Commandments · Negative commandments

Not to slaughter consecrated animals outside the Temple courtyard

#78 Negative commandment Leviticus 17:3-4

The cited verse

The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)

אִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁחַט שׁוֹר אוֹ־כֶשֶׂב אוֹ־עֵז בַּמַּחֲנֶה אוֹ אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁחַט מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה׃ וְאֶל־פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לֹא הֱבִיאוֹ

In Maimonides’ words

How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.

שהזהיר משחוט דבר מהקדשים בחוץ, וזה יקרא שוחט בחוץ. וכשמנו בתחלת כריתות (דף ב') מחוייבי כרת כלם מנו השוחט והמעלה בחוץ בשתים, ואמנם היות השוחט בחוץ חייב כרת ואע"פ שלא העלה אבל מעת ששחט, כן לשון התורה. והוא אמרו אשר ישחט שור או כשב או עז במחנה או אשר ישחט מחוץ למחנה ואל פתח אהל מועד לא הביאו וגו'. ואמנם האזהרה מזה רוצה לומר משחוטי חוץ אינה בבאור אבל היא נלמדת בדין שלא ענש אלא אם כן הזהיר כמו ששמנו שרש בהקדמה שהקדמנו לאלו המצות. ולשון גמרא זבחים (דף ק"ו) השוחט והמעלה בחוץ חייב שתים בשלמא מעלה כתיב עונש וכתיב אזהרה, עונש ונכרת אזהרה השמר לך פן תעלה וכדרבי אבין דאמר כל מקום שנאמר השמר פן ואל אינו אלא לא תעשה, אלא שחיטה בשלמא עונש ונכרת מעמיו אזהרה מנין, ואחר הדברים יצא המאמר על זה הלשון אמר שם תעלה עולותיך ושם תעשה, מקיש עשיה לעליה מה עליה ענש והזהיר אף עשיה ענש והזהיר, רמז באמרו שם תעלה ושם תעשה על אמרו שם תעלה עולותיך וזו היא הקרבה, רוצה לומר הקטר על האש. אמר שם תעשה ככל אשר אני מצוך כולל זה ההקרבה וזביחה, לפי שגם הוא צוה בזביחה. ודע כי השוחט בחוץ בשוגג חייב חטאת קבועה, וצריך שתדעהו מי שהקריב קדשים בזמן הזה חוץ למקום העזרה חייב כרת. ובבאור אמרו המעלה בחוץ בזמן הזה ר' יוחנן אמר חייב, וכן הלכה כי הוא ראוי ליקרב והשרש האמתי אצלנו מקריבים אע"פ שאין בית. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצוה זו בי"ג מזבחים. (אחרי מות, שם):

That He prohibited us from slaughtering any of the sacrifices outside. And this is called, slaughtering outside. And at the beginning of Keritot (Mishnah Keritot 1:1), when they listed all those that are liable for excision (karet), they counted one who slaughters outside and one who offers [the sacrifices] outside as two. Indeed, if one slaughters outside, he is liable for excision - even if he does not bring [it] up - from the time he slaughtered it. That is the language of the Torah; and that is His saying, "who slaughters an ox or sheep or goat in the camp, or slaughters outside the camp, and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, etc." (Leviticus 17:3-4). Nevertheless, the prohibition about this - meaning to say, slaughtering outside - is not explicit, but is rather learned from the precept that He does not punish unless He prohibited, which we situated as a principle in our introduction with which we introduced [all] of these commandments. And the language of the Gemara, Zevachim (Zevachim 106a), is, "[One who brings up and slaughters outside is liable for two.] Granted, for bringing up, the punishment is written, and the prohibition is written: The punishment, 'he will be excised' (Leviticus 17:9); the prohibition, 'Take care lest you bring up' (Deuteronomy 12:13). [This is] in accordance with Rabbi Avin, who says, 'Wherever it is stated in the Torah, Observe; Lest; or Do not, it is nothing except a prohibition.' But [for] slaughtering, why is one liable? Granted the punishment is, 'he shall be excised from among his people.' [But] from where [do we know] its prohibition?" And after [many] words, the [conclusive] statement came out with this language (Zevachim 107a): "He said, 'there you shall bring up your burnt offerings and there you shall do' (Deuteronomy 12:14). It compares doing to bringing up - just like [with] bringing up, He punished and prohibited; so too, [with] doing, He punished and prohibited." With their saying, "there you shall bring up [...] and there you shall do," it is an indication that His saying, "there you shall bring up your burnt offerings" - and that is the offering, meaning its incineration on the fire - [can be compared to] His saying, "there you shall do like everything I command you," which includes this offering, [as well as] the slaughtering. For He also commanded the slaughtering. And know that one who slaughters outside inadvertently is liable for a fixed sin-offering. And it is necessary that you know that one who slaughters consecrated animals at this time outside the location of the courtyard is liable for excision. And in the explanation, they said (Zevachim 107b), "One who brings up [a sacrifice] outside: Rabbi Yochanan says, 'He is liable.'" And that is the law, for it is fitting to offer [even today]. And the true principle with us is [that] we may sacrifice, even though there is no Temple. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in the thirteenth [chapter] of Zevachim. (See Parashat Acharei Mot; Mishneh Torah, Sacrificial Procedure 18.)

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

  • Lashes (malkot)

At the hands of Heaven

  • Karet — being 'cut off'

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 Kept as an ethical principle
  • Reform Not binding
  • Reconstructionist Not binding
  • Karaite Binding, with modification

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) 52:13-21 read it more strictly
  • CD 12:13-15 reinterpreted it

Rabbinic aggadah

  • Sifra, Aḥarei Mot, parashah 6 expanded it homiletically
  • Leviticus Rabbah 22:7-8 expanded it homiletically

Philo of Alexandria

  • De Specialibus Legibus 1.66-67 (sacrificial-cult sections) rationalized it

Josephus

  • Ant. 3.226-228 affirmed it

The Qur'an and hadith

  • Q 6:121, 6:145 carried a parallel

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 3:15 prescribes malkot (flogging) for slaughtering a consecrated animal outside the Temple courtyard — a non-violent, non-harmful religious procedural violation. Modern penal proportionality precludes corporal punishment for offenses involving no victim injury.

  • general principle

    This framework classifies the relation as an incompatible method.

    Post-Enlightenment criminal law rejects flogging as a permissible sanction under any circumstances; while the underlying goal of regulating sacred-slaughter procedure might translate into civil or administrative regulation, the prescribed corporal method is categorically unavailable in contemporary legal systems.

  • general principle

    This framework classifies the relation as abrogated in practice.

    The malkot sanction is doubly inoperative: the Sanhedrin's capital and corporal jurisdiction lapsed with the destruction of the Second Temple (post-70 CE), and the commandment itself presupposes a functioning Temple — meaning the violation cannot arise in the absence of the institution that defines it.

Source & licence

The commentary, cross-references, reception, and modern-conflict analysis in this section are drawn from a public compilation of the 613 commandments, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The cited biblical text is rendered from GEBible’s own public-domain reading corpus. CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). GEBible’s presentation of this material is offered under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 terms.