and the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad. As the priest evaluates it, so it shall be. But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of it to its valuation.
To evaluate animals consecrated by vow for the sanctuary
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
וְהֶעֱרִיךְ הַכֹּהֵן אֹתָהּ בֵּין טוֹב וּבֵין רָע כְּעֶרְכְּךָ הַכֹּהֵן כֵּן יִהְיֶה
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
היא שצונו בדין ערכי בהמה, והוא אמרו והעמיד הבהמה לפני ה' והעריך אותה הכהן. וכבר התבארו משפטי זו המצוה במסכת ערכין. (אם בחקותי, הפלאה הלכות ערכין פ"ה):
That is that He commanded us with the law of animal appraisals. And that is His saying, "the animal shall be presented before the [priest]. And the priest shall appraise it" (Leviticus 27:11-12). And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in Tractate Arakhin. (See Parashat Bechukotai; Mishneh Torah, Appraisals and Devoted Property 5.)
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 case law — "if X, then Y"
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, with modification
- Conservative Not binding
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite Position not stated
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
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.