You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
Not to leave any flesh of the Passover offering until morning
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
וְלֹא־תוֹתִירוּ מִמֶּנּוּ עַד־בֹּקֶר וְהַנֹּתָר מִמֶּנּוּ עַד־בֹּקֶר בָּאֵשׁ תִּשְׂרֹפוּ
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
שהזהירנו מהותיר שום דבר מבשר הפסח למחרתו כלומר יום ט"ז. והוא אמרו לא תותירו ממנו. וכבר בארנו שזה הלאו הוא לאו שניתק לעשה שנאמר והנותר ממנו באש תשרופו. ובמכילתא אמרו והנותר ממנו בא הכתוב ליתן עשה על לא תעשה לומר שאין לוקין עליו. (בא אל פרעה, הלכות קרבן פסח פ"י):
He prohibited us from leaving over any of the meat of the Pesach-sacrifice until the morrow, meaning the day of the [15th] (of Nissan). And that is His saying, "You shall not leave over from it" (Exodus 12:10). And we have already explained (Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive Commandments 91) that this negative commandment is a negative commandment that is rectified by a positive commandment - as it is stated, "and what is left of it, you shall burn with fire." And in the Mekhilta (Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Bar Yochai 12:10), they said, "'And what is left of it' - Scripture comes to give a positive commandment on the negative commandment," to say that we do not give lashes for it. (See Parashat Bo, Mishpatim; Mishneh Torah, Paschal Offering 10.)
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 prohibition
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
- Lashes (malkot)
At the hands of Heaven
- Karet — being 'cut off'
Ritual remedy
- A sin-offering (ḥatat)
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
- Conservative Not binding
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite As the catalog records it: non binding in practice
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.
Rabbinic aggadah
- Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Pisḥa 6 expanded it homiletically
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 2.145-149 read it allegorically
Josephus
- Antiquities 2.312 The catalog describes this reception as: referenced Josephus narrates the institution of the Passover meal generally; he does not specifically address the notar/leftover-burning rule, so this is contextual reference rather than direct affirmation of the commandment
The New Testament
- John 19:36 reinterpreted it Bone-breaking prohibition (Ex 12:46) applied christologically to Jesus; the broader pesaḥ rubric is appropriated typologically, with the lamb consumed/whole motif spiritualized
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.
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general principle
This framework classifies the relation as an incompatible method.
The commandment prescribes malkot for leaving Passover flesh until morning; post-Enlightenment penal norms reject corporal punishment as a state sanction for ritual food-handling infractions.
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Article 7
This framework classifies the relation as a direct contradiction.
Article 7 of the ICCPR prohibits cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment; judicially administered flogging for retaining sacrificial leftovers beyond a prescribed time constitutes prohibited treatment under that article.
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abrogated_in_practice
This framework classifies the relation as abrogated in practice.
Both the malkot sanction and the underlying offense are doubly inoperative: corporal jurisdiction lapsed with the dissolution of the Sanhedrin, and the offense is temple-dependent and cannot arise in current practice.