minor boy or a minor girl, the same judgement shall be applied to him.
  But if the ox gores a heathen bondsman or a heathen bondswoman, the owner of the ox shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned for having killed a human being.
  When a man opens a pit that was covered, or when he has dug a pit and did not cover it, and an ox or a donkey, or any other creature, except a human being falls into it,
  the man who opened or dug the pit shall pay the valuation; he shall return the loss to their owners, but the carcass shall remain the property of the owner and its value is deducted from the payment.
  When a man's ox injures the ox of his fellowman and it dies, if both animals were of the same value, they shall sell the live ox and divide its price, as well as the carcass; for it was the first thrusting.
  But if it is known that the ox was wont to gore, so that it had gored three times before, and its owner did not guard it properly, he shall surely pay the full value of the damage, an ox for an ox; the carcass shall be the owner's, and the injurer should add payment to the full value.
  When a man steals an ox or a lamb, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox, but four lambs for the lamb, because he is already punished when he degraded himself by carrying the lamb on his shoulders.
  
  
  
  If a thief is found breaking in during the night and he is beaten by the owner of the house so that he dies, the owner is not subject to the death penalty since he acted in self-defense.
  But if the thief breaks in after dawn, then the owner is liable to the death penalty. Every thief must make restitution; if he has nothing wherewith to pay, he shall be sold as a servant for his theft.
  If the stolen object is found in his possession alive, not slaughtered, whether it be an ox, or a donkey, or a lamb, he shall pay double.
  When a man destroys a field or a vineyard, or he lets his animal loose and it destroys the field of another man by eating its crops, he shall make restitution with the best of his field, and with the best of his vineyard.
  When a man kindles a fire in his own field and through his carelessness the fire spreads and catches in thorns, so that it consumes the stack of corn, or the standing corn or scorches the stones of the field, he who kindled the fire shall make restitution.
  When a man gives his neighbor money or utensils, asking him, as a favor, to safeguard them, and they will be stolen from his house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double to the owner.
  If the thief is not found, then the neighbor from whose house the articles were stolen shall come before the judge to swear that he had not himself embezzled his neighbor's property.
  For every case of embezzlement, whether it be an ox, a donkey, a lamb, a garment, or any kind of lost thing, which one identifies and declares: ‘This is the lost thing,' the case of both parties shall come before the judges. If the bailee denies it by an oath, he whom the judges find guilty shall pay double to his neighbor.
  But if a man paid his neighbor to guard a donkey or an ox, or a lamb, or any animal, and it dies or receives a broken limb, or is carried off by raiders, but there are no witnesses who have seen it,
  then a Divine oath to the effect that the bailee had not embezzled his neighbors’ goods shall decide between them; the owner shall accept the oath, and the bailee shall not make any restitution.
  But if it be stolen from the bailee, he shall make restitution to the owner, as he is paid for guarding it.
  If it is devoured by a wild beast, let the bailee produce evidence that he was unable to save it. Then he shall not have to pay for that which was devoured.
  When a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, and it had received a broken limb, even by accident, or it died while its owner was not with it to witness the accident, then the borrower shall make restitution.
  But if its owner was with it and could have helped to guard it against the accident, then the borrower shall not make restitution. If he hires the animal out, and it is lost, then the owner suffers the loss, for he has received payment of its hire.
  If a man persuades a virgin who is not betrothed, and he seduces her, he shall pay her dowry and she shall be his wife.
  If the father should refuse to give her to him, or the girl declines to marry him, he shall pay money, fifty shekels, as this is the dowry of virgins, because he seduced her.
  You shall not spare a witch; she must be put to death by the court.
  Whoever engages in perverted acts with an animal shall surely be put to death.
  Whoever offers sacrifices to the idols shall be doomed to die, for sacrifices shall be offered to the Eternal only.
  You must not hurt the feelings of an alien resident, nor shall you oppress him by robbing him of his possessions, for you yourselves were once helpless aliens in the land of Egypt.
  You shall not hurt a widow, or orphan, or any defenseless person.
  If you do hurt them, I will surely accept their cry when they cry To Me,
  and My anger will be vehement and will send against you an invading army that will slay you, so that your wives will be widows, and your children orphans; measure for measure.
  When you lend money to any of My people, regard yourself as though you would be the poor, therefore you shall not deal with him as a creditor; do not press him for payment when he is unable to pay, neither shall you impose interest upon him for the extension of the time limit for payment,
  If you should take your fellowmen's garment for security, you must restore it to him for the whole day until the sun sets;
  for it is his only covering. Also when you take his night clothes for security return them to him at sunset, for it is his garment for his skin, else with what shall he sleep? If the defenseless person complains to Me, I will accept his complaint, for I am gracious to accept the complaints of all the downtrodden.
  You shall not despise the judges if you are discontent with their decision, nor shall you curse a ruler of your people.
  You shall not delay the offering of your first fruit, and the tithing of your grain; the first-born of your sons you shall dedicate to Me to serve in the Sanctuary.
  You shall do likewise with the firstlings of your ox, and your sheep. Seven days it shall be with its mother, and on the eighth day you shall dedicate it to Me for sacrifice.
  By keeping away from impurity, and by abstaining from eating unclean food, you shall be sanctified to Me; I shall protect you against the elements of Nature, therefore you shall not eat any meat that was torn by a beast of the field, or that had an organic defect; you shall cast it to the dogs.
  
  
  
  You shall not utter groundless reports to spread slander; do not join with a guilty person to be a witness for violence.
  Do not follow the majority if in your opinion their decision is wrong, neither shall you refrain from expressing your view on a case when a majority wants to decide differently. If the majority is doing what is right, follow the majority
  You shall not favor a poor man in his litigation out of sheer sympathy.
  When you come across your enemy's ox, or donkey, or any other animal wandering away in the field you shall not seek to hurt your enemy by leaving the animal to get lost, but you shall surely bring it back to him.
  When you see your enemy's ox or donkey lying under its burden, you shall surely not restrain yourself from passing it by; but you must surely help it by relieving it of its burden.
  You shall not deny justice to your poor man in his litigation.
  Refrain from trying a false case when you find the witnesses unreliable, take every possible precaution not to condemn an innocent and righteous person to death, for I will not acquit a guilty person, even if he should escape punishment at the hand of the judges.
  You shall not take any bribe, even to give a true verdict; for bribes blind the clear-sighted, and subvert the cases of good men.
  You shall not mishandle the case of an alien, for you know the feelings of an alien are more sensitive than those of a native, since you yourselves were once aliens in the land of Egypt.
  Not only shall you deal justly with the weak in the courts, but you shall also be kind to the poor and the weak in everyday life. Therefore, shall you sow your land and gather its product for six years,
  but on the seventh year you shall release it by not tilling its soil, and you shall abandon its products, so that the poor of your people may eat them, and what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. You shall deal likewise with your vineyard and with your olive yard, and with everything that grows from the ground.
  Six days shall you do your work, but on the seventh day you shall observe the Sabbath, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the heathen servant, and the resident alien may be refreshed.
  You shall observe all that which I said to you on Mount Sinai. Make no mention of the name of idols which other people serve, neither let it be heard by others through you.
  Three major holidays shall you celebrate, during the year, dedicated to Me.
  (1)You shall observe the feast of Matzoth; seven days shall you eat Matzoth — as I commanded you — at the appointed time in the month of Spring — for in it you went out from Egypt; and you shall not appear before Me in the Sanctuary empty handed, but bring offerings with you,
  (2)and the Feast of Weeks, which is the feast of the first harvest of wheat. The first fruit of your labor, which you sowed in the field, shall you bring to the Sanctuary; (3)and the Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth), which is the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the agricultural year, when you gather your products from the field.
  At these three seasons of the year all your males shall appear in the Sanctuary before the Eternal, the Master of all the earth.
  You shall not offer the blood of My Paschal sacrifice until you remove the leavened bread from the home; neither shall the fat of My festival sacrifices remain all night until the morning, but it must be burned on the altar.
  The choicest first fruit of your land shall you bring to the House of the Eternal, your Almighty, on the Fast of Weeks. You shall not cook, nor eat the meat of an animal with milk.
  If you follow not My commandments, you will lose the privilege having Me lead you to the Promised Land Myself. However, I will send an angel before you to guard you on the way, and bring you into the place which I have prepared to give you.
  Be mindful of him, and attend to his directions, be not rebellious against him, for he has no authority to forgive your transgressions; he only speaks in My Name.
  But if you shall indeed attend to his directions, and do all that I say, then I will be hostile to your enemies, and will oppress your oppressors.
  For My angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, and I will annihilate them.
  You shall not worship their idols, nor serve them, by offering sacrifices to them, nor do after their manner, to imitate their ways of living, but you shall surely demolish their idols, and break their statues to pieces.
  You shall serve the Eternal, your Almighty, and He alone will bless your bread to invigorate you, and will save your water from pollution, and by that I will remove sickness from your midst.
  None shall miscarry or be childless in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days so that you shall live to a ripe age.
  I will send My terror before you, and will confuse all the people against whom you go to war, and I will make all your enemies turn away in flight from you.
  I will also send the stinging hornet before you, which will ferret out from their hiding place the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite.
  I will not drive them out from among you within a short space of time, lest the land become depopulated and the wild beasts will swarm against you.
  But I will drive them out from before you little by little, until you have increased in numbers, and inherited the land.
  I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will make every effort to drive them out from before you.
  You shall make no treaty with them, nor compromise with their idols.
  They shall not dwell in your land — lest they make you sin against Me, that you should serve their idols, and that it be a trap of destruction for you.”
  
  
  
  The Angel whom the Eternal had appointed to guard Israel on their way said to Moses: "Ascend the mountain of the Eternal, you, Aaron, his sons Nadab and Abihu, and seventy leaders, the representatives of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance from the summit.
  Moses alone shall come near to the summit of the Eternal, but they shall not come near; and the people shall not ascend with him at all.”
  Moses came back. He told the people all the words of the Eternal, and all the civil judgments; and all the people answered unanimously, calling out: "All the words which the Eternal had spoken will we do.”
  Moses wrote down all the words of the Eternal, rose up early in the morning, and built an altar beneath the mountain, where Israel stood to receive the Commandments, with twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel, as a sign that all had accepted the Covenant.
  He sent the first-born of the Children of Israel, and they offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen to the Eternal.
  Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar, showing that the Eternal was One contracting Party in the Covenant.
  Then he took the Book of the Covenant, which he wrote down, and read it in the presence of the people. And they said: "All that He had spoken will we do, and obey.”
  And Moses took the blood that was in the basins, and sprinkled it upon the people, and said: "This is the blood of the Covenant which the Eternal made with you for all these words that are written down.”
  Then Moses, and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy leaders representing Israel went up on the mountain,
  and there, in a vision, they beheld the glory of the Almighty of Israel: beneath His glorious Throne there was the whiteness of the sapphire stone, clear like a cloudless sky.
  The noble leaders of Israel remained unharmed throughout the vision, when they beheld the glory of the Almighty. They rejoiced when their sacrifices were accepted as they were eating and drinking.
  The Eternal said to Moses, after he descended the mountain with the leaders of Israel: "Come up to Me to the mountain and tarry there for forty days, and I will give you the tablets of stone of the Ten Commandments which comprise the Torah and all the commandments which I wrote to teach them, including the Oral Law.”
  So Moses arose, while Joshua, his attendant, accompanied him, and Moses went up to the mountain of the Almighty.
  Before leaving the camp he said to the leaders: "You wait for us in the camp and judge the cases of the people until we Teturn. Aaron and Hur, the son of Miriam, are with you. Whoever has a difficult case let him come to them.”
  When Moses ascended the mountain, the cloud enveloped it.
  The glory of the Eternal dwelt upon Mount Sinai and the cloud covered the mountain for six days. On the seventh day he called Moses from the midst of the cloud.
  In the eyes of the Children of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Eternal was like a blazing fire on the top of the mountain.
  Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and ascended the top of the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain continuously for forty days and forty nights.
  
  
  
  The Eternal spoke to Moses, as follows:
  Tell the Children of Israel to appoint collectors for taking a voluntary gift for My Name's sake; you shall take My voluntary gift from every man whose heart willingly offers the donation.
  This is the voluntary gift that you shall take from them: gold, silver, and copper,
  wool dyed greenish-blue, wool dyed purple, wool dyed scarlet, fine linen, goat's hair;
  ram's skins dyed red, after being tanned, sealskins, and acacia wood;
  olive oil for lighting, spices to mix with oil for anointing the Sanctuary and the vessels, and for use as ingredients in the incense;
  onyx jewels and filled-in jewels to be set into the Ephod, and into the breastplate that the Kohen Gadol shall wear.
  And let them make a Sanctuary, dedicated to Me, that My Divinity be in the midst of Israel and accept their prayers.
  According to all I show you, the model of the Divine Tabernacle and the model of all its articles, so shall you make it, now and also when you have to replace the articles in the future.
  The Ark to be housed in the Sanctuary they shall make five feet in length, three feet in width, and three feet in height.
  Cover it with pure gold, gild it within and without, and make upon it a golden crown-like moulding all around to symbolize the crown of the Torah;
  Cast for it four rings of gold and put them on its four corners, so that two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it, along the length of the Ark.
  Make poles of acacia wood and plate them with gold;
  put the poles into the rings on the sides of the Ark, by which the Ark will be transported during your wanderings in the wilderness.
  The poles shall be permanently in the rings of the Ark. They shall not be removed from it.
  And put into the Ark the Tablets which I will give you as a Testimony of My Covenant with Israel.
  You shall make an Ark-cover of pure gold, five feet in length, and three feet in width,
  make two golden Cherubim with child's faces, hammered out shall you make them, at the two ends of the Ark-cover;
  make one Cherub at one end, and one Cherub at the other end; you shall make the Cherubim on its two ends hammered out of one piece from the Ark-cover.
  The Cherubim shall be made spreading out their wings upward, shading the Ark-cover with their wings, with their faces to one another; the face of the Cherubim shall be toward the Ark-cover.
  Then put the Ark-cover upon the Ark, after you put into the Ark the tablets of Testimony which I will give you.
  There I will designate My meetings with you. All that which I will command you for the Children of Israel I will communicate to you from above the Ark-cover, from between the two Cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Tablets of Testimony.
  You shall make a table of acacia wood, four feet in length, two feet in width, and three feet in height;
  Gild it with pure gold, and make for it a golden crown around it;
  make for it a rim of a hand’s breath, and make a golden crown around its rim;
  make for it four golden rings, and put the rings into the four corners, at its four legs.
  The rings shall be attached over against the rim to hold the poles to carry the table;
  make the poles from acacia wood, and gild them, so that the table may be carried with them on your wanderings.
  Of pure gold shall you make its plates in which the loaves of bread are to be brought in; its cups for the incense; its jars and its bowls with which the wine will be poured for libations.
  And you shall set upon the table fitting bread, to lie before me continuously, to remind the people that I am the Provider of the daily needs of man.
  You shall make a candelabrum of pure gold. The candelabrum shall be made hammered out of one piece; its base, its central branch, its cups, its knobs, and its flower-figures shall be of one piece.
  And there shall be six carved branches of the candelabrum from one side, and three branches of the candelabrum from its other side.
  On one branch there shall be designed three cups made like almond- blossoms and a knob and a flower, and three cups designed like almond-blossoms on the other branch and a knob and a flower; so for all six branches coming out from the candelabrum.
  On the central branch of the candelabrum there shall be four cups designed like almond blossoms, and its knobs and its flowers;
  a knob under two branches of one piece from it, and a knob under two branches of one piece from it, and a knob under two branches of one piece from it: for the six branches coming out of the candelabrum.
  The knobs and their branches shall be of one piece from it. The whole of it shall be one, hammered out of pure gold.
  Make for it seven lamps as receptacles for the oil and wicks, and when its lamps are kindled its light shall be directed toward the side of its central branch;
  its tongs for draining out the wicks, and its pans for the burned ashes and for the remaining oil shall be of pure gold.
  Of a weight of one hundred pounds of pure gold shall it be made, including all these vessels.
  And see that you make them after the model which is being shown on the mountain, for this is to remind the people of the light of wisdom of the Torah they have received on Mount Sinai.
  
  
  
  The Divine Tabernacle you shall make of ten curtains of twined linen; threads of blue and scarlet wool, with Cherubim, the work of a designer, woven into them.
  The length of each curtain shall be fifty-six feet and the width of each curtain eight feet. All the curtains shall have the same size.
  Five curtains shall be sewn together one to another, and the other five curtains shall be sewn to one another.
  Make loops of blue wool upon the edge of the one curtain that is the last of the five; and likewise shall you make upon the edge of the curtain that is the last of the other five;
  fifty loops shall you make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shall you make in the edge of the curtain that is the end of the other five, and the loops shall be parallel one to another.
  You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and hook the curtains one to another with the clasps, that the Divine Tabernacle may be one whole, symbolizing the separate twelve tribes of Israel linked together in peace as one people.
  You shall make curtains of goats' hair to spread over the finely-spun curtains which are on the roof of the Divine Tabernacle: eleven curtains shall you make.
  The length of each curtain shall be sixty feet and the width of each curtain eight feet; the eleven curtains shall all be of the same size.
  You shall sew together five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves; and you shall fold the sixth curtain so as to form an awning above the entrance of the Tent.
  Make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is at the end of the first set, and fifty loops upon the edge of the curtain which is at the end of the other set.
  Make fifty clasps of copper, and hook the clasps in the loops, and join the curtains together, that it may appear as one.
  As for the remaining curtains that overhang in the tent, the half curtain that remains over shall hang over the back of the west side of the Divine Tabernacle,
  and the two feet on the one side, and the two feet in the other side, of the excess over the length of the curtain of the Tent shall hang over the sides of the Divine Tabernacle, on the north side and on the south side, to cover the sockets.
  And make additional coverings for the Tent against the rain, of ram's skins, dyed red, and a covering of sealskins above.
  You shall make the boards for the Divine Tabernacle of acacia wood, standing up, in a vertical position.
  The length of a board shall be twenty feet and the width of each board three feet.
  By cutting away two feet in the lower center part of each board you will make two pegs for each board, joined one to another by a ring fitted into it; you shall do likewise for all the boards of the Divine Tabernacle.
  And of the boards for the Divine House: twenty boards shall be for the side bordering the south.
  Forty sockets of silver you shall make beneath the twenty boards, two sockets beneath the one board for its two pegs and two sockets beneath the other boards for its two pegs,
  and for the other side of the Divine Sanctuary, on the north side, twenty boards,
  and their forty sockets of silver, two sockets beneath one board, and two sockets beneath the other board.
  And for the rear of the Divine Tabernacle, to the west, make six boards, eighteen feet in width.
  And make two boards for the corners of the Divine Tabernacle in the rear, one on the north-west corner and the other on the south-west.
  They shall be even at the bottom, and also even on the top, to match for one ring; thus shall it be for both of them, for the two corners shall they form.
  Thus there shall be eight boards with their sockets of silver; sixteen sockets, two sockets beneath one board, and two sockets beneath another board.
  You shall make bolts of acacia wood; five for the boards of the one side of the Divine Tabernacle,
  five bolts for the boards of the other side of the Divine Tabernacle, and five bolts for the boards of the rear of the Divine Tabernacle which is at the west.
  The center bolt shall pass through a groove end into the board, from end to end.
  Gild the boards with gold, and make rings of gold as holders for the upper and lower bolts, and gild the bolts with gold.
  After it will be completed you shall set up the Divine Tabernacle according to the manner which was shown you on the Mountain.
  You shall make a partition of blue, purple and scarlet wool, and finely twined linen; it shall be made with Cherubim, the work of a designer.
  Hang it upon four posts of acacia wood gilded with gold, their hooks being of gold, fitted into four sockets of silver.
  Hang up the partition beneath the clasps, and you shall place there, within the partition, the Ark containing the Tablets of Testimony; and the partition shall serve for you as between the Holy Place and the IIolv of Holies.
  Put the Ark-cover upon the Ark containing the Tablets of Testimony in the Holy of Holies.
  Set the table outside the partition, and the candelabrum over against the table, toward the south side of the Divine Tabernacle, and the table set in the north side.
  You shall make a screen for the entrance of the Tent, of blue, purple and scarlet wool, and fine twined linen, the work of an embroiderer.
  Make for the screen five posts of acacia, and gild them with gold, their hooks of gold, and cast for them five sockets of copper.
  
  
  
  You shall make the altar of acacia wood, ten feet long, and ten feet wide; the altar shall be square, and six feet high.
  Make horn-like attachments upon its four corners; its horn-like attachments shall be of one piece from it, and you shall plate it with copper.
  Make pots for it to take away the ashes from the sacrifices burned there, shovels for removing the ashes, basins for receiving the blood of the animals, forks for turning the flesh of the sacrifices on the fire, and fire pans to carry the burning coals to the altar of the incense; all its vessels shall be made of copper.
  Make for it a grillwork of copper, in the form of a net, and upon the net make four copper rings, on its four corners.
  Put the net beneath the platform of the altar, on which the priests walk, that it may reach half-way up to the altar.
  And make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and plate them with copper.
  The poles shall be put into the rings, so that the poles shall be upon the two sides of the altar when it is carried.
  Hollow planks shall you make the altar. As it has been shown to you on the mountain, to make Me an altar of earth, so shall you fill the hollow space of the altar with earth.
  You shall make the courtyard of the Divine Tabernacle; for the side bordering the south there shall be hangings of fine linen for the courtyards, two hundred feet long for one side,
  Its posts shall be twenty and their copper sockets twenty, the hooks of the posts, and their binding rods shall be of silver.
  Likewise for the north side in length shall there be hangings two hundred feet long and its posts twenty, and thin copper sockets twenty, the hooks of the posts and their binding rods shall be of silver.
  And along the width of the courtyard on the west side there shall be hangings one hundred feet, their posts ten and their sockets ten.
  And the width of the courtyard on the side bordering the east shall be one hundred feet.
  The hangings for the one corner of the gate shall be thirty feet, their posts three and their sockets three.
  And for the other corner of the gate there shall be hangings of thirty feet, their posts three and their sockets three,
  and for the gate of the courtyard there shall be a screen of forty feet, of blue, purple, and scarlet wool, and fine twined linen, the work of an embroiderer, their posts four and their sockets four.
  All the posts of the courtyard shall be bound with silver round about, their hooks of silver, and their sockets of copper.
  The length of the courtyard shall be two hundred feet, and the width one hundred on the east and one hundred on the west, and the height ten feet, the hangings of fine twined linen, and their sockets of copper.
  All the tools for setting and dismantling the Divine Tabernacle, in all its workmanship; and its pegs, and all the pegs of the courtyard — to fasten it against the blowing of the wind — shall be of copper.
  You shall command the Children of Israel to bring you for inspection pure olive oil, without lees, pounded in a mortar for the lighting, to kindle the perpetual light.
  Aaron and his sons shall set it in the Holy Place, outside the partition of the Holy of Holies, where the Tablets of Testimony are, that it may burn from evening to morning before the Eternal. It shall be a decree forever throughout their generations on behalf of the Children of Israel.
  
  
  
  You shall select Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the Children of Israel. Induct him into My service, and Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, Elazar and Ithamar, shall assist him.
  Make garments for the holy service for Aaron your brother, in honor of the Eternal and dignity for the priests.
  Speak to all who possess innate wisdom, whom I have endowed with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron’s garments for consecrating him when he is inducted into My service.
  These are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a tunic of chequer work, a turban, and a loin band. And they shall make those garments for the holy service for Aaron your brother and for his sons to induct them into My service.
  The workers shall take the gold, and the blue and the purple and the scarlet wool, and the fine linen directly from the donors.
  They shall make the Ephod woven together of gold, blue and purple, scarlet wool and fine twined linen, the work of a skilled artisan;
  it shall have two shoulder straps at its two ends, that it may be joined together.
  And its waist band which is upon it shall be of the same piece of gold, of blue, purple, and scarlet wool, and fine twined linen.
  Take two onyx stones, and engrave upon them the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel.
  Six of their names upon the one jewel and the names of the remaining six upon the other jewel, according to their birth.
  As the engraver of stones works by cutting into a signet, so shall you cut into the stones the names of the Tribes of Israel; you shall make the stones to be enclosed in settings of gold.
  Set the two stones upon the shoulder straps of the Ephod, as stones to remind them that the children of Israel are a people united by virtue of their lineage; and Aaron, their messenger, shall bear their names before the Eternal -upon his shoulders as a remembrance that He is One, and that they are to be a united nation.
  You shall make settings of gold,
  and two chains of pure gold. At the edge of the breast-plate shall you make them, made of braided threads, and put the braided chains on the settings.
  You shall make a breastplate through which the Kohen Gadol will ask Divine judgement for issues affecting the nation. It shall be the work of a skilled artisan; of the same material as the Ephod, of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet wool, and fine twined linen shall you make it.
  It shall be square and folded double like a bag, and when it is folded its length shall be one span, and its width shall be one span.
  Set it in jewels, four rows of jewels, a row of ruby, topaz, and rock-crystal -shall be the first row;
  the second row: a red garnet, a sapphire, and an emerald;
  the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst, of purple color;
  and the fourth row: a beryl of greenish color, an onyx, and a jasper of bright green color. These shall be enclosed in gold in their settings.
  The jewels shall be according to the names of the Tribes of Israel, twelve, according to their names of their seniority. Like the cutting in a signet, everyone with his name, shall they be engraved all the Twelve Tribes.
  You shall make for the breastplate chains to be attached to its edges, work of a braided cord, of fine gold.
  Make for the breastplate two golden rings, and fasten the two rings at the two ends of the breastplate,
  put the two braided cords of gold on the two rings at the end of the breastplate.
  And the other two ends of the braided chains you shall put on the two settings, and put them on the shoulder straps of the Ephod, at the front.
  Make two golden rings, and fasten them upon the corners of the bottom of the breastplate, upon its edge, which is toward the side of the Ephod inward.
  Make two other golden rings and fasten them upon the two shoulder straps below, in its front part, toward its joint with the breastplate, above the woven band of the Ephod.
  They shall connect the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the Ephod with a thread of the blue wool, that it may be upon the woven band of the Ephod, and so the breastplate will not break away from the Ephod.
  Aaron shall bear the names of the Tribes of Israel upon the breastplate of the Divine judgement upon his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, as a remembrance before the Eternal, continually.
  And you shall place into the breastplate of Divine judgement the Ineffable Name of the Eternal which will reveal in perfect light the Divine Will when it will be consulted; and in that way it shall be upon Aaron's heart when he comes before the Eternal to pray for the people. Thus Aaron shall bear the Divine guidance and judgment of the Children of Israel on his heart before the Eternal continually.
  You shall make a sleeveless robe, all of blue wool, over which the Ephod shall be worn.
  It shall have an opening at the top in the midst of it; around the opening there shall be a seam of woven work, as the opening of a body-armor is made, that it may not tear.
  You shall make upon its hems balls in the shape of pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet wool, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all around:
  a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate alternating all around the hem of the robe.
  Aaron shall wear it when he ministers, so that its sound shall be heard when he enters the Holy Place before the Eternal and when he goes out, lest he die at the hands of Heaven for not wearing the robe.
  You shall make a forehead plate of pure gold and engrave upon it like the engraving of a signet “Holy to the Eternal.”
  You shall set it with a thread of blue wool, attached to both sides of the plate, and it shall be upon the turban: it shall be upon the forefront of the turban.
  It shall be upon Aaron’s forehead. And when Aaron secures atonement through the sin offerings which the Children of Israel offer, even at all their offerings of donation, he shall be mindful that it is on his forehead continually, and the offerings will be acceptable before the Eternal.
  You shall weave the tunic in chequer work of fine linen, and make the turban of linen, and a loinband, the work of a weaver.
  And for Aaron’s sons, the ordinary Kohanites, you shall also make tunics, make loinbands for them, and hoods of special splendor and beauty,
  And you shall put these garments upon Aaron your brother, and upon his sons with him; anoint them, and install them into office, and dedicate them that they may minister to Me.
  And you shall also make breeches of linen to cover their nakedness; they shall reach from the loins to the thighs.
  They shall be worn by Aaron and his sons when they enter into the Tent) of Assembly to light the lamps, or when they approach the Altar to offer sacrifices, or minister in the Holy Place, even in the courtyard, so that they not bear iniquity and die for not wearing the vestments. It shall be an everlasting decree for him and for his descendants after him.
  
  
  
  This is the thing that you shall do to them to dedicate them that they may minister before Me. Let one young bullock be taken as an offering for previous sin, and two rams, without defect;
  and unleavened bread, thick unleavened cakes, made of flour mixed with oil, and thin unleavened wafers spread with oil, of fine wheaten flour shall you make them.
  Put them into one basket, and bring all in the basket, the bullock and the two rams, into the courtyard of the Tent of Assembly.
  Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Assembly, and immerse them into water.
  Then take the garments, and put on Aaron the tunic, and the robe of the Ephod, and the Ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the woven band of the Ephod.
  Set the turban up on his head, and put the holy forehead plate as a crown upon the turban.
  The the anointing oil and pour one drop upon his head, and another drop beneath his eyebrows, and anoint him.
  Then bring his sons to the Tent of Assembly, and put tunics upon them.
  And gird them with loinbands, both Aaron and his sons, and cover the heads of the sons with hoods, and the ministry of the Kohanites shall be reserved for them by perpetual decree. So shall you install Aaron and his sons.
  When you bring the bullock to the entrance of the Tent of Assembly, Aaron and his sons shall lean their hands upon the head of the bullock.
  Slaughter the bullock before the Eternal, at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly.
  And take of the blood of the bullock, and put it with your fingers upon the corners of the altar, and the remaining blood pour into the base of the altar.
  Take all the fat that covers the belly and the lobe above the liver, with a part of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat upon them, and burn them upon the altar.
  But the flesh of the bullock, and its skin and its dung you shall burn in fire outside the camp, for this is a special sin offering.
  You shall also take one of the two rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lean their hands upon the head of the ram,
  slaughter the ram, and take its blood, and sprinkle it all around the altar.
  Cut up the ram into pieces, wash its inwards and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head.
  Burn the whole ram upon the altar; it is a burnt offering which will be acceptable to the Eternal.
  Then take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lean their hands upon the head of the ram,
  slaughter the ram, take of its blood, and touch it to the inner cartilage of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the inner cartilage of the right ear of his sons, that they may be sanctified to hear the word of the Divinity, and upon the thumb of their right hand, that they may perform their duties with their hands, and upon the great toe of their right foot, that they may walk in the path of righteousness; then sprinkle the blood against the altar all around.
  Take of the blood which is on the altar, and of the anointed oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments and upon his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him. Thus shall he and his garments be consecrated, and also his sons, and the garments of his sons with him.
  And you shall take from the ram the fat of the intestines, and the fat tail, and the fat that covers the belly and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and the right thigh, for this is a special ram of consecration.
  Include in this one loaf of bread, one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of matzoth that is before the courtyard of the Eternal.
  Put all these things upon Aaron’s hands, and upon the hands of his sons and wave them in the direction of the four parts of heaven and earth, and a wave-offering in honor of the Eternal Who is Master of heaven and earth.
  lake them from their hands and bum them on the altar, at the side of the first ram which had been offered as a burnt offering, acceptable before the Eternal; it is a fire offering to the Eternal.
  Then take the breast of Aaron’s Ram of Installation and wave it as a wave-offering before the Eternal, and it shall be your portion, O Moses, since you now officiate as the Kohen Gadol.
  You shall set apart, for all times, for the Kohanim the breast of the wave-offering, and the thigh of the gift offering which was waved and which was lifted up, even as the Ram of the Installation, which was for Aaron and which was for his sons;
  these shall be for Aaron and his sons as a due forever from the Children of Israel, for it is a gift offering; and the breast and shoulder shall be a gift offering from the Children of Israel of their peace offerings, even as their gift offerings to the Eternal.
  The consecrated garments of Aaron shall be for his successors to the office of Kohen Gadol after him, to be anointed and installed in them.
  His successor, the Kohen Gadol who comes after him to minister in the Holy of Holies, when he first comes to minister in the Sanctuary, shall be vested in the consecrated garments for seven days in succession.
  You shall take the Ram of Installation, and cook its flesh within the Holy Place.
  A peace offering may be eaten outside the Sanctuary, but in this case Aaron and his sons shall cat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket within the court of the Tent of the Assembly.
  By eating those things they will atone for the sins they committed prior to the installation. It will consecrate them, and a non-Kohen shall not cat it, for they are holy in the highest degree.
  And in any of the flesh of the Installation offering or of the bread should remain till the morning of the next day you shall burn the remainder in fire; it shall not be eaten, for it is holy in the highest degree.
  Thus shall you do for Aaron and his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Seven days shall you install them.
  Every day shall you offer a bullock as a sin offering, in addition to the two rams of atonement, and you shall sprinkle some of the blood upon the altar' with your finger six times when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it with the oil of consecration, to sanctify it.
  Seven days you shall sprinkle of the blood on the altar, and sanctify it by the anointment, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy.
  Now these are the offerings to sanctifv the altar: two lambs, one year old every days, continually.
  One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer in the afternoon towards evening.
  For one lamb there shall be a cereal offering of a tenth of an epha (a little less than two quarts) of fine flour, mingled with a fourth part of an bin (a pint and a half) of oil gently pounded in a mortar, and the fourth part of a bin, (three quarts) for a drink offering.
  The other lamb which you will offer in the afternoon toward evening shall be treated like the cereal offering of the morning, and like its drink offering, you shall cause them to be acceptable as a fire offering to the Eternal.
  It shall be an offering to be made continually every day throughout your generations, inside the Tent of the Assembly before the Eternal, where I will let My commandments for Israel be known. There I will speak to you.
  And there I will make My commandments known to the Children of Israel, and the Tent will be sanctified by the revelation of My glory.
  I will sanctify the Tent of Assembly and the altar; also Aaron and his sons will I sanctify to minister to Me as Kohanim.
  I will cause My Divinity to dwell among the Children of Israel, and I will be their Almighty to direct their affairs without any intermediary.
  And they shall know that I am their Eternal the Almighty, Who brought them forth from the land of Egypt, that My Divinity may dwell among them. I am the Eternal, their Almighty.
  
  
  
  You shall make an altar on which to burn incense; make it of acacia wood.
  Two feet in length, and two feet in width, it shall be square; its height shall be four feet, its horn-like appendages shall be of one piece with it.
  Cover it with pure gold, its top and its sides all around, and its horn-like appendages, and you shall make upon it a golden crown all around.
  And make two rings of gold for it under its crown, at its two corners, upon its two sides make it. They shall be receptacles for the poles wherewith to carry it.
  Make the poles of acacia wood, and cover them with gold.
  Place it in front of the partition, which is by the Ark of the Tablets of Testimony, in front of the Ark cover which is over the Tablets of Testimony, from where I will make My commandments known to you.
  Aaron, or the other Kohanim, shall burn incense of sweet spices upon it; every morning when he cleans the ashes of the burnt wicks from the lamps he shall burn the incense.
  And when Aaron, or the other Kohanim, light the lamps towards evening he shall burn the incense, a continual incense, offered regularly every day, before the Eternal, throughout your generations.
  You shall not offer on it strange incense, which is not prepared in accordance with the proper composition, neither shall you offer upon it any burnt-offering of animals or cereal offerings, nor shall you pour drink-offerings upon it.
  Aaron, or the other Kohanim, shall sprinkle upon its corner-horn once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the blood of the sin offering. Once a year shall he sprinkle it there, throughout your generations; it is most holy to the Eternal.”
  The Eternal spoke to Moses as follows:
  “When you take the census of the Children of Israel at their mustering for the army, every man shall give a ransom for his life to the Eternal, when you muster them, that they may not be killed in battle; they must give it when you muster them.
  This is what every one who passes before the officers mustering the forces for battle shall give: a half a shekel, after the standard of the shekel used in connection with sacred purposes. The shekel is twenty gerahs; this shall be an offering to the Eternal.
  Everyone who passes through the mustering, twenty years of age and upward, shall give this offering to the Eternal.
  The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel when the offering to the Eternal is given, as a ransom for your lives.
  You shall take the ransom money from the Children of Israel, and appropriate it for the sendee of the Tent of Assembly; it shall be a remembrance for the Children of Israel before the Eternal, as a ransom for your lives."
  The Eternal spoke to Moses as follows:
  “Make a laver of copper, and its pedestal of copper at which to wash; put it between the Tent of Assembly and the altar of burnt offerings; put water in it,
  and Aaron and his sons and their successors shall wash their hands and their feet from it.
  When they enter into the Tent of Assembly to render their service there, they shall wash with water, lest they die for serving in the Sanctuary with soiled hands and feet; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn the fire offering to the Eternal.
  They shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die, and it shall be an everlasting decree for them, also for him and his descendants throughout their generations." 
  The Eternal spoke to Moses as follows:
  ‘Tou shall have brought to you the finest spices, purest myrrh in the weight of five hundred Shekel (sixteen pounds); fragrant cinnamon, half that quantity, two hundred shekel in weight, and fragrant calamus — two hundred and fifty in weight,
  and cassia in the weight of five hundred shekels after the shekel of the Sanctuary, and olive oil, one bin, (six pints).
  Make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer; it shall be a holv anointing oil. v
  You shall anoint with it the Tent of Assembly, and the Ark of the Tablets of Testimony,
  the table and all its vessels, the candelabra, and its vessels, the altar of incense,
  the altar of burnt-offering, and all its vessels, and the laver and its pedestal.
  After you sanctify them by anointment, they shall remain most holy; whatever touches them shall be holy.
  You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them that they may minister before Me as Kohanim.
  And speak to the Children of Israel as follows: This oil of holy anointment will be preserved and sacred to Me to anoint the Kohanim Gedolim of future generations.
  It may not be poured upon the body of any man who is not a Kohen, neither shall you make anything like it according to this composition; it is holy and it shall be holy to you.
  Whoever prepares anything similar to that compound, or whoever pours any of it upon someone other than a Kohen or a king will be cast out from among his people, by Heavenly punishment.”
  The Eternal said to Moses: ‘They shall bring to you fragrant spices, sap of a balsam tree, onycha, galbanum, and other fragrant spices with pure frankincense. Each of them shall be of the same weight,
  and make of it incense, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, mixed together, pure and holy.
  Grind it to make it very fine, and put of it on the altar which is in front of the Ark of the Tablets of Testimony in the Tent of Assembly, where I will make known My commandments to you; it shall be most holy to you.
  Do not make for your private use the incense that you make according to this composition. It shall be holy to you, and used exclusively to honor the Eternal.
  Whoever makes anything like it, to smell of it, shall be cast out from among his people, by Heavenly punishment.”
  
  
  
  The Eternal spoke to Moses, as follows:
  “See! I have designated Bezalel the son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
  I have endowed him with the Divine spirit, with artistic wisdom, intuitive understanding, inspired knowledge and in all manner of workmanship,
  to train artisans to work with gold, with silver, and with copper,
  in the art of setting the jewels, and in the carving of wood; to work in all manner of workmanship.
  I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the minds of men of inner wisdom I have put artistic wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded you;
  the Tent of Assembly, the Ark to place the Tablets of the Testimony, the Ark cover that is upon it, and all the vessels of the Tent;
  the table with its vessels, the candelabra of pure gold, with its vessels, and the altar of incense;
  the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the laver with its pedestal;
  the wrappers for the sacred vessels, the holy garments for Aaron the Kohen and tlie garments of his sons to minister as Kolianim,
  the anointing oil and the incense of fragrant spices for the Holy Place; in accordance with all that I commanded you shall they make them.”
  And the Eternal said to Moses, as follows:
  “Speak also to the Children of Israel as follows: You are commanded to construct the Sanctuary, but the work must not be done on the Sabbath. Indeed, you shall observe My Sabbaths, for it is a sign between Me and you that I have chosen you from among all the nations, throughout the generations, that all the nations may recognize that I, the Eternal, have sanctified you.
  You shall therefore observe the Sabbath, for it is a holy day to you. Anyone who desecrates it in the presence of witnesses who warned him of the gravity of this offense and its punishment, shall be put to death by the court. If no warning was given, that person is subject to punishment from Heaven; he will be cast out from among his people.
  Six days may work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, dedicated to the honor and service of the Eternal; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day although he has been warned by witnesses of the gravity of this offense shall surely be put to death.
  The Children of Israel of this generation shall observe the Sabbath, so as to make the Sabbath an everlasting covenant for future generations,
  between Me and between the Children of Israel as a sign forever, to know that in six days the Eternal created the heaven and the earth, and on the Seventh Day He ceased and endowed it with a spiritual quality.”
  When He had finished speaking to him on Mount Sinai, He gave to Moses the two Tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone written at the direction of the Almighty.
  
  
  
  When the people saw that Moses failed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him: "Arise, make for us supernatural guardians who shall go before us and guide us on our journey, for that Moses, who has brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
  But Aaron, seeking to gain time, with the hope that Moses would return, said to them, "Remove the golden rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
  To his astonishment all the people removed the golden rings from their ears, and brought them to him.
  And Aaron took it from them, tied it in a mantle, and a magician of the mixed multitude that had come forth with Israel from Egypt fashioned it by magic art into a molten calf, and the mixed multitude called out: “This is the power, O Israel which brought you out from the land of Egypt.”
  When Aaron saw that some of the Israelites had been swayed by this cry he tried to delay more, and he built an altar before it; and Aaron proclaimed “Tomorrow there shall be a feast in honor of the Eternal.”
  They arose early in the morning, offered bumt-offerings, brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and arose to make merry in a riotous manner.
  The Eternal spoke to Moses: “Go down, for your people, that mixed multitude, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt, without My consent, has corrupted Israel.
  They have turned aside quickly from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and together with some of the Israelites have worshipped it, offered sacrifices to it, and said: 'This is your power, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.'”
  And the Eternal further said to Moses: “The character of the people is revealed before Me, and indeed it is a disobedient people.
  Now therefore, refrain from praying to Me for them and let My anger burn against them, that I may exterminate them, but of you I will make a great nation."
  But Moses pleaded with the Eternal, his Almighty, and said: “Why, O Eternal, should Your anger burn against Your people, the Israelites, who have not sinned, and whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? It is only the mixed multitude that are still used to worship as the people of Egypt do.
  Besides, why should the Egyptians say: 'With evil intent did He bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and exterminate them from the face of the earth?' Turn from Your burning anger, and give comfort, instead of evil, to Your people.
  Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your great Name, and to whom You said: 'I will increase your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land of which I have spoken will I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
  And the Eternal decided to give comfort instead of the evil which He said he would do to His people.
  Moses turned and went down from the mountain, with the two Tablets of Testimony in his hand; tablets written upon on both sides: five commandments were written on one tablet and five commandments were written on the other tablet.
  The Tablets were of Divine work, and the writing was Divine writing, engraved upon the Tablets.
  When Joshua, who had stayed at the foot of the mountain, heard the noise of the people as they shouted in merriment, he said to Moses: “There is a noise of war in the camp."
  And he answered: “It is not the voice of victory, neither is it a voice of defeat, but sounds of blasphemy do I hear."
  As soon as he came near to the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, the anger of Moses burned. He grew faint; he cast the Tablets from his hands, and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
  He took the calf which they had made, burnt it in fire, grotind it to powder and scattered it upon the water of the brook that descended from the mountain, and made the Children of Israel drink from it, to distinguish the guilty from the innocent, for the guilty were harmed by it, while the innocent remained unharmed.
  Moses said to Aaron: “What did the people do to you, that induced you to bring this great sin upon them?"
  And Aaron said: “Master, be not angry, for you know this people, that they always walk in the path of evil;
  when they said to me: 'Make for us supernatural guardians who will guide us on our journey, for we do not know what happened to Moses, this man who brought us up from the land of Egypt,'
  I said to them: ‘Whoever has any gold, let him remove it and give it to me.' And when I threw it into the fire, this calf came out."
  Moses saw that the people were demoralized, as Aaron caused demoralization by revealing their impurity, bringing an evil name on their generation.
  Moses stood at the gate of the camp and called out: “Any tribe who is on the side of the Eternal and who proved it by not participating in the worship of the golden calf, let him come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
  He said to them: “Thus said the Eternal, the Almighty of Israel: 'Let each of you put his sword on his thigh, pass on and turn from gate to gate in the camp, and slay those who worshipped the golden calf, even his relative, or his comrade, or his neighbor.'”
  The sons of Levi did as Moses spoke and some three thousand men of the people fell on that day.
  And Moses said: “Offer sacrifices to the Eternal today, for each of you has slain sons and relatives, so He may forgive you and bestow blessings upon you today."
  On the next day Moses said to the people: “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the Eternal, perhaps I will be able to wipe out your sins through my prayers.”
  Moses returned to the Eternal and said: “O this people have committed a great sin, for they made for themselves an idol of gold.
  And now, whether You will forgive their sin or not, erase me from Your book which You have written; for I am not worthy to be a leader in Israel.”
  But the Eternal said to Moses: “He who has sinned against Me, him only will I erase from My book, for each must bear the punishment for his own evil deeds.
  Now, go, lead the people to the place, the land of Canaan of which I have spoken to you. My angel shall go before you. But, at times of future punishment, I will punish them also for this sin.”
  Then the Eternal struck with a plague the people who worshipped the calf which Aaron had made.
  
  
  
  The Eternal spoke to Moses: “Continue the journey from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I have sworn unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, stating: ‘To your descendants will I give it.'
  I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.
  But in the land flowing with milk and honey I will not remove My Divine Presence from you, only on the journey, for you are an obstinate people, and should you again rebel against Me I may destroy you on the way."
  When the people of the mixed multitude heard the evil tidings that the Divine Presence would be removed from their camp, they mourned; and as a sign of remorse, no man put on him his ornaments,
  and the Eternal said to Moses: “Tell the Children of Israel: ‘You, too, are an obstinate people, for allowing the mixed multitude to make the molten calf. If I remove My Divine Presence for a short duration from your midst, I shall destroy you; therefore now, you shall also take off your ornaments, so that according to your repentance I may decide what to do to you.’”
  The Children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments which they had obtained at Mount Horeb as a reward for receiving the commandments.
  Because the Divine Presence would not appear in the camp of the sinners, Moses would take his tent and pitch it outside the camp, afar off from the camp, until the erection of the Sanctuary. He called it the Tent of Instruction, and anyone who required Divine teaching would go over to the Tent of Instruction, which was outside the camp.
  When Moses would leave for the Tent, all the people would rise in reverence, each remained standing at the opening of his tent, and looked after Moses in admiration until he entered the Tent.(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  And when Moses entered the Tent, a pillar of clouds would descend and remain standing at the opening of the Tent, and He would speak with Moses.
  When all the people saw the pillar of cloud abiding at the opening of the Tent, all the people arose and bowed to the Divine Presence, each at the opening of his tent.(רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  The Eternal would speak to Moses word for word as one speaks to another. And Moses would return to the camp, to bring the message of the Eternal to the people; but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, as Moses’ attendant, would not depart from the Tent, so as to prevent any man from entering the Tent.
  Moses said to the Eternal: "See my confusion. You said to me: 'Bring up this people, and an angel will lead them to the Promised Land.' But You have not let me know whom You will send with me, whether my prophecy will be a direct inspiration by You, or by obscure vision and dream. Yet when You sent me to redeem Israel from Egypt, You said: I will know You by Your name, for you found favor in My sight.(רש"י.)
  Now therefore, although Israel had sinned and I have descended from my exalted position, yet, if I have found favor in Your eyes, show me Your kind ways, and I shall know You by the direct inspiration of Your Eternal Name. Consider also that this nation, having repented, is now Your people.”
  And He said: "My Divine Presence shall go with you, and I will lead you.”
  And he said to Him: "If Your Divine Presence will not go with the entire people of Israel, it is better that You do not bring us up from here.(רמב"ן.)
  For how will it be known in the world, then, that Your people and I have found favor in Your eyes? Conquering Canaan is not enough; other nations have done likewise. It is only by Your going with us, and by the Divine Presence dwelling in our midst, that Your people and I will be set apart from all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth.”
  And the Eternal said to Moses: "That which you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in My eyes, and I will direct your prophecy by the inspiration of My Divine Presence.”
  And, Moses said: "Allow me to comprehend Your glorious conduct with man.”(רשב"ם.)
  And He said: "I will reveal before you only My attribute of goodness, when I am called by the attribute of the Eternal of Mercy in your prayers, and I am gracious to those who deserve graciousness, and I show mercy to those who deserve mercy.”
  And He further said: "But the essence of My Divine Presence you will not be able to comprehend, for no man or living thing can comprehend Me.”(אונקלוס.)
  And the Eternal said: "Note, there is a place prepared by Me, where you will be able to see a vision. You stand upon the rock on Mount Sinai,
  and as My glory will pass by the rock, I will spread My cloud over you until I have passed by.
  When I will remove My cloud, then shall you see the after-glow of My glory, but the complete Divine radiance shall not be seen. This vision will show that no living being can comprehend all of the Deity."
  
  
  
  Now that the Eternal had forgiven Israel, He said to Moses: “Hew for yourself two tablets of stone, of the same measurements as the first, and I will write on the Tablets the words that were on the first Tablets which you have broken.(מלבי"ם.)
  Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me, atop the mountain.(מלבי"ם.)
  The first Tablets were given in the presence of a vast assembly, but now no man shall come up with you: neither let any man be seen even at the foot of the mountain, nor let the flocks or the herds feed opposite that mountain."(ראה ישעי' נו, יא, רש"י.)
  So Moses hewed two tablets of stone like the first ones. He rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Eternal commanded him, Folding in his hand the two tablets of stone.
  The Eternal descended in the cloud and stood with him there. He revealed Himself by the attribute of the Eternal of Mercy.
  When the Eternal passed by before him, He proclaimed that whenever Israel repents in prayer, it shall be in terms of the following thirteen Divine attributes: (1) The Eternal of Mercy to the innocent. (2) The Eternal of Mercy to the repentant. (3)The Ruler of Almighty power to the world. (4) The Father of Compassion to the suffering. (5) Gracious to help the fallen. (6) Slow to anger against the sinner. (7) Abundant in goodness beyond the merits of man. (8) And faithful to carry out His promise,
  (9) Conserving the merits of the fathers to reward their children even to the thousandth generation. (10) Forgiving pre-meditated sin. (11) Forgiving rebellious sin, and (12) Pardoning errors. (13) He acquits the penitent, but not the impenitent, considers the iniquity of the fathers who influenced the children and the grandchildren, to the third and fourth generation."(רמב"ן.)
  Moses hastened to kneel upon the ground and worshipped,
  and said: “If now I have found favor in Your eyes, O Master, let the Divine Presence dwell among us. This is an obstinate people but through Your attributes of Mercy, pardon our iniquities and sins, and make us Your unique possession."
  And He said: “I make a covenant, that I will be in the midst of Israel. Before all your people I will perform wondrous deeds, such as have not been wrought in all the world, or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall discern that the work of the Eternal is awe-inspiring; this I do for your sake.(ספורנו.)
  Convey to Israel this message: 'You shall observe that which I command you this day: I am driving out from before you the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
  Beware against making a treaty with the inhabitants of the land wherein you enter, lest they may be a pitfall in your midst.(רמב"ן.)
  But you shall break down their altars upon which human sacrifices are offered, and dash in pieces their monuments around which immoral acts were carried on, and cut down their Asherim trees, which they worshipped as idols,(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  for you must not worship idols, because the Eternal, whose attribute is to retaliate, is a retaliating Almighty.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  For when you make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land, and when they stoop to worship their idols, and offer sacrifices to their idols, then they will invite you and you will eat of their sacrifices,(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  and you will take of their daughters to marry your sons, and then their daughters will stoop to worship their idols, and they will make your sons stoop to worship their idols.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  Not only are you forbidden to worship the pillars and the Asherim of the Canaanites, but you shall also not make for yourselves molten idols of gold and silver, as you made the golden calf.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  Nor shall you make additional feasts as with the golden calf. You shall beep only these holidays: The Feast of Matzoth; seven days shall you eat matzoth as I commanded you at the time appointed in the month of Spring, for in the month of Spring you were delivered from Egypt.
  Another observance in remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt is as follows: All the firstlings of the mother are Mine. If it is a male firstling of ox or sheep among your cattle, you shall sacrifice it;
  and the firstling of a donkey which cannot be sacrificed you shall redeem with a lamb, and give it to the Kohen; if you will not redeem it, you shall kill it by breaking its neck. All the first-born of your sons you shall redeem. None shall appear before Me in the Sanctuary empty handed but shall bring their offerings.
  When you work in the field, you shall labor six days, but rest on the Seventh Day; you shall rest even at plowing time and at harvest.(רש"י, רשב"ם.)
  You shall observe the Feast of Weeks when the new season's wheat crop is ready for harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the agricultural year.
  
  For I will drive out nations from before you, and expand your borders; no man will desire to attack your land when you go up to appear in the Sanctuary, before the Eternal your Almighty three times in the year, for I will shield you.
  You shall not offer the blood of My Paschal sacrifice until you have removed the leavened bread from the house, neither shall the sacrifice of the Passover feast remain until the morning, but it must be burned.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  The choicest first fruits of your land you shall bring to the House of the Eternal, your Almighty on the Feast of Weeks. You shall not cook or eat the flesh of an animal together with milk."(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  And the Eternal said to Moses: “Write down these words, for after the acceptance of these words I made a covenant with you and with Israel."(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  And Moses was there with the Eternal forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water, and he wrote on the Tablets with the words of the covenant, also the Ten Commandments.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  The day on which Moses came down from Mount Sinai was the Day of Atonement. When Moses came from the mountain he held the two Tablets of Testimony in his hand, but Moses did not know that the skin of his face radiated splendor when He had spoken with him.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  When Aaron and all the Children of Israel saw Moses, and that the skin of his face radiated splendor, they were afraid to come near him, and retreated in fear.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  When Moses called them, Aaron and all the chieftains of the community returned to him, and Moses told them of the Eternal's assurance to be with them.(עפ"י מלבי"ם.)
  Afterwards all the Children of Israel approached and he commanded them all that the Eternal had spoken to him on Mount Sinai, concerning the erection of the Sanctuary, and the new covenant He had made with Israel.
  And when Moses had finished speaking with them of the Eternal's message, he put a veil on his face.
  But whenever Moses went before the Eternal that He might speak to him, he removed the veil until He left; and when he went out and spoke to the Children of Israel that which he had been commanded,
  the Children of Israel would look at Moses' face because the skin of his face radiated splendor, then Moses would put back the veil on his face, until he went to speak with Him.
  
  
  
  On the morrow of the Day of Atonement Moses gathered the entire community of the Children of Israel, and said to them: 'The following things the Eternal commanded to be fulfilled.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  Six days shall work be done, but the Seventh Day shall be devoted to holiness, a Sabbath of complete rest, dedicated to the honor of the Eternal; whoever does any work after being warned by witnesses of the gravity of the offense, even if it be for the building of the Sanctuary, shall be put to death.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  On festivals it is permissible to prepare food on fire; but on the Sabbath you shall kindle no fire throughout your dwelling place."
  Moses said further to the entire community of the Children of Israel, as follows: "This is the thing which the Eternal commanded me to tell you.
  Choose men who shall collect from you a free offering for the honor of the Eternal, it shall not be taken under duress, but every generous-hearted man shall bring as the free offering for the honor of the Eternal: gold, and silver and copper,(יונתן ב"ע.)
  wool dyed blue, purple, scarlet fine linen, goats' hair,
  ram's skin dyed red, seal skins, acacia wood,(ספורנו, א"ע.)
  oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,(רמב"ן.)
  onyx jewels, and jewels fit to be set for the Ephod and the breastplate.(ספורנו, רש"י.)
  And let every skilled worker among you come and make all that the Eternal has commanded:(א"ע, רמב"ן.)
  The Tabernacle, its tent, and its covering, its hooks, and its boards, its bolts, its posts, and its sockets,(אונקלוס.)
  the Holy Ark and its poles, the Ark-cover, and the screening partition,(רמב"ן.)
  the table and its poles, and all its vessels, and the fitting bread,(ספורנו.)
  the candelabra for the light, its vessels, its lamps, and its oil for the light,(ספורנו.)
  the altar for the incense, and its poles; the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the curtain for the door, at the opening of the Divine Tabernacle,(מלבי"ם.)
  the altar for the burnt-offering, with its grill of copper, its poles and all its vessels; the laver and its pedestal;
  the hangings of the courtyard, its posts, and its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the courtyard;(ספורנו, רשב"ם.)
  the pegs for the Divine Tabernacle, and the pegs for the courtyard, and their cords, tied to the pegs,
  the wrappers for the use of the sacred vessels, the holy garments for Aaron the Kohen, and the garments of his sons to minister in the Kohanite office.”(מלבי"ם.)
  The entire community of the Children of Israel departed from before Moses.
  And the men who offered their skills, and the men who contributed their intellect came and rendered the offering in the honor to the Eternal, for the work of the Tent of Assembly and for all its service and for all the holy garments.
  And every generous person, both men and women, brought earrings, or nose-rings, or signet-rings, or bracelets, all kinds of jewels of gold; and there were some who made a contribution of gold in honor of the Eternal.(רש"י, רמב"ן, מלבי"ם.)
  And all men who possessed blue-purple, or scarlet wool, or linen, or goats’ hair, or ram’s skin dyed red, or sealskins, brought them;
  those who donated an offering of silver or copper, brought the offering for the honor of the Eternal, and all those who possessed acacia wood for any work of the service brought it.
  And all skilled women spun, and brought what they had spun, namely the blue, the purple, the scarlet wool, and the linen.
  And there were some women who gave of their skills by spinning the goats’ hair.(עפ"י א"ע.)
  And the chieftains of the tribes brought onyx jewels and jewels fit to set into the Ephod and the breastplate,
  and spices, and oil for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense.
  Every man and woman generously contributed for all the work which the Eternal commanded, through Moses, to be done. Indeed, the Children of Israel contributed willingly to honor the Eternal.
  And Moses said to the Children of Israel: “See, the Eternal has designated Bezalel, the son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
  He has endowed him with the Divine spirit in artistic wisdom and with intuitive understanding, and inspired knowledge, and all manner of workmanship.
  To train artisans to work with gold, and with silver and with copper,
  in the art of setting the jewels, and in carving wood, to work in all manner of skilled workmanship,
  and He taught him to direct others; both he and Oholiab the son of Ahimelech, of the tribe of Dan,
  HHHHe has endowed them with the skill of the craftsman, designer, and embroiderer, to execute all kinds of workmanship, in the blue, purple, scarlet wool, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, doing all kind of workmanship, and designing skillful work.
  
  
  
  Bezalel and Oholiab and all the skillful men in whom the Eternal has instilled wisdom and understanding shall prepare to know, how to do the entire work for the constitution of the Sanctuary in accordance with all that the Eternal has commanded.(רשב"ם, ספורנו.)
  Moses invited Bezalel and Oholiab and all the skillful men in whom the Eternal has instilled wisdom; indeed everyone who had offered his skill to approach to the work and to execute it.(א"ע, ספורנו.)
  They took from Moses all the offerings, which the Children of Israel brought for the work of the construction of the Sanctuary to execute it. But they continued bringing him donations every morning,(רמב"ן, ספורנו.)
  all the proficient men who supervised the entire work of the Sanctuary, every man from his work which he supervised, came to the tent of Moses,(מלבי"ם.)
  and said to Moses, ‘The people bring too much. There is more than enough for the task which the Eternal has commanded to be done.”
  Moses ordered, and a proclamation passed throughout the camp, as follows: “Let no man or woman produce any more material for the offering of the Sanctuary." And the people ceased to bring more.(רמב"ן.)
  And the material they had was sufficient for the entire work to execute it, over and above.(רמב"ן.)
  Then all the skillful among the doers of the work made the Divine Tabernacle of ten curtains; of fine twisted linen, and with threads of blue-purple and scarlet wool, with Cherubim; in the fashion of a skilled artisan’s work were they made.(רמב"ן. מלבי"ם.)
  The length of each curtain was fifty-six feet, and the width of each curtain was eight feet; all the curtains had one size.(רמב"ן. מלבי"ם.)
  Five curtains were sewn together one to another, and the other five curtains were sewn together one to another.(רש"י, רמב"ן, ספורנו, מפרשי אחרונים.)
  Loops were made of blue wool on the edgs of the one curtain that was at the end of the first set; likewise in the edge of the curtain that was in the other set.(רש"י, רמב"ן, ספורנו, מפרשי אחרונים.)
  Fifty loops were made in the one curtain and fifty loops were made in the edge of the curtain that was in the other set, the loops were parallel one to another.(הירץ.)
  Fifty clasps of gold were made and the curtains hooked one to another with the clasps, so that the Divine Tabernacle appeared as one.(רש"י.)
  Curtains of goats’ hair were made to spread over the finely-spun curtains; eleven curtains.
  The length of each curtain was sixty feet, and the width of each curtain eight feet; the eleven curtains all had one size.
  They sewed five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves.
  They made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was at its end in the first set, and fifty loops upon the edge of the curtain which was at the end in the other set.
  Fifty clasps of copper was made to join the curtains of the roof together, that it might be as one.
  And they made an additional covering for the roof of the tent of ram’s skin, dyed red, and a covering of sealskin above it.
  They made the boards for the Tabernacle of acacia wood, standing up.
  The length of each board was twenty feet and the width of each board was three feet.
  Each board had two pegs, joined one to another board by a ring. Thus he made for all the boards of the Divine Tabernacle.
  They made the boards for the Divine Tabernacle; twenty boards, for the south side,
  and forty sockets of silver beneath the twenty boards; two sockets beneath one board for its two pegs, and two sockets beneath another board for its two pegs.
  And for the other side of the Tabernacle, on the north side twenty boards were made,
  and their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets beneath another board.
  And for the rear of the Divine Tabernacle westward six boards were made.
  And they made two boards for the corners of the Divine Tabernacle in the rear, one on the north-west, and one on the south-west,
  they they might be even at the bottom, and also that they should be even at its top, fitting into one ring. Thus he made for both of them at the two corners.
  There were eight boards, and their sockets of silver: sixteen sockets, two sockets beneath each board.
  They made bolts of acacia wood; five for the boards of the one side of the Divine Tabernacle,
  and five bolts for the boards of the other side of the Divine Tabernacle and five bolts for the boards of the Divine Tabernacle for the rear part to the west.
  And they made the center bolt to pass through in the center of the boards from one end to the other.
  They gilded the boards, and made their rings of gold for holders for the bolts; and gilded the bolts.
  They made the partition, which divided the Holy of Holies and the Tent of Assembly, of blue-purple and scarlet wool, and fine twined linen; with Cherubim, the work of a designer, they made it.
  They made for it four posts of acacia, and gilded them. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four sockets of silver.
  They made a screen for the entrance of the Tent, of blue-purple, and scarlet wool, and fine twined linen, the work of an embroiderer,
  And its five posts with their hooks; and gilded their tops and their binding; but their five sockets were of copper.
  
  
  
  Bezalel made the Holy Ark of acacia wood: five feet in length, three feet in width, and three feet in height.
  He covered it with pure gold inside and outside, and he made for it a golden crown all around it.
  He cast for it four rings of gold at its corners: two rings on one side and two rings on the other side.
  He made poles of acacia wood, and covered them with gold,
  and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the Ark to carry the Ark.
  He made an Ark-cover of pure gold; five feet in length, and three feet in width.
  He made two Cherubim of gold, level he made them, at the ends of the Ark-cover,
  one Cherub at the one end, and one Cherub at the other end: he made the Cherub of one piece with the Ark-cover at its two ends.
  The Cherubim spread their wings upward, shading the Ark-cover with their wings, with their faces one to another; the faces of the Cherubim were toward the Ark-cover.
  He made the table of acacia wood: four feet in length, two feet in width and three feet in height.
  He covered it with pure gold, and made for it a crown of gold all around it.
  He made for it a rim of one hand's breadth all around, and made a golden crown around its rim.
  He cast for it four rings of gold and put the rings into the four corners that were at its four legs.
  Over against the rims were the rings as receptacles for the poles to carry the table.(ספורנו, מלבי"ם.)
  He made poles of acacia wood to carry the table, and covered them with gold.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made the vessels which were upon the table, its plates, its cups, its bowls, and its jars with which the wine was to be poured, all were of pure gold.
  He made the candelabrum of pure gold; he hammered out the candelabrum; its base, its center-branch, its cups, its knops, and its flower figures were of one piece with it.
  Six branches extended from its sides: three branches of the candelabrum out of its one side, and three branches of the candelabrum out of its other side,(מדרש, רמב"ן.)
  three cups designed in one branch, a knop and a flower; and three cups designed in the other branch, a knop and a flower, so for the six branches extending from the candelabrum.(מדרש, ספורנו.)
  On the central branch of the candelabrum were designed four cups, its knops and its flowers,(רש"י.)
  a knop under two branches of one piece with it, and a knop under two branches of one piece with it; thus for all six branches extending from it.(מלבי"ם.)
  Their knops and their branches were of one piece with it; the whole of jt was hammered out of pure gold.(רמב"ן, מלבי"ם.)
  He made seven lamps for the oil and wicks, its tongs to remove the burned wick, and its pans, of pure gold.
  Of a weight of a hundred pounds of pure gold he made it and all its vessels.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made the Altar for the incense of acacia wood, two feet in length, and two feet in width, all square; its height was four feet; its horn-like appendages were of one piece with it.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He covered it with gold: its top, its sides all around, and its horns; and he made for it a golden crown all around.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made for it two rings beneath its crown, at its corners, on its sides, as holders for Jhe poles with which to carry it.(מלבי"ם.)
  He made the poles of acacia wood, and covered them with gold.(רשב"ם.)
  He made the holy anointing oil, and the pure incense of fragrant spices, after the art of the perfumer.(מפרשי אחרונים.)
  
  
  
  He made the Altar for burnt-offerings of acacia wood; ten feet in length, and ten feet in width, square, and six feet in height.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made its horns upon its four corners; its horns were of one piece with it, and he covered it with copper.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made all the vessels of the Altar; the pots, the shovels, the basins, the flesh hooks, and the fire-pans: all its vessels he made of copper.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made for the altar a grill, in the form of a net, of copper; under the platform beneath; reaching halfway up did he make it.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He cast four rings for the four ends of the grill of copper to be holders for the poles.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made the poles of acacia wood, and covered them with copper,(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  and he put the poles into the rings of the sides of the altar, wherewith to carry it; of hollow planks he made it.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made the laver of copper and its pedestal of copper, from the copper mirrors brought by the women who prayed at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  He made the court-yard. For the side bordering the south, the hangings of of the courtyard were of fine twined linen, two hundred feet.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  Twenty posts and twenty copper sockets, and the hooks for the posts and their binding rods were of silver.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  For the north side, two hundred feet, with twenty posts, and twenty copper sockets. The hooks for the posts and their binding rods were of silver.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  For the west side were hangings of one hundred feet, ten posts, and ten sockets, the hooks for the posts, and their binding rods were of silver.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  For the side bordering the east, were one hundred feet.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  The hangings for the one side, of the gate, were thirty feet, three posts and three sockets.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  And so for the other side; on both sides by the gate of the courtyard were hangings of thirty feet, three posts, and three sockets.(רש"י, רמב"ן.)
  All the hangings of the courtyard, all around were of fine twined linen.(רש"י, ספורנו.)
  The sockets for the posts were of copper, the hooks for the posts and their binding rods of silver, the overlay of their tops was of silver, and all the posts of the courtyard were joined by silver rods.(רש"י.)
  The screen for the courtyard was the work of an embroiderer; in colors of blue, purple and scarlet, and fine twined linen. The length was forty feet, and the height of the height of the partitions of the court-yard was ten feet, corresponding to the width of the hangings of the courtyard.(רש"י.)
  The four posts and the four sockets were of copper; their hooks, the overlay of their tops and their binding rods were of silver.(רש"י.)
  And all the pegs for the Divine Tabernacle and of the courtyard, all around, were of copper. PEKUDEI(רש"י.)
  These are the accounts concerning the Divine Tabernacle, the Divine Tabernacle in which the Tablets of Testimony were placed as they were rendered by Moses, through the service of the Levites, under the supervision of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the Kohen.(רש"י.)
  Bezalel, the son of Uri, and grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, supervised the construction in accordance with all that the Eternal had commanded Moses.(רש"י.)
  With him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, a craftsman, a designer, and embroiderer in blue, purple and scarlet wool, and fine linen.(רש"י.)
  The account was for all the gold used for the work, in all the work of the Sanctuary. All the gold of the offerings was eighty-seven thousand, seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekels of the Sanctuary.(מלבי"ם בפסוק טו.)
  The silver collected when the census of the community was taken was three hundred one thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, after the shekels of the Sanctuary;(מלבי"ם.)
  a beka a head, that is, a half of a shekel, after the shekel of the Sanctuary — for everyone who passed the mustering, from twenty years and upward, for six hundred three thousand, five hundred and fifty men.(אונקלוס, רש"י, מלבי"ם.)
  Three hundred thousand were used for the casting of the sockets of the Sanctuary and the sockets of the partition; and hundred sockets for the three hundred thousand shekels; three thousand shekels for a socket.
  And of the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the posts, overlaid their tops, and made binding rods around them.
  The copper which the people donated was twenty-three thousand four hundred shekels.(רש"י.)
  Of these he made the sockets to the door of the Tent of Assembly, the altar of copper, the copper grill for it, and all the vessels of the altar;
  The sockets of the courtyard, all around, and the sockets of the gate of the courtyard, and all the pegs of the Divine Tabernacle, and all the pegs of the courtyard all around.
  
  
  
  Of the wool, dyccl blue, purple and scarlet they made the wraps to encase the holy vessels when they journeyed, and also made the liolv garments for Aaron, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.(ספורנו, מלבי"ם.)
  He made the Ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet wool, and fine twined linen.(ספורנו, מלבי"ם.)
  They beat the gold into thin plates, and cut these into threads, to work them into the blue, purple, and scarlet wool, and into the fine linen, designing work.(ספורנו, מלבי"ם.)
  They made shoulder straps for it, joined together; at the two ends it joined together.(ספורנו, מלבי"ם.)
  Its skillfully woven waist band was of one piece with the Ephod, and like its material of gold, blue, purple, scarlet wool, and fine twined linen, as the Eternal commanded Moses.(ספורנו, מלבי"ם.)
  They arranged the onyx stones, enclosed in settings of gold, cut as in a signet, with the names of the Tribes of Israel,(א"ע.)
  And put them upon the shoulder straps of the Ephod, to be jewels of remembrance for the Children of Israel, even as the Eternal had commanded Moses.(רש"י.)
  He made the breastplate, a designer’s work, of the same material as the Ephod; of gold, blue-purple and scarlet wool, and fine twined linen.(מלבי"ם.)
  It was square; they made the breastplate double, a span its length and a span its width, being double.(עפ"י רש"י ורמב"ן.)
  They set in it four rows of jewels: the first row was a row of ruby, topaz and rock-crystal;(א"ע, רשב"ם.)
  the second row: a red garnet, a sapphire, and an emerald;(רש"י.)
  the third row: a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;(ספורנו.)
  and the fourth row; a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in fittings of gold in their settings.(רמב"ן.)
  The jewels were twelve, according to the names of the Tribes of Israel, according to their names, like the cutting in a signet, everyone according to his name, for the Twelve Tribes.
  They made upon the breastplate braided chains attached to its borders, the work of twisted cords of pure gold.
  They made two settings of gold and two gold rings, and placed the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.
  They put the two plaited cord chains of gold on the two rings at the ends of the breastplate,
  and the other two ends of the two plaited cord chains they put on the two settings, and they put them on the shoulder straps of the Ephod toward its front.
  They made two rings of gold, and put them upon the two ends of the breastplate, upon its edge, which was toward the side of the Ephod inward.(מדרש, רמב"ן.)
  They made two rings of gold, and put them on two shoulder straps of the ephod, in its front, toward its joint with the breastplate, above the woven band of the Ephod,(ספורנו.)
  and connected the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the Ephod, with a thread of blue wool, that it might reach the woven band of the Ephod, so that the breastplate might not break away from the Ephod, even as the Eternal had commanded Moses.(אונקלוס.)
  They made the robe of the Ephod embroidered all of blue wool.(אונקלוס.)
  The opening of the robe was in the middle of its top, even as the opening made in a body armor, with a seam at its opening all around, that it should not tear.(אונקלוס.)
  They made upon the hems of the robe balls in the shape of pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet wool and twined linen.
  They made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the hem of the robe all around between the pomegranates.
  A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe and all around to be worn by the Kohen when he ministered, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  They made the tunics of fine linen of embroidered work for Aaron and for his sons;
  and the turbans of fine linen, and seemly hoods of linen, and the linen breeches of twined linen;
  and the loin band of fine twined linen, and blue, purple and scarlet wool, embroidering work, as the Eternal has commanded Moses.
  They made the forehead plate, which served as a holy crown, of pure gold, and wrote upon it an inscription, like in the cutting of a signet, "Holy to the Eternal."
  They tied to it a thread of blue wool to fasten it upon the turban above, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  Thus was finished all the sendee for the Tent of Assembly of the Divine Tabernacle. The children of Israel did the work in accordance with all that the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  They brought the sectional parts of the Divine Tabernacle to Moses: the tent, all its furniture, its clasps, its boards, its bolts, its posts, and its sockets;
  the covering of ram’s skins dyed red, the covering of sealskins, and the partition that screened the Holy of Holies;
  the Ark for the Tablets of Testimony, its poles, and the Ark cover;
  the table, all its vessels, and the forms for the fitting bread.
  The candelabrum of pure gold, the lamps to be arranged on it, and all its vessels, and the oil for the light;
  the golden altar, and the anointing oil, the fragrant incense, and the screen for the entrance of the Tent;
  the copper altar, its copper grill, its poles, and all its vessels, and the laver and its pedestal;
  the hangings of the courtyard, its posts, its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the courtyard, its cords, and its pegs, and all the instruments of the service for the Tent of Assembly — of the Divine Tabernacle.
  The wraps to encase the holy vessels; the holy garments for Aaron the Kohen, and the garments of his sons in which they would minister as Kohanim.
  The Children of Israel accomplished all the work according to all that the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  And when Moses saw all the work; that it was indeed made just as the Eternal commanded when they completed it, Moses expressed his thanks, and he blessed them, saying: “May the graciousness of the Eternal, our Almighty be upon us: the work of our hands shall He establish upon us."
  
  
  
  And the Eternal spoke to Moses, as follows:
  “On the first day of the month of Nissan you shall erect the Tent of Assembly of the Divine Tabernacle.
  First put there the Ark of the Tablets of Testimony, and you shall screen the Ark with the Partition.
  Then bring in the table and set in order its two rows for the fitting Bread, and bring in the candelabrum and put up its lamp.
  Place the golden altar for the incense in front of the Ark of the Tablets of Testimony, and put the screen for the entrance to the Divine Tabernacle.(רש"י.)
  Place the altar for burnt-offerings in front of the entrance of the Tent of Assembly of the Divine Tabernacle.
  Place the laver between the Tent of Assembly and altar, and put water into it.(רמב"ן.)
  Erect the courtyard all around, and hang up the screen of the gate of the courtyard.(רמב"ן.)
  You shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the Divine Tabernacle, and all that is in it, consecrate it and all its furnishings, so that it shall be holy.(רמב"ן.)
  Anoint the altar for burnt-offerings and all its vessels, and consecrate the altar, so that the altar shall be most holy.(רמב"ן.)
  Anoint the laver and its pedestal, and consecrate it.(רמב"ן.)
  Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Assembly and immerse them in water.(רמב"ן.)
  Put the holy garments on Aaron, and anoint him, and sanctify him that he may minister before Me.(רש"י.)
  Then bring his sons, and put tunics upon them,(רשב"ם, רמב"ן.)
  and anoint them as you anointed their father, and they shall minister before Me. This anointing shall signify to them an everlasting Kohanite office throughout their generations."
  Thus Moses did according to all that the Eternal had commanded him.(רש"י.)
  In the first month of the second year after the exodus from Egypt, on the first day of the month, the Divine Tabernacle was erected.
  Moses erected the Divine Tabernacle; he laid its sockets, and set up its boards, put in its bolts, and erected its posts.(מפרשי אחרונים.)
  He spread the roof of curtains over the Divine Tabernacle and put the covering of the curtains of goats7 hair over it above, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  He took the Tablets of Testimony from his tent, and placed them into the Ark, set the poles on the Ark, and put the Ark cover above upon the Ark,
  and brought the Ark to the Divine Tabernacle, set up the hanging partition, so that it screened the Ark of the Tablets, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  He put the table in the Tent of Assembly, at the north side of the Divine Tabernacle, outside the partition.
  He set the row of the fitting Bread upon it in honor of the Eternal, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.(רש"י.)
  He placed the candelabrum in the Tent of Assembly over against the table, at the south side of the Divine Tabernacle.
  And he lit the lamps in honor of the Eternal, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  He placed the golden altar in the Tent of Assembly in front of the Partition.
  Acting as Kohen Gadol, during the first seven days of the consecration of the Divine Tabernacle, Moses offered the fragrant incense on the golden altar, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  Then he put the screen for the entrance of the Divine Tabernacle.
  The altar for burnt-offerings he placed at the entrance of the Tent of Assembly of the Divine Tabernacle; and offered upon it the burnt-offering and the cereal-offering, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  He placed the laver between the Tent of Assembly and the altar, and put water in it, to wash,
  so that Moses and Aaron and his sons might wash their hands and feet,
  when they entered into the Tent of Assembly; and whenever the Kohanim approached the altar to offer sacrifices, they were to wash, as the Eternal had commanded Moses.
  And he erected the courtyard around the Divine Tabernacle, and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the courtyard. Thus did Moses complete the work.
  Then the cloud covered the Tent of Assembly, and the manifestation of the Eternal filled the Divine Tabernacle.
  Moses was not allowed to enter into the Tent of Assembly, for the cloud enveloped it and the manifestation of the Eternal filled the Divine Tabernacle, and he had waited for the call of the Eternal.
  When the cloud departed from on the Divine Tabernacle, the Children of Israel would begin to march, throughout all their journeys.
  But if the cloud did not depart, they did not move until such time as it departed.
  For the cloud of the Eternal sewed as a signal upon the Divine Tabernacle during daytime, and fire shining upon it during the night, in the sight of all the House of Israel, throughout their encampments, during their forty years of marching through the wilderness.