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Twenty-four Kohanic Gifts
In Judaism, the twenty-four priestly gifts are an enumeration of the various gifts which halakha requires to be given to Jewish priests (kohanim). These gifts were considered compensation for their service in the Temple in Jerusalem. The majority of these gifts were food items. Of these twenty-four gifts, ten gifts were given to the priests in the Temple, four were to be consumed by the priests in Jerusalem, and ten were to be given to the priests outside the land of Israel. Most of the gifts are not given today, because there is no Temple. For example, most practicing Jews today do not give first-born of their animals to modern Kohanim. Other practices may be followed, such as selling the mother animal to a non-Jew before it gives birth to the firstborn, and then buying back both the mother and the firstborn. Gifts According to the Tosefta, ten 'gifts' which were to be given to the Kohanim ''within'' the Temple area were portions of: :1. an animal brought as a sin offering :2. ...
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Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which they believe was established between God in Judaism, God and the Jewish people. The religion is considered one of the earliest monotheistic religions. Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism's core texts is the Torah—the first five books of the Hebrew Bible—and a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, has the same books as Protestant Christianity's Old Testament, with some differences in order and content. In addition to the original written scripture, the supplemental Oral Torah is represented by later texts, such as the Midrash and the Talmud. The Hebrew ...
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Nazirite
In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or a nazarite ( ''Nāzīr'') is an Israelite (i.e. Jewish) man or woman who voluntarily took a vow which is described in . This vow required the nazirite to: * Abstain from wine and strong drink as well as all other grape products, such as vinegar * Refrain from cutting the hair on his head * Not to become Tumah and taharah, ritually impure by contact with Corpse uncleanness, corpses or graves, even those of family members. After following these requirements for a designated time period (which would be specified in the individual's vow), the nazirite would offer a specific Temple in Jerusalem, animal sacrifice; along with it, the nazirite's hair was to be shorn and burned. The nazirite is described as being "holy" and "holy unto God"; yet at the same time, he or she must bring a sin offering. This has led to divergent approaches to the Nazir (Talmud), nazirite in the Talmud, and later authorities, with some viewing the nazirite as an ideal, and ot ...
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Oral Torah
According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah or Oral Law () are statutes and legal interpretations that were not recorded in the Five Books of Moses, the Written Torah (), and which are regarded by Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jews as prescriptive and given at the same time. This holistic Jewish code of conduct encompasses a wide swathe of rituals, worship practices, Godman and interpersonal relationships, from Kashrut, dietary laws to Sabbath and festival observance to marital relations, agricultural practices, and civil claims and damages. According to Rabbinic Jewish tradition, the Oral Torah was oral tradition, passed down orally in an unbroken chain from generation to generation until its contents were finally committed to writing following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when Jewish civilization was faced with an existential threat, by virtue of the dispersion of the Jewish people. The major repositories of the Oral Torah are the ''Mishnah'', compiled between 2 ...
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Priestly Divisions
The priestly divisions or sacerdotal courses ( ''mishmar'') are the groups into which kohanim "priests" were divided for service in the Temple in Jerusalem in ancient Judea. The 24 priestly divisions are first listed in 1 Chronicles 24. Role in the Temple 1 Chronicles 24 refers to these priests as "descendants of Aaron." According to the Bible, Aaron had four sons: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. However, Nadab and Abihu died before Aaron, and only Eleazar and Ithamar had sons. In Chronicles, one priest ( Zadok) from Eleazar's descendants, and another priest, Ahimelech, from Ithamar's descendants, were designated by David, ruler of the United Kingdom of Israel, to help create the various priestly work groups. Sixteen of Eleazar's descendants were selected to head priestly orders, while only eight of Ithamar's descendants were so chosen; this imbalance was done because of the greater number of leaders among Eleazar's descendants. According to the Talmud, the 24-family d ...
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Presumption Of Priestly Descent
In Judaism, the presumption of priestly descent is the presumption that a Jewish man is a priest (kohen), based not on genealogical records of descent from Aaron or on Jewish court rulings, but rather by observation of his priestly behavior as recognized by his peers and community. Such an individual is called a ''kohen muhzak'' (presumed kohen or status-quo kohen; , from חזק). The criteria for this determination are described in rabbinical halakhic texts. In the Land of Israel the criteria consisted of performing the Priestly Blessing and receiving terumah at the threshing floor, while in Syria and Babylonia the Priestly Blessing constituted adequate grounds without receiving ''terumah''. Other criteria might include observing the priestly laws about impurity and forbidden marriages, or receiving the first ''aliyah'' in synagogue. Rabbi Jose ben Halafta extolled the soundness of this "presumption" ('' chazakah'') by calling it a basis for the entire halakhic concept of ''chaz ...
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Bat-Kohen
A bat-kohen or bat kohen () is the daughter of a kohen (Jewish priest), who holds a special status in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinical texts. She is entitled to a number of rights and is encouraged to abide by specified requirements, for example, entitlement to consume some of the priestly gifts, and an increased value for her ketubah. Hebrew Bible In the Bible, both Joseph and Moses married daughters of non-Jewish (Egyptian and Midianite) priests. However, in rabbinic literature the term ''bat kohen'' refers exclusively to daughters of Jewish priests, the descendants of Aaron. If the daughter of a priest engaged in illicit sexual relations, her penalty was to be burned; in contrast to the usual penalty which was strangulation. Daughters of priests were allowed to eat the sanctified gifts to priests (''terumot hakodashim''), just as sons of priests, and priests themselves, were allowed to. Rabbinic sources describe Tamar as the daughter of Shem, and consider Shem have been ...
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Jubilee (biblical)
The Jubilee ( ''yōḇel;'' Yiddish: ''yoyvl'') is the year that follows the passage of seven "weeks of years" (seven cycles of sabbatical years, or 49 total years). This fiftieth year deals largely with land, property, and property rights. According to regulations found in the Book of Leviticus, certain indentured servants would be released from servitude, some debts would be forgiven, and everyone was supposed to return to their own property in jubilee years. Rabbinic literature mentions a dispute between the Sages and Rabbi Yehuda over whether it was the 49th year (the last year of seven sabbatical cycles, referred to as the Sabbath's Sabbath), or whether it was the following (50th) year. The biblical rules concerning sabbatical years are still observed by many religious Jews in Israel, but the practices prescribed for the Jubilee year have not been observed for many centuries. According to current interpretation of Torah in contemporary Rabbinic Judaism, the observance ...
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Herem (priestly Gift)
In the Tanakh, the term ''herem'' (Hebrew חֵרֶם ''ḥêrem'') is used, among other meanings, for an object or real property to be devoted to God, with God authorizing a ''kohen'' (Jewish priest) to be its receiving agent. This law is one of the twenty-four kohanic gifts and, of those twenty-four, as one of ten gifts given to the priest even outside the land of Israel. According to Abba Jose ben Hanan, the nuances of the ''herem'' laws (as well as laws of ''hekdesh'' and arakhin, and five other categories of laws) are considered "eight pillars of Torah law" that are "principles of Halakha". Etymology In Hebrew the adjective ''herem'' (Hebrew חֵרֶם) means "devoted thing" or "thing devoted to destruction". The term is used 29 times in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh. An unrelated homonym, the noun ''herem'' meaning "fisherman's net" (also חֵרֶם), is used a further 9 times. The adjective ''herem'' and the associate verb ''haram'' ("devote") come from the Semiti ...
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Pidyon Haben
The ''pidyon haben'' () or redemption of the first-born son is a mitzvah in Judaism whereby a Jewish firstborn son is "redeemed" with money. The redemption is attained by paying five silver coins to a kohen (a patrilineal descendant of the priestly family of Aaron), on behalf of one's firstborn son. Another object of equivalent value may also be used. ''Pidyon haben'' is a relatively rare ceremony. A family does not perform the ceremony if their firstborn is either a girl, or born by caesarian section, or preceded by a miscarriage (although some early miscarriages do not count as miscarriages), or if either grandfather is a Kohen or a Levite. Origin In the Hebrew Bible the laws (see mitzvah) concerning the redemption of the first-born male are referred to in Book of Exodus, Exodus, Book of Numbers, Numbers and Leviticus: The redemption price for firstborn non-Levites was set at 5 shekels: The arakhin laws set the redemption price of different classes of people whose "va ...
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Foreleg, Cheeks And Maw
The gift of the foreleg, cheeks and maw () of a kosher-slaughtered animal to a ''kohen'' is a positive mitzva, commandment in the Hebrew Bible. The Shulchan Aruch rules that after the slaughter of animal by a ''shochet'' (kosher slaughterer), the ''shochet'' is required to separate the cuts of the foreleg, cheek and Abomasum, maw and give them to a ''kohen'' freely, without the ''kohen'' paying or performing any service. Hebrew Bible The source of the gift to the priest (Hebrew: ''kohen'') is found in Deuteronomy: Rabbinic interpretation In rabbinical interpretation this is a positive mitzvah, commandment requiring the Shechita, shochet (ritual slaughterer) to give the aforementioned parts of a kosher-slaughtered animal to a ''kohen'' (excluding sacrificial animals such as Korban Olah or the Pascal lamb). This giving is required to be free of both monetary and servicial compensation. These gifts are entirely mundane ("chullin"), and are not associated with all or par ...
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Dough Offering
In Judaism, the dough offering (or separation of ''challah'', ) is an positive commandment requiring the owner of bread dough to give a part of the kneaded dough to a kohen (Jewish priest). The obligation to separate the dough offering (henceforth: challah) from the dough begins the moment the dough is kneaded, but may also be separated after the loaves are baked. This commandment is one of the twenty-four priestly gifts. By biblical law the commandment is only obligatory in the Land of Israel, but rabbinic law applies it also to bread made outside the Land of Israel. The common modern practice in Orthodox Judaism is to burn (although simply throwing away the dough in a double-wrapped container is allowed) the portion to be given the Kohen, although giving the ''challah'' to a Kohen for consumption is permitted—even encouraged—outside Israel (permitted with restrictions, see article below for detail). Hebrew Bible The offering is commanded in : In the above passage "cake ...
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