“ ‘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 crossbreed animals of different species
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
בְּהֶמְתְּךָ֙ לֹא־תַרְבִּ֣יעַ כִּלְאַ֔יִם
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
שהזהירנו מהרבעת כלאי בהמה. והוא אמרו יתעלה בהמתך לא תרביע כלאים וכל זמן שירביע לוקה, ותנאי שירכיב בידו אבר הזכר בנקבה כמכחול בשפופרת. ובבאור אמרו (מציעא צ"א) במנאפים עד שיראו כמנאפים ובכלאים עד שיכניס במכחול בשפופרת ואז ילקה. וכבר התבארו מצוה זו בפ"ח מכלאים. (שם, שם):
He prohibited us from breeding forbidden mixtures of animals. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "do not cross-breed your animals with different species" (Leviticus 19:19). And each time he breeds [them], he is lashed - on condition that he breeds them with his hand - the male organ into the female, like a brush into a tube. And in the explanation, they said (Bava Metzia 91a), "With adulterers and forbidden mixtures - from when he inserts [it] like a brush into a tube; and then he is lashed." And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in Chapter 8 of 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
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
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite As the catalog records it: binding (textually grounded; Karaite practice follows the plain biblical prohibition)
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)
- 4QMMT B (possible kil'ayim section; identification and restoration conjectural, scholarly inference rather than secure witness) The catalog describes this reception as: uncertain/conjectural
Rabbinic aggadah
- Genesis Rabbah 7:5 expanded it homiletically
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 4.203-207 (treating the mixing of kinds — animals, seeds, garments — as a violation of natural order) rationalized it
Josephus
- Ant. 4.228 affirmed it
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 a direct contradiction.
Mishnah Makkot 3:2 assigns thirty-nine lashes for causing two different animal species to mate; modern penal proportionality precludes corporal punishment for an act of animal husbandry with no identifiable human victim.
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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 directing animal crossbreeding falls within the category of punishments that human-rights bodies classify as incompatible with this article.
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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 corporal-punishment norm exists but has no operative enforcement mechanism.