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Zakhor
The Bible · 29/54

Aharei Mot

The service of Yom Kippur, blood, forbidden unions.

Hebrew name
אַחֲרֵי מוֹת
Book
Leviticus
Verses
Lv 16,1–18,30
Haftara
Ez 22,1–19

The ritual of great pardon is described here, and it is read on the very day of Kippur: the most solemn text of the calendar. Once a year, an entire community stands before its own fault — a device of collective memory of a force that few traditions equal. The section also fixes the prohibitions on union, which will structure family law and thus genealogies.