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    Kodesh isn’t always good – Ki Tetzei

    In Devarim 22:9 we are told not to sow a vineyard with two kinds of seed pen tikdash – “lest the fullness of the seed be forfeited”.

    Targum Onkelos thinks the root k-d-sh – which is usually something good and sacred – sometimes goes to the opposite extreme and means “to become defiled”. Rashi translates the word as “disgusting”.

    Rashbam and Ramban suggest that it means “to become prohibited as if it were consecrated, which would remove it from availability to the general public”.

    This latter interpretation explains why Jewish marriage is k-d-sh – the wife is now unavailable to anyone other than her husband. Temple property is k-d-sh because it cannot be used for a non-sacred purpose. Shabbat is k-d-sh, since it is a day devoted to God and not available for weekday activities.

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