“When a bull, a sheep, or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother. From the eighth day on it shall be accepted for the offering of an offering made by fire to Yahweh.
A sacrificial animal must be at least eight days old before it is offered
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
שׁוֹר אוֹ־כֶשֶׂב אוֹ־עֵז כִּי יִוָּלֵד וְהָיָה שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תַּחַת אִמּוֹ וּמִיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי וָהָלְאָה יֵרָצֶה לְקָרְבַּן אִשֶּׁה לַיהוָה
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
היא שצונו שיהיה כל קרבן שנקריב מן הבהמה בן שמנה ימים או יותר ולא פחות מהם, וזהו מחוסר זמן בגופו. והוא אמרו והיה שבעת ימים תחת אמו. וכבר נכפל זה הצווי בלשון אחר, והוא אמרו יתעלה שבעת ימים יהיה עם אמו, ומצוה זו תכלול כל הקרבנות כלם, ומאמרו ומיום השמיני והלאה ירצה לקרבן אשה לה' יש ראיה שקודם זה לא ירצה. הנה כבר התאמתה האזהרה מהקרב מחוסר זמן אבל הוא לאו הבא מכלל עשה, לפיכך אין לוקין עליו ומי שהקריב מחוסר זמן אינו לוקה כמו שהתבאר בפרק אותו ואת בנו (חולין דף פ"א) ושם נאמר הנח למחוסר זמן שהכתוב נתקו לעשה. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצוה זו בספרי ובסוף מסכת זבחים. (אמור, איסורי מזבח פ"ג):
That is that we were commanded that any animal sacrifice that we offer be eight days old or more - and not less. And this is [the commandment of] that which is lacking time in its body. And that is His saying, "it shall stay seven days with its mother" (Leviticus 22:27). And this commandment has already been repeated with a different language. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "seven days it shall stay with its mother" (Exodus 22:29). And this commandment completely includes all of the sacrifices. And there is a proof that it is not accepted before then from His saying, "and from the eighth day, it will be accepted as a burnt-sacrifice to the Lord" (Leviticus 22:27). Behold the prohibition of offering that which is lacking time has already been demonstrated. However it is a negative commandment derived from a positive commandment. Hence we do not give lashes for it. So one who sacrifices [an animal] which is lacking time does not receive lashes, as it is explained in the chapter [entitled] Oto ve'et Beno (Chullin 80b). And there, it is said, "Leave that which is lacking time, as Scripture rectified it by a positive commandment." And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in the Sifrei and at the end of Tractate Zevachim. (See Parashat Emor; Mishneh Torah, Things Forbidden on the Altar 3).
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a ritual instruction
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Requires a standing Temple
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
No court-imposed penalty is recorded.
At the hands of Heaven
No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding in principle
- Conservative Kept as an ethical principle
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite Not binding
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Philo of Alexandria
- De Virtutibus 125-129 rationalized it
Beside the older legal codes of its world
The commandment set beside the ancient Near-Eastern legal collections scholars compare it to — a descriptive comparison, not a claim of dependence.
- hittite instructions Hittite temple instructions specify the physical condition and fitness of animals presented for cult, including requirements that animals be sound before acceptance at the altar Relationship to the parallel: shared theme CTH 264 (Instructions to Temple Officials / 'Instructions for Temple Personnel') Goetze translation in ANET, pp. 207-211; cf. McMahon, The Hittite State Cult of the Tutelary Deities (1991), for CTH 264
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.