“ ‘You shall keep my statutes. “ ‘You shall not cross-breed different kinds of animals. “ ‘You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; “ ‘Don’t wear a garment made of two kinds of material.
Not to sow two different kinds of seed together in a field (kilayim)
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
שָׂדְךָ֖ לֹא־תִזְרַ֣ע כִּלְאָ֑יִם
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
הזהירנו מזרוע כלאים. והוא אמרו יתעלה שדך לא תזרע כלאים, וכלאי זרעים אלו לא נאסר זריעתם אלא בארץ ישראל, ומי שזרעה שם חייב מלקות דאורייתא ובחוץ לארץ מותר. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצוה זו במסכת כלאים. (קדושים, כלאים פ"א):
He prohibited us from planting forbidden mixtures. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "you shall not sow your field with mingled seed" (Leviticus 19:19). And the planting of these forbidden mixtures is only forbidden in the Land of Israel; and one who plants them there is is liable for lashes by Torah law. But it is permissible outside of the Land of Israel. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in Tractate Kilayim. (See Parashat Kedoshim; Mishneh Torah, Diverse Species 1.)
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.
- Recorded as practiced today
- Binding in the land of Israel
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
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
- Conservative Binding, with modification
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite 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.
Qumran (the Dead Sea Scrolls)
- 11QTa (Temple Scroll) LII The catalog describes this reception as: addresses related kilayim (animal breeding/plowing); not a direct seed sowing restatement
Rabbinic aggadah
- Genesis Rabbah 7:5 expanded it homiletically
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 4.203ff rationalized it
Josephus
- Ant. 4.228 The catalog describes this reception as: rationalized restatement
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.
-
general principle
This framework classifies the relation as a direct contradiction.
Mishnah Makkot 3:2 prescribes thirty-nine lashes for sowing mixed seed in a field; modern penal proportionality precludes corporal punishment for an agricultural classification offense with no discernible victim.
-
Article 7
This framework classifies the relation as a direct contradiction.
ICCPR Article 7 prohibits cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; judicial flogging for an agricultural mixture offense falls within the category of punishments that human-rights bodies have consistently classified as degrading.
-
abrogated_in_practice
This framework classifies the relation as abrogated in practice.
The malkot sanction has not been administered since the dissolution of the Sanhedrin; the de jure conflict with modern penal norms is not enforced in practice.