57 passagesc. 3rd-4th century CEHebrewCC-BY; Hebrew Venice 1545 public domain
Individual passages from Sifra (Torat Kohanim), shown in source order. Page 1 of 2.
After the calf was broken and the plague had swept through the camp, a shadow lived in the heart of Aaron. He had shaped the gold, and Heaven's anger had burned against him so fier...
"And it was on the eighth day," the verse says, and the sages bent close to listen, for which eighth day did it mean? Not the eighth of the month, they ruled, but the eighth in a c...
When the hour came to consecrate the priesthood, the Holy One said to Moses, "Take Aaron and his sons with him." The Maggid pauses on that small word, take, and turns it in the lig...
On the eighth day, when the long week of consecration had ended and the Mishkan stood ready to receive its first true service, Moses raised his voice and summoned the people. But n...
When the day came to consecrate Aaron for his sacred service, the LORD did not name new and unfamiliar things. He called for what He had already entrusted to Moses long before, and...
On the eighth day, when the long week of consecration was finished and the priesthood was ready to begin, Moses turned to his brother with a hard tenderness. "Aaron, my brother," h...
When the day came to consecrate the priesthood, the word of the Holy One reached Moses with a strange instruction. He was not told to bring Aaron quietly aside, nor to robe him beh...
On the eighth day of the Mishkan's dedication, Moses commanded that an ox and a calf be brought near. Why these two beasts, and not others? Because the wound in Israel's soul had t...
When the seven days of consecration arrived, Moses drew his brother near. He brought Aaron and Aaron's sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting, where the laver waited bright with w...
When Moses gave the command, the people did not drag their feet. They brought what he had ordered with zeal, and the whole congregation came forward and stood before the Holy One. ...
At the dedication of the Mishkan, Moses took the tunic and laid it upon his brother, and bound him with the sash. So the sages saw a strange and tender thing, that Moses, the maste...
On the day the Mishkan was to be consecrated, all Israel stood gathered and waiting, hungry for a sign that their labor had pleased Heaven. And Moses rose before them and said, "Th...
On the day the Mishkan was consecrated, Moses did not merely dress his brother. He dressed every priest who would ever stand before the Holy One. When he fastened the choshen, the ...
For seven days Moses alone had moved through the rites of consecration, his hands learning the holy work of the Mishkan while his brother watched and waited. Then the eighth day br...
On the eighth day, when the seven days of consecration were done and the Mishkan stood ready, the whole camp held its breath. Aaron was to step forward and begin the service for th...
Rabbi Yehudah remembered a wonder that began in the wilderness and has not ended yet. In the beginning there were only twelve logs of oil, the measure of a single hin, no more. Rec...
When the day came at last to consecrate the Mishkan, Aaron did not hesitate at the threshold of the altar. The sages saw it in a single word: he drew near with zeal, hurrying towar...
When the oil was poured out upon the new sanctuary, the sages noticed that not every holy thing was consecrated in the same manner, and from that difference they drew a teaching. C...
On the eighth day, when the Mishkan stood new beneath the wilderness sky, Aaron drew near to the altar bearing the burnt offering. The Torah says he offered it according to the ord...
On the day the priesthood was born, Moses stood not above his brother but beside him, his hands the hands of a servant. He had robed Aaron in the garments of holiness, the vestment...
On the day the Mishkan was raised and Aaron first stood as priest, he came to the meal-offering and reached his hand into the fine flour. The Torah says simply that he "filled his ...
On the day the world held its breath, Moses led forward a young bullock to the door of the Mishkan. He set it before the altar, and Aaron and his sons pressed their hands upon its ...
On the eighth day, when the Mishkan was newly raised and the fire of heaven had not yet leapt upon the altar, Aaron lifted his hands to serve. The Torah records that he smoked a me...
On the day the Mishkan was raised and its priesthood sealed, Aaron and his sons came forward to the bullock of the sin-offering. They pressed their hands upon its head, leaning the...
On the day the Mishkan was raised and the priesthood began, a great wonder hid inside an ordinary verse. Aaron took the ox and the ram, the peace-offerings that belonged to all the...
Seven days the courtyard of the Mishkan stood new and trembling, and through all seven it was Moses, not Aaron, whose hands did the holy work. Moses slaughtered the offering. Moses...
On Rosh Chodesh Nissan the Mishkan was raised, its boards standing, its curtains hung, the work of human hands complete. Yet the Presence did not descend. For seven days Moses rose...
On the days of dedication, when the **Mishkan** stood newly raised and **Aaron** waited to be consecrated as priest, **Moses** took up the blood of the offering and drew it across ...
When Scripture opens the eighth day with the small words "And it was," it is whispering a secret. For only once before had heaven used those very words, on the day the world itself...
In the days when the Mishkan was first made holy, Moses stood at the altar and lifted the consecration bullock. Now a man might reason in his heart, and say: this beast is not for ...
The sages took a verse meant for lovers and heard in it the marriage of God and Israel. "Go out and gaze," sings the Song, "upon the crown his mother set on him on the day of his w...
On the day the Mishkan was raised and Aaron was set apart for the priesthood, a second ram was led forward, the ram of the burnt-offering. It was no ordinary act, for in that momen...
On the eighth day, when the fire of consecration had at last settled upon the altar and the smoke rose straight and true, the people stood waiting before the Tent. They had carried...
On the day the Mishkan was raised and Aaron drew near to his service, it was Moses who stood at the altar and did the work with his own hands. He took the head and the pieces and t...
On the eighth day, when the long labor of the consecration drew to its close, Aaron stood upon the great altar of the Mishkan. All week he and his sons had been gathered at the doo...
At the threshold of the Mishkan, in the seven days of filling the hands, Moses drew near the offerings that would set Aaron apart for holy service. Scripture had already named the ...
The seventh day of consecration had come, and every offering was given as commanded. Aaron had labored without flaw, the bullock and the rams brought near, the blood applied, the f...
There is a ram that bears a name of fullness. They call it the ram of the miluim, the ram of completion, for it seals and finishes the whole long labor of consecration. When it is ...
On the day the Mishkan was consecrated, the whole assembly stood waiting, their offerings laid upon the altar, the burnt-offering and the fats heaped high. Aaron had completed the ...
On the day the dwelling of God rose in the wilderness, Moses stood as priest before his brother, and the work of consecration began. A ram was slaughtered, and Moses gathered its b...
On the day the Mishkan was consecrated, the people of Israel walked in solemn order. Moses went first, and Aaron walked beside him, and behind them came their two eldest sons, Nada...
On the day the Mishkan was consecrated, Moses drew near the sons of Aaron and did a strange and tender thing. He did not anoint them with words alone, nor crown them only with oil....
On the eighth day, every offering had been raised, every service performed, every word of Moses fulfilled to the letter. Aaron had blessed the people, and all of Israel stood waiti...
When Moses stood at the door of the Mishkan to consecrate Aaron and his sons, the verse tells how he took the fat of the offering and lifted it toward Heaven. The Sages paused over...
How did the sons of Aaron die? Two strands of fire came forth from the Holy of Holies and split into four. Two threads entered the nostrils of one son, two the nostrils of the othe...
When Aaron was clothed for the service of the Mishkan, the sages saw a deeper truth folded into every cloth: that garments themselves carry the commandments of the Holy One. A robe...
On the day the Mishkan was consecrated, the righteous learned how a great soul answers a blow from Heaven. When fire claimed his sons, Aaron stood in silence and bowed to the verdi...
When the sages of the Sifra walked through the world, they found nothing empty of holiness. Wherever the eye fell, a commandment was already waiting there, like a thread of light s...
