Littérature du Second Temple sur L’Exode 13:11

IV. The introduction of the subject of Abel’s offering of the first-born of his sheep is immediately followed by a quotation of the directions with regard to the offering of the first-born in Exod. 13:11–13, and the sections 90–117 are almost entirely short homilies on the different parts of this passage. Thus (a) the time of the offering is put at the entrance to Canaan, the “wavering reasoning” from which God means us to escape (90); (b) we have then an apologetic discussion of the words “God sware,” showing that such expressions are a concession to the human tendency to anthropomorphism (91–96); (c) by reading an “if” into the words “and shall give thee,” he draws his favourite moral that we can only give what God has given (97); (d) dwelling on the words “thou shalt set apart” or “separate,” he argues that the ideas of God which we offer to Him must be kept apart from lower and profane conceptions of Him (98–101); (e) “the males to the Lord” means that while the male offspring of the soul are the virtues, those of the “beasts” or senses are such as are kept under control of the mind (102–106); (f) we have an illustrative digression on the similar command in Numb. 15:19–20, to make offering from the “mixture,” i.e. our compound being, and a contrast with the offerings of perfection, in which there is no setting apart (107–112); (g) on the last verse of Exod. 13:11–13, “all that openeth the womb of the ass, thou shalt exchange it for a sheep, but if thou dost not exchange it, thou shalt redeem it,” we are told that the ass is labour, the sheep progress, and that labour, at least in the case of things indifferent, is futile, unless it brings progress, and if futile must be “redeemed,” i.e. set free (112–116).

[89] And thus he fulfilled the sacred ordinance, “It shall be when the Lord thy God has brought thee into the land of the Canaanites, as He sware to thy fathers, and shall give it unto thee, thou shalt separate everything that opens the womb that is male unto the Lord; everything that opens the womb from thy herds among thy cattle, all that are born to thee, the males to the Lord. All that opens the womb of an ass, thou shalt exchange for a sheep; but if thou dost not exchange it, thou shalt redeem it”(Exod. 13:11–13). That which opens the womb is the first-born, that is Abel’s gift, and the time and method of this offering is a matter for thy search.

[97] So to resume, “if God gives such and such to thee, thou shalt separate them” (Exod. 13:11). Thus does Moses condition his command. Yes, for unless He gives, thou shalt not have, since all things are His possessions, all things outside thee, and the body, the senses, the reason, the mind, and the functions of them all; and not thyself only, but this world also. And whatsoever thou severest or dividest from it for thy use, thou shalt find to be not thine but Another’s. Earth and water, air, sky, stars, all forms of living creatures and plants, things that perish and things that perish not, thou dost not hold in ownership. Therefore whatsoever thou bringest as an offering, thou wilt offer God’s possession and not thine own.