In the Hebrew Bible, semicha (literally "leaning") refers to the priest's placing of his hands before the offering of a korban (animal sacrifice) in the Temple in Jerusalem. This involved pressing firmly on the head of the sacrificial animal, thereby symbolically "transmitting" sins onto the animal or, in other interpretations, to transform the sacrifice into an offering acceptable to HaShem. In the Hebrew Bible The basis for the mitzvah of semicha is Leviticus 1:4: And he shall lay [samach] his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. It is also mentioned in Leviticus 4:24 with regard to the laying on of hands over one's sin-offering, before it was slaughtered: "And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat." In Pseudo Jonathan's Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch, the translator of the verse explains its sense: "And he shall lay his right hand with force on the head of the goat." According to Philo of Alexandria, the custom of laying on of hands was done in order to aid him in developing a clean conscience, so that he can say without guile: "These hands have not taken a bribe to distort justice, neither have they divided the spoil, nor have they coveted, neither have they shed innocent blood, etc." According to Jewish tradition, the first dispute in Israel concerned whether or not it was permissible to lay hands upon one's sacrificial animal by applying one's full body weight on a Festival Day. Laws in the Talmud and later rabbinic sources The Jerusalem Talmud mentions that the first dispute in Israel concerned the laying on of hands (semicha) upon the head of one's sacrificial animal during a Festival Day, with applied force, some permitting the owner of the animal to do so, others forbidding him to do so. The Babylonian Talmud provides a more detailed set of regulations for the practice of semicha. How does one lean [perform semicha]? The offering stands in the north, with its face towards the west, and the one who leans stands in the east, with his face to the west. And he places his two hands between the two horns of the offering; however, there may be nothing interposing between his [bare] hands and the offering; and he confesses over a chatat [sin-offering] the sins of a chatat, and over an asham