TAZRI’A

Before the holy and eternal face
That shows or veils itself within the shrine
The fervor proper to the sacred place
May not be mingled with the heat of wine,
Nor may the flesh of the sacrificing priest
Nor may the people who these rites maintain
Be fed by flesh of unclean bird or beast:
The sacred must be fenced from the profane.
Nature with all the errors that have crept in
Is not set up to stand the confrontation
With the One whom Adam hid from at first sin;
Thus even birth brings on contamination
Till that eighth day when the guided hand improves
Upon what was begotten and conceived.