📜 Daily Chumash & Rashi Acharei Mos Kedoshim Shishi: List of punishments for sins

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Shishi when connected to Acharei Mos

  • Converts: Do not oppress the converts. The convert is to be like any other Jew. You shall love the convert as you love yourself as you were also converts in the land of Egypt
  • Honesty in business: Do not be dishonest in business. You are to have honest weight stones and scales. I am Hashem who took you out of Egypt.
  • You are to guard all my commands and judgments. I am Hashem.

 

  1. Punishment of Molech:
  • Hashem spoke to Moshe saying: Tell the Jewish people that if anyone gives their child to Molech they will die. They will be stoned to death by the people. The man will be cut off from his nation as he gave his child to Molech in order to defile my Temple and desecrate my name. If the people will ignore the man and ignore giving him his due punishment, I myself will cut off him and his family, as well as all the other followers of Molech.

 

  1. List of punishments for sins:
  • One who turns to the necromancy of the Ov or Yidoni and follows them, will be cut off from his nation. You are to be holy as I am Hashem your G-d.

19:33 — Verbal Abuse of a Convert

Q1. What does “לֹא תוֹנוּ” refer to here?

A: Verbal abuse, such as reminding a convert of his idolatrous past and shaming him for now studying Torah.

 

19:34 — Loving the Convert

Q2. How must the convert be treated?

A: Like a native Israelite, and he must be loved as oneself.

 

Q3. What lesson is drawn from “כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם”?

A: One must not reproach another for a defect he himself once had.

 

Q4. What is emphasized by “אֲנִי ה’ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם”?

A: God declares: I am the God of both you and the convert.

 

19:35 — Dishonest Measures

Q5. What kind of “justice” is meant here?

A: Justice in measures, weights, and volumes, not court litigation.

 

Q6. Why is one who falsifies measures called unjust?

A: Because falsifying measurements is equivalent to corrupting justice, and such a person is called unjust, loathsome, an abomination, and condemned to destruction.

 

Q7. What consequences does this sin cause according to Rashi?

A:

  • Defiles the land
  • Profanes God’s Name
  • Causes the Divine Presence to depart
  • Causes Israel to fall by the sword
  • Causes exile from the land

 

19:36 — Accurate Measures

Q8. What are “אַבְנֵי צֶדֶק”?

A: Stone weights used on scales.

 

Q9. What is an ephah and what is a hin?

A:

  • Ephah: dry measure
  • Hin: liquid measure

 

Q10. Why does God remind Israel that He took them out of Egypt?

A:

  • First explanation: Redemption obligates honest conduct.
  • Second explanation: Just as God distinguished firstborns in Egypt, He discerns and punishes one who secretly alters weights.

19:37 — Conclusion

Q11. What is demanded by “וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת־כָּל חֻקֹּתַי”?

A: To observe and fulfill all God’s decrees and ordinances.

 

📘 Rashi Q&A — Vayikra 20:1–7

 

20:2 — Molech Worship

Q12. Who is liable for giving offspring to Molech?

A: Any Israelite or convert who hands over offspring to Molech.

 

Q13. What does “מוֹת יוּמָת” mean?

A: He is put to death by the court; if the court lacks power, the people must carry it out.

 

Q14. Who are “עַם הָאָרֶץ”?

A:

  • Those for whose sake the earth was created, or
  • Those who merit possession of the land by observing the commandments.

 

20:3 — Divine Punishment

Q15. What does “אֶתֵּן אֶת־פָּנַי” mean?

A: God will direct His attention exclusively to punishing that individual.

 

Q16. Why does it say “בָּאִישׁ”?

A: Only an individual is punished with excision, not an entire community.

 

Q17. What offspring are included in the prohibition?

A:

  • Grandchildren
  • Illegitimate offspring
    All are included by “מִזַּרְעוֹ”.

 

Q18. What is meant by “לְמַעַן טַמֵּא אֶת־מִקְדָּשִׁי”?

A: Defiling the community of Israel, which is God’s sanctified entity.

 

20:4–5 — Failure to Enforce

Q19. What is implied by the doubled expression “הַעְלֵם יַעְלִימוּ”?

A: Ignoring one sin leads to ignoring many sins; neglect spreads upward through the courts.

 

Q20. Why is the sinner’s family mentioned?

A: To teach that families who cover up wrongdoing are implicated.

 

Q21. Why does Scripture repeat “וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתוֹ”?

A: To clarify that the sinner himself is cut off, while his family receives punishment but not excision.

 

 

Q22. What additional liability is included by “לִזְנוֹת אַחֲרֵי הַמֹּלֶךְ”?

A: Worshiping other deities using the Molech rite, even if that is not their usual worship method.

 

20:6 — Spirit‑Divination

Q23. Who is punished here?

A: One who practices אוֹב or יִדְּעוֹנִי spirit‑divination.

 

Q24. What punishment does such a person receive?

A: God sets His attention upon him and cuts him off from his people.

 

20:7 — Sanctification

Q25. What does “וְהִתְקַדִּשְׁתֶּם” refer to?

A: Total separation from idolatry.

About The Author

Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein is a 6th generation descendent of the famous Chief Rabbi of Izhmir, Rav Yehoshua Avraham Krispin, who authored a number of Sefarim, and was a colleague of Rav Chaim Falagi, and father in-law of the Pesach Hadvir. He currently lives with his wife Shayna, and twelve children K”H, in Tzfas, Israel. Rabbi Goldstein received Semicha from Rabbi Schneur Zalman Labkowski of the Tomchei Temimim headquarters in 2005 and served as a chaplain in the Lotar/Kalatz and K9 unit of the IDF from years 2005-2008. He is also a certified Shochet, and has performed Hashgacha work in slaughterhouses. Rabbi Goldstein is the director of Shulchanaruchharav.com, the world’s leading web-based Halacha database, and is the director of the Home Study Semicha Program, a self-study web-based Semicha program. He is a prolific author of over 50 Sefarim studied by a wide range of readers throughout the world, which is used regularly in Semicha programs around the globe. He is a world renowned Posek, answering questions to a web-based market, and serves as a local Posek, Rav, and Lecturer, in the Tzemach Tzedek community Shul in Tzefas, Israel. His many classes can be heard both from his website, Vimeo and YouTube channel. Students can join live to classes given in the Tzemach Tzedek Shul, through the “בית חבד צפת Chabad Tsfat” YouTube channel.