God instructs Moses to take a census of the remaining Levitical houses, the Gershonites and the Merarites. The numbers of all the Levitical houses are reported and the duties of the latter two are described.

People who have contracted ritual impurity from specific sources must be placed outside the camp. A person who has wronged another by theft must confess his or her sin, make restitution and add a 20 percent fine, and bring an offering to complete his or her atonement. When a man suspects his wife of adultery but has no evidence, he may bring her to a priest, along with a grain offering. The priest will have the woman drink the “water of bitterness.” If the woman is guilty, she will experience unpleasant physical effects when she drinks the water, but if she is innocent she will pass this trial unharmed.

God tells Moses that a person may make a vow to become a nazir, abstaining from wine and grape products, from cutting his hair, and from any contact with the dead. If a nazir is accidentally contaminated by a person suddenly dying near him, he must undergo the seven-day purification ritual, bring a penalty offering, and begin counting his term as a nazir again from the beginning. At the conclusion of the term of the nazir’s vow, he or she undergoes a completion ritual.

God tells Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons how to perform the priestly blessing.

On the day that Moses completes setting up the Tabernacle and anointing and consecrating it and its furnishings, the chiefs of the tribes bring their offerings. Although they brought identical offerings, one each day for 12 days, the gift of each chief is described individually.

From Torah Sparks, a project of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism