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Overview of the Weekly Reading: Emor
To be read on 8 Iyar 5763 (May 10) Torah: Lev.21:1-24:23;
Haftorah: Ezek. 44:15-31(Kohanim in Temple);
Pirkei
Avot - Chapter Three
Stats:
Emor,
8th Reading out of 10 in Leviticus and 31st overall,
contains 24 positive mitzvot and 39 prohibitive mitzvot. It
is written on 215 lines in a parchment Torah scroll, 20th out of
54 in overall length.
Parshas Emor opens with
laws concerning priests and the high priest: which blemishes or states of impurity
disqualify them from serving, with whom they may marry, for which deceased person
may they become impure, and more. The next topic discussed is which animals are
eligible for sacrifices. The following section speaks about Shabbos and lists
some of the dates and laws of the holidays. Then comes instructions about the
menorah’s ‘eternal lamp’ and the showbread in the Tabernacle. The concluding
section relays how a Jew blasphemed and what his punishment was.
FROM THE CHASSIDIC REBBES (V:31-63
Emor) "Speak
(Emor) unto the priests." (21:1)
The name, Emor, contains
a lesson for every Jew: "Speak" -- A person must always go out of his
way to speak well of and find merit in others. For, if criticizing one's fellow
Jew only serves to arouse him to do more evil, how much more so does praise serve
to reveal his inner goodness!
(Likutei Sichot) "Out
of the sanctuary he shall not go." (21:12) A Jew's thoughts must
always be of holy matters, connected to G-dliness and sanctity, even when engaged
in seemingly mundane affairs. At such times (such as when conducting necessary
business), the Jew should consider himself as having left his "home"
temporarily, with the intention to later return. The warm influence of the home
will carry over also when he is in the street. (Baal Shem Tov)
A MYSTICAL CHASSIDIC DISCOURSE (M:31-63
Emor ) FROM
THE MASTERS OF KABBALA (K:31-63
)
Selected
with permission and adapted from the three-volume English edition of Shney
Luchot HaBrit -- the Sh'lah,
as translated, condensed, and
annotated by Eliyahu Munk.
Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz (1565-1630), known as the 'Sh'lah' - an acronym of
the title, was born in Prague. A scholar of outstanding reputation, he served
as chief Rabbi of Cracow, and more famously, of Frankfort (1610-1620). After his
first wife passed away, he remarried and moved to Israel in 1621, where he became
the first Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Jerusalem. He later moved to Tiberias, where
he is buried, near the tomb of the Rambam. Every
person must make of himself a servant of G-d, must sanctify himself so as to come
as close to the sanctity of the High Priest as is possible. He should practice
some solitude and avoid emerging from this communion with G-d to the extent his
circumstances allow. He must be concerned that no blemish, physical or spiritual,
should attach to him. His striving must be that he himself should qualify as an
offering to G-d. Once he endeavors to do all this is he considered 'Holy to G-d'.
The
Zohar poses the question that if this legislation of not slaughtering the young
animal on the same day as the mother animal (22,28) is to save the mother animal
the pain of watching its young killed, this could be avoided simply by keeping
them apart. The true reason, however, is connected to the Jewish people's sense
of empathy. To the extent that a person displays consideration for the feeling
of others he in turn may find that such considerations of his own feelings will
be a factor when he will be judged. The reverse is also true.
The thrust
of the legislation is that the Beit Din (House of Judgment) proclaims,
the dates when the various festivals are to be observed (23,2). You determine
when to rejoice, when to eat festive meals. These festive meals should serve a
spiritual purpose, just as did the delicacies Isaac ordered before blessing his
son. When one approaches the Holydays, in this spirit, the second half of the
verse, "These are My festivals," will be true. If, however, these days
are observed only as days when you fill your stomachs, indulge your body, then
they are not "My festivals," but are vomit, excrement, concerning which
the prophet has quoted G-d as saying: "My soul hates your festivals"
(Isaiah 1, 14). On the festivals a person must not be so preoccupied with chores
that he thereby should lose the awareness of his special closeness to G-d on such
days. (adapted
from Torat Moshe - the 16th commentary of Rabbi Moshe Alshech of Zefat on the
Torah, as translated and condensed in the English version of Eliyahu Munk)
An
essay from Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter, director of Ascent
(for a free weekly email subscription, click
here) (W:31-63 Emor)
The
name of this week's parsha, Emor, means 'speak' but has a gentler connotation
than the other common word for speaking, 'daber'. The commentaries say
this word was chosen as a way of condolence to Aharon who lost two of his sons,
and to whom the opening of the parsha is directed. Every teacher spends
much of his or her time speaking. One technique to make teachings more real for
our students is to spice our teachings with personal experiences. Yet, for a religion
that emphasizes connection with G-d through learning Torah and doing the commandments,
there are very few incidents of people speaking about their divine experiences,
telling us how to do it. The reason is not for lack of these divine experiences,
but rather that Judaism tends toward the belief that if you talk about it too
much, you may lose it. G-d created the world with His Divine speech. Man is in
G-d's image. Speech therefore has a power of revelation, but a person can also
speak away his inner strengths. Conversely, in the Chassidic movement in particular,
there is a lot of emphasis put on the 'oral tradition'-sharing with the younger
generation the lessons and concepts that the elders have accomplished and struggled
to put into action. In a very old Chassidic text (Ramach Otiot), this seeming
paradox is dealt with: The Ragad said, that there are two types
of people who serve G-d. The first keeps his experiences to himself, never revealing
anything to anyone, not in speech or action or any behavior that might reveal
who he is and his spiritual standing, even at a lively Chassidic gathering with
plenty of "L'Chaim"s. This type of person follows the dictum
that "by benefiting from Torah, his life will exit the world". He believes
that by sharing his Torah accomplishments with others, he will forgo his own vitality
and become indifferent to G-dliness. Alternately, there is another
type of person who unhesitatingly shares Torah revelations and personal Jewish
experiences whenever with whomever appropriate, without any doubts about losing
his own enthusiasm for spirituality. In the fact the opposite occurs. This person
experiences an increased connection to Torah and Chassidut. How can an increased
attachment to Torah coincide with the above dictum? The word in the phrase for
'world'-ha'olam-is rooted in the word, he'elem-'concealment'. So
the dictum can receive a new meaning: "he takes his life out of concealment"
and into revelation. He actually benefits spiritually through influencing others
by sharing with them his own experiences, in a Torah way. The way to change
the world for the better is obviously the second way. The protection against any
spiritual loss is by telling others about your Jewish experiences, and also by
contemplating upon the concept that through this sharing, he brings his soul out
of concealment. This way, those spiritual accomplishments become engraved in his
soul forever. This is an innovative Chassidic concept. Until the birth
of Chassidut, the Jewish world kept spiritual accomplishments private; achievements
were solely through one's own efforts. However, through the passing of time, the
generations became more needy of spiritual inspiration. We are less capable of
reaching the levels that previous generations could. While we must still strive
to connect to G-d, we have the extra boost through sharing with each other. Shabbat
Shalom, Shaul Leiter
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here) For all our insights for
this parsha from last year |