## Tur HaArokh, Leviticus

###### Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:2:1
[Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:2:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tur%20HaArokh/s/Leviticus/r/17:2:1)

**דבר אל אהרן ואל בניו ואל כל בני ישראל.**כתב הרמב"ן בשביל שמזהיר על הקרבנות להקריבם באהל מועד הזכיר הכהנים שהם מקריבין הקרבן שלא יקריבום בחוץ ומזהיר ישראל שיביאום להם שם ולא יקריבו אותם בחוץ על ידי עצמם:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
דבר אל אהרן ואל בניו ואל כל ישראל, “speak to Aaron and to all the Children of Israel.” Nachmanides writes that seeing that the Torah warns that the priests are not to offer any sacrifices outside the consecrated grounds, and the people on their part are not to enter consecrated grounds in order to offer their sacrifices, the Torah also had to warn the Israelites not to offer their sacrifices outside the consecrated grounds.


###### Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:3:1
[Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:3:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tur%20HaArokh/s/Leviticus/r/17:3:1)

**אשר ישחט שור או כשב או עז במחנה או אשר ישחט מחוץ למחנה.**פי' הרמב"ן פשט הפרשה איירי בב' עניינים לאסור בשר תאוה וחייב כרת אפי' על השוחט חולין בחוץ אם לא שיביאם אל פתח אהל מועד להקריבם שלמים להיות החלב והדם לגבוה והבשר לבעלים ואחר כך אמר איש איש מבני ישראל אשר יעלה עולה או זבח וגו' הזהיר שלא יעשה מזבח לה' בחוץ ויקריבו עליו השלמים הנזכרים או עולה כעין הנעש' במוקדשין בשעת היתר הבמות רק בפתח אהל מועד יעל' אותם לשם ולכך אמר או אשר ישחט מחוץ למחנ' כי אע"פ שבביאתכ' לארץ אתיר לכם בשר תאוה לפי שתהיו רחוקים כדכתיב כי ירחיב אבל במדבר אע"פ שהוא מחוץ למחנה מכל מקום קרובים אתם לאהל מועד וראוי להביאו אל פתח אהל מועד וזהו כר' ישמעאל דאמר שנאסר להם בשר תאוה. ומ"מ תימה מה שכתב שיש כרת אשחוטי חוץ דלא נפקא ליה לר' ישמעאל אלא מכי ירחיב מכלל דנאסר במדבר אבל כרת מנא ליה. ומה שפירש"י במוקדשין הכתוב מדבר וכו' למ"ד בשר תאוה לא נאסר כלל:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
אשר ישחט שור או כשב או עז במחנה או מחוץ למחנה, “who will slaughter either an ox, a sheep, or a goat inside the camp or even beyond the boundaries of the camp, etc.” According to the commentary by Nachmanides our paragraph discusses two separate subjects. Subject number one is the prohibition for Israelites while in the desert to eat meat which was not part of a sacrificial offering, something which in *halachah* we call בשר תאווה, meat eaten merely to satisfy one’s craving for it. The penalty for violating the commandment is *karet,* the same penalty as is applied to people who deliberately eat on the Day of Atonement, or people who violate the Sabbath deliberately when there are not any witnesses whose testimony would lead to a conviction in court. Even slaughtering non-consecrated animals outside the confines of the Tabernacle is equally forbidden when these had not been brought to the entrance of the Tabernacle to be offered there as שלמים, peace offerings, in which case the fat parts and the blood are sprinkled or burned on the altar as the case may be, and the remainder, after the priest has received his statutory share, may be eaten by the owners. Subsequent to this legislation, the Torah continues in verse eight to deal with the reverse situation, when an Israelite arrogates to himself the right to perform priestly procedures within the confines of the Tabernacle. The Israelite as well as the priest is warned not to erect altars even to *Hashem* outside the confines of the Tabernacle. While it is true that upon entry into the Holy Land the regulations concerning בשר תאווה were considerably relaxed, the prohibition to erect private altars was never rescinded. Even a עולה, a burnt offering, of which the owner of the animal does not receive anything, must not be offered on a private altar in a private domain. While it is true that immediately after the Israelites entered the Holy Land, some altars outside the Tabernacle were permitted for the purpose of offering communal offerings, in the main, that was only a temporary arrangement. The permission to eat meat that had not first been part of a sacrificial offering was a concession to the fact that once in the land of Israel, the journey all the way to either Shiloh, or later on Jerusalem, was a great inconvenience for the people, who, but for this concession, would normally have eaten meat only on the three pilgrimage festivals when at least the male had to appear in the Temple. At any rate, it is hard to understand that the mere fact of slaughtering an animal that had not been consecrated as an offering should carry the *karet* penalty, seeing that even Rabbi Yishmael derives this prohibition from what is written in Deut. 12,20, and there the Torah speaks about animals which had been consecrated as offerings. Rabbi Akiva, on the other hand, does not agree that meat that had not been consecrated was ever forbidden. From that verse we can derive that while the people were in the desert and the Tabernacle was right in their midst, only consecrated meat was allowed. But nothing had been spelled out about someone slaughtering such animals becoming guilty of the *karet* penalty.


###### Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:4:1
[Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:4:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tur%20HaArokh/s/Leviticus/r/17:4:1)

**דם שפך.**בשביל שנאמר כירק עשב נתתי לכם את כל והתיר לנח להמית בעלי החיים זולת האדם אמר אבל אם לא תעשה בהם כמו שציויתיך כאלו לא הותרו ונשארו באיסור הראשון שאסרתי לאדם כל בעלי החיים להמיתם והרי אתה כאלו שופך דמים:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
דם שפך, “it is considered bloodshed.” Seeing that the Torah had said in Genesis 9,3 כירק עשב נתתי לכם את כל לאכלה, “I have allocated it to you as food, like the grass of the field,” and had thereby permitted Noach and mankind to kill living creatures to use as food, excepting man, i.e. cannibalism, the Torah here adds –for the Israelites- that unless we observe the rules laid down for eating meat the whole procedure turns into murder, into wanton killing. In that event, we must consider the situation as if the prohibition to eat meat which was in effect before the deluge had been reinstated.


###### Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:7:1
[Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:7:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tur%20HaArokh/s/Leviticus/r/17:7:1)

**לשעירים.**לשדים וכן הוא אומר ושעירים ירקדו שם. וכתב ר' אברהם שנקראים שעירים בשביל שישתער גוף האדם הרואה אותם. והקרוב בעבור שיראום המשוגעים כדמות שעירים וכו' כמו שכתב בפי' הרמב"ן על כי נפש כל בשר:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
לשעירים, “to the demons;” the spiritually negative phenomena, שדים, the expression occurs in that sense also in Isaiah 13,21 ושעירים ירקדו שם, “and the demons are dancing there.”
 Ibn Ezra writes that the reason that these demons are described as שעירים, hairs, is that people’s hair stands on edge when they behold these creatures.
 It is more likely that the reason they are called thus is that they conduct themselves like people who have gone out of their minds, as elaborated on by Nachmanides in his commentary on 17,14 כי נפש כל בשר בדם היא.


###### Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:11:1
[Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:11:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tur%20HaArokh/s/Leviticus/r/17:11:1)

**כי נפש הבשר בדם הוא.**משמע שאסר לנו הדם מפני שהוא בא לכפר והוא חלק השם כטעם החלב אע"פ שאסר דם חיה ועוף שאינו בא לכפר היינו משום הרחקה שלא נטעה בין דם לדם אבל לא אסר כל חלב משום הרחקה כי ניכר הוא חלב הקרב משאר חלב מה שאין כן בדם שכולם שוין. והרב רבינו משה בר מימון ז"ל וכו' כמו שכתוב בפי' הרמב"ן. כתב ר' אברהם בזאת הפרשה לא הזכיר הגר רק כשמצוה על ישראל בזבחים ועולות הזכיר הגר שלא יניחוהו ישראל לגר לעבוד ע"ז בארץ ישראל וכן כשמזהיר על הדם הזכיר הגר כי הוא אסור בעבור שהוא הנפש:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
כי נפש כל בשר בדם הוא, “for every living creature’s life-force is in its blood.” From this we learn that the reason for our not being allowed to eat blood is that the purpose of the blood is to secure atonement for man. It is part of the essence of the creature. The reason is the same as the reason for the prohibition of eating certain fat parts that are burned up on the altar. These too serve to secure man atonement for his sins. For man to eat such parts of the animal would be counterproductive, as he would deprive himself of the chance to achieve atonement This leaves us with the question why the blood and fat of animals which are not allowed to be offered on the altar is also forbidden? Also, why then did the Torah not forbid all kinds of fat, not only that on the kidneys and the liver? The fat parts that are not easily identifiable from a distance have not been designated as atonement to be burned up on the altar. Seeing that all blood looks alike, no such distinction was made as to which part of the blood requires sprinkling on the altar, etc. Maimonides’ approach to the subject parallels that of Nachmanides, i.e the Torah widens the framework of the prohibition to make such practices as sacrificing to the demons even more unlikely. Ibn Ezra points out that the resident stranger has not been mentioned in this paragraph at all, as opposed to the paragraph dealing with meat offerings and burnt offerings, as the Israelites in the Land of Israel are obligated to enforce that such resident strangers do not offer sacrifices to their deities. On the other hand, when discussing the prohibition of eating blood, the stranger resident in the Land of Israel is mentioned as, seeing that the blood represents the life force of the animal, such a stranger is also forbidden to eat that blood.


###### Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:13:1
[Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:13:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tur%20HaArokh/s/Leviticus/r/17:13:1)

**אשר יצוד ציד חיה או עוף אשר יאכל.**כתב ר' אברהם גם בזה לימד הכתוב שלא נעזוב הגר לאכול בארצנו חמור או סוס או עוף דורס שהוא טמא. ובעבור שצוה שלא נאכל כל דם ולא יראה דם שפוך חוץ ממזבח השם צוה לכסות כל דם שאינו קרב על המזבח שלא יחשוב הרואה אותו והוא דם חיה ועוף כי הוא זבח הנזבח לע"ז:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
אשר יצוד ציד חיה או עוף אשר יאכל, “who will trap a beast of bird of the kind that may be eaten;” seeing that the eating of any kind of blood is prohibited, and such blood cannot be offered on the altar either, it would be insensitive to leave such blood uncovered. The Torah therefore decrees burial of a kind for the lifeblood of such pure animals. Moreover, unless the blood of such animals is covered, anyone seeing it might conclude that this blood was the remainder of blood poured out after part had been sprinkled on an altar as a sacrificial rite dedicated to idolatry. Ibn Ezra is convinced that here too resident strangers in the Land of Israel are forbidden to eat such impure animals as donkeys, horses or birds of prey.


###### Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:14:1
[Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:14:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tur%20HaArokh/s/Leviticus/r/17:14:1)

**דמו בנפשו.**פירש"י דמו לו במקום הנפש כי הנפש תלויה בו. וכתב הרמב"ן ואינו נכון אבל אפשר לפרש שיהיה נפש בכאן גופו פי' כי נפש כל בשר דמו בגופו כמו ברזל באה נפשו כי גוף בעלי הנפש נקרא נפש ועל דעתי הזכיר בדם ג' דברים וכו' עד שלא ימצא האחד בלתי האחר:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
דמו בנפשו, “its blood represents its life.” According to *Rashi,* the meaning of this expression is that the blood of such an animal [that is not equipped with a soul, נשמה, is its life-force Ed.], acts in lieu of a soul. When deprived of its life it dies.
 Nachmanides writes that *Rashi’s* interpretation is not correct, but that it is possible to understand the meaning of the word נפש as an alternate word for גוף, body. We find something analogous in connection with Psalms 105,18 where the words ברזל באה נפשו, normally translated as “an iron collar put on his neck,” may be understood as describing a strong body as equivalent of a life force. [In the context there when Joseph’s encounter with Mrs Potiphar is described as Joseph trading “irons” for a “sword,” i.e.. he came close to being executed, losing his נפש, for allowing himself almost to be seduced by that woman, seeing he had provided her with that opportunity by being alone in the house with her. Ed.]
 Personally, (Nachmanides speaking) I think that the Torah has provided us with three meanings for the term דם, seeing that each time the penalty of *karet* is mentioned alongside. This teaches that unless we kept in mind all three parts of the definition we could not properly understand the subject.


###### Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:15:1
[Tur HaArokh, Leviticus 17:15:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Tur%20HaArokh/s/Leviticus/r/17:15:1)

**וכל נפש אשר תאכל נבלה וטרפה.**כתב ר' אברהם בעבור שהזכיר חיה שאינה קריבה וכן העוף הזכיר נבלה וטרפה שאינה קרבה גם כן:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
וכל נפש אשר יאכל נבלה וטרפה באזרח ובגר, “any person native or proselyte, that will eat a dead carcass (natural death) or a beast that had been torn and died as a result,” Ibn Ezra writes that in view of the Torah having written about animals not fit as sacrifices on the altar, it also mentions two other categories of animals that are in a state of being unfit for the altar, though under different circumstances those animals would have qualified as sacrificial offerings.