Category Archives: Emor

5784, AI art, Emor, Kli Yakar 2, Leviticus, Parsha

Flesh of my Flesh (Emor)

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Kli Yakar Emor

Flesh of my Flesh (Emor)

May the gods grant you all things which your heart desires, and may they give you a husband and a home and gracious concord, for there is nothing greater and better than this – when a husband and wife keep a household in oneness of mind, a great woe to their enemies and joy to their friends, and win high renown. -Homer, The Odyssey

Priests of the Jewish nation (Kohanim) are prohibited from approaching the dead. Whether in a hospital, a cemetery or even for the burial ceremony. Kohanim are only allowed to come in contact with the deceased from a short list of immediate family members. At the top of that list is the wife.

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Prague, the Kli Yakar (1550-1619), on Leviticus 21:2 explains both the unusual formulation for wife in the verse (‘sheero hakarov’ – literally, “his flesh that is close”) and why she’s mentioned first. He states that while the husband may be the classical breadwinner, the wife is the one who historically turned grain into food and threads into clothes.

The term ‘sheero hakarov’ indicates this proximity, that according to Rabbinic dictum, the wife is as his own body (‘ishto kegufo’). The Kli Yakar explains that in a smoothly operating household the wife is the one who “brightens his eyes and stands him on his feet.” More than a parent and more than a child, one’s spouse can and ideally should be as close to a unit as possible. In a healthy and loving relationship, spouses consider each other as one body, a pair that when unified is much stronger and more powerful than their individual selves.

May we each find and be cherished spouses.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the 2024 International Chidon Ha’Tanach (Bible Contest) that was conducted on Yom Ha’atzmaut. It was particularly inspiring and moving.

5783, AI art, Bat Ayin, Emor, Leviticus, Parsha

Holy Daughter, Sister, Mother (Emor)

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Holy Daughter, Sister, Mother (Emor)

Other things may change us, but we start and end with family. -Anthony Brandt

Daughter Sister Mother

The Torah portion of Emor discusses the roles and rules regarding the Kohen, the newly formed priestly caste of Israel. It also highlights some of the guidelines relating to the High Priest, the Kohen Gadol.

The Bat Ayin on Leviticus 21:10 delves into the Talmudic statement (Tractate Horayot 9a) that “if the Kohen Gadol doesn’t have anything, he is to be aggrandized.” The Talmud expounds the statement as instructing that if the Kohen Gadol is poor, his Kohen brethren contribute funds to him until he can be considered financially wealthy. However, the Bat Ayin reads another aspect into the Talmud’s explanation.

He elaborates that when the Talmud states that the Kohen Gadol doesn’t have anything, it can also mean that he has no arrogance, and that rather he is fully possessed of the trait of humility. If the Kohen Gadol is indeed a humble servant, then he reaches a higher level of service than his brothers.

The Bat Ayin further develops that there are three general levels in one’s possible connection to God: “daughter,” “sister,” and “mother.”

The simplest level is that of “daughter” and it is founded on the trait of awe and fear of God. The middle level is one of “sister” that is predicated on love of God and is the level of Israel and the Kohens. The highest level is the level of “mother,” and it is one of divine bounty and transcendence and is represented by the Kohen Gadol, who due to his great humility serves as a conduit for abundance and holiness from above that reaches all of Israel.

May we appreciate the different levels of relationship with God, whether it’s daughter, sister, or mother, and may we build from awe of God, to love of God and finally to divine abundance and transcendence.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the Mizrahi organization for their extremely successful inaugural World Orthodox Israel Congress.

5782, Chidushei HaRim, Emor, Leviticus, Parsha

Sabbath Radiance (Emor)

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Sabbath Radiance (Emor)

Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Among the many commandments included in the Torah reading of Emor is a listing of the various holidays of the year. Launching that festive list is the Sabbath. While the Sabbath is not strictly a holiday, and it does occur in a consistent seven-day schedule it, perhaps unexpectedly gets to top the list of the holidays of Israel.

The Chidushei HaRim on Leviticus 23:3 digs deeper into the significance of the Sabbath being considered a holiday. He explains that the nation of Israel is responsible for establishing the dates of the holidays. Holidays in Hebrew are also referred to as “Zmanim” – literally it means Times. Somehow, the establishment of Time is the domain of Israel and in some mystical sense, Israel creates Time. Continuing with this esoteric line of thought, the Sabbath is the “life” of Time, the kernel that allows Time to proceed. The existence and the observance of the Sabbath are the foundation for the continued stream of time as we know it. Hence, it starts off the list of all other holidays.

Linking these ideas together, that Israel is responsible for Time and the Sabbath is the foundation of Time, is the corollary that the Jewish people and the Sabbath are one. The Chidushei Harim expounds this parallelism from two biblical verses in which each one refers to “dwelling places.” The verse in the reading here of Emor states “it is God’s Sabbath in all your dwelling places.” The other verse in the Book of Exodus describes the plague of darkness, with which God struck the Egyptians, and the verse continues “and for all the children of Israel there was light in their dwelling places.” Just as light dispels darkness, the Sabbath dispels darkness.

The Sabbath has the power to dispel the darkness of the soul, to shine a light of spiritual radiance into the dark recesses of our existence. The Sabbath has the capacity to banish what ails us, to polish our inner selves to the point where we can more truly and clearly appreciate and connect to God.

May we merit to bask in the full radiance of a divine Sabbath.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To our son Netanel on his engagement to Adina Spielman of Bet Shemesh. Mazal Tov!

5781, Bechor Shor, Emor, Leviticus, Parsha

Historic Anticipation (Emor)

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Historic Anticipation (Emor)

Life… It tends to respond to our outlook, to shape itself to meet our expectations. -Richard M. DeVos

Pesach (Passover) is among the better known and more celebrated Jewish holidays. However, exactly fifty days after Pesach we celebrate what might perhaps be an even more important and significant holiday, Shavuot. Pesach famously celebrates the liberation of the proto-nation of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. Shavuot celebrates the Jewish people’s encounter with God fifty days later at Mount Sinai, where through the process of God’s revelation to us, we received His Torah, His commandments, and took on the covenant that is what truly makes the people of Israel into a Nation.

Shavuot is the only holiday that we have a biblical injunction to count towards. In this week’s Torah reading God commands:

“And you shall count for yourselves, from the day after the holiday (Pesach)… seven complete weeks, until the day after the seventh week, you shall count fifty days…”

The Bechor Shor on Leviticus 23:16 gives an analogy to a man who is in prison and a servant of the king comes to inform the prisoner that on such-and-such day the king will release him from prison, and that fifty days later, he will give him his daughter, the princess, in marriage. The prisoner’s initial thoughts are merely “I just hope he gets me out of here.” However, once he’s released and sees that the servant’s words came true, now he gets excited about the prospect of marrying the princess, and with great anticipation starts counting fifty days until the promised day.

So too, once the people of Israel witnessed Moses’ promise of redemption fulfilled, once they experienced the exodus from Egypt, they looked forward to what the Sages have termed the marriage ceremony between God and Israel, fifty days later.

God Himself commands that the counting be done every year in order to constantly endear the Torah to the Jewish nation, for the Torah is an indescribably precious gift God gave to Israel, a possession with which God, in a way beyond our comprehension, created the very universe.

May we appreciate anew the giving of the Torah and celebrate the anniversary of that matrimony with great anticipation.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

On the birth of Eitan Tzvi Lustig. Mazal Tov to the entire family!

5780, Emor, Leviticus, Meshech Chochma, Parsha

To Challenge our Nature (Emor)

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To Challenge our Nature (Emor)

All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God. -Sir Thomas Browne

The Torah prescribes multiple holidays and celebrations throughout the calendar year. While most of them have some uncommon aspect, perhaps the one that outwardly seems the most unusual is the holiday of Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles), celebrated a few days after Yom Kippur, starting on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei.

The holiday of Sukkot has two major unusual features. The first is the construction of a Suka (Sukkot is the plural form and hence the name of the holiday). The Suka is a hut which is meant to be a temporary domicile for 7 days with some stringent requirements regarding its construction, most notably that its roof must be porous and made of some plant material. We are meant to eat, sleep, and otherwise spend the week of Sukkot in this temporary home.

The second unusual feature is the taking of the “four species,” a citron fruit (Etrog), a frond of a date palm (Lulav), myrtle boughs (Hadas), and willow branches (Arava), and to shake them during the prayers.

The Meshech Chochma on Leviticus 23:42 analyzes the commandment of the Suka in the context of all the commandments, which for his analysis he divides into two categories. There are commandments that go against our nature and then there are commandments that are in line with our nature, but which help to strengthen or further refine our nature.

He explains that the commandment to dwell in a Suka goes very much against our nature. It is natural that after the summer harvest is over, after you’ve gathered all your produce, that you just want to rest at home in the comfort of a normal, sturdy house, which will protect you against the elements. The holiday of Sukkot literally wants to take us out of our comfort zone.

The Meshech Chochma however, learns from this a principle that applies to all commandments which go against our human inclination. He states that God Himself is the one who programmed us with our personal and collective natures. And He is also the one who gave us these “anti-nature” commandments. He knows that they will be challenging for us; for some more than others. Nonetheless, God wants us to change those natures that He gave us and to take on the challenges of His commandments which ultimately are designed to improve, refine and perfect not just our nature, but also our souls.

May we understand, accept, and succeed in the multiple tests God has designed to challenge the natures He has given us.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Rabbi Nachum Rabinovich z”tl, who passed away this week.

5779, Berdichever, Emor, Leviticus, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Humility and Pedigree (Emor)

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Humility and Pedigree (Emor)

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors. -Plutarch

The Torah portion of Emor introduces a list of commandments directed specifically to the Kohanim, the priestly caste of Israel, descendants of Aaron the High Priest, the Kohen Gadol and founder of the priestly dynasty. They are addressed as follows:

“Tell the Kohanim (the priests), sons of Aaron.”

The Berdichever explains that it would have been very easy for the Kohanim to feel a certain amount of arrogance for being singled out by God for divine service. The fact that Kohanim were set aside by God, had exclusive access to the Sanctuary, to the sacrifices, were the only ones able to facilitate and eat most of the sacrifices, were the beneficiaries of great honor and esteem, all of this honor is enough to make anyone think highly of themselves.

God advises Moses to make it clear to them by highlighting that they are the sons of Aaron, that all this honor is not for anything they did, but rather purely as a consequence of them being Aaron’s descendants. Aaron had indeed reached a supremely high level of holiness that in his merit he was able to have all his descendants included in the special designation of Kohen – priest.

By underlining the fact that their station is because of their pedigree, God is advising them that it is unseemly to take pride in anything other than something you expended great effort in, that you strived for and pushed and accomplished. To take pride in the fact that you were simply born to a family of note is uncouth.

The newly indoctrinated Kohanim needed to be reminded of this. They needed to understand that their place in the Israelite social structure was not due to anything they did or any innate traits or accomplishments. They were simply born to the right family, and while being a Kohen carries many privileges, it is also a role and a lineage that carries many responsibilities.

May we take pride in what’s appropriate, humbly enjoy whatever privileges we’ve been blessed with, and dutifully carry out our responsibilities.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To my son and his fellow defenders on the border of Gaza. May God protect them and keep all of us safe.

5778, Emor, Leviticus, Parsha, Rabbeinu Bechaye, The Times of Israel

Public Vindication (Emor)

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Public Vindication (Emor)

Innocence is like polished armor; it adorns and defends. -Bishop Robert South

It is not uncommon for the media to accuse a person or group of some misdeed, splash it in bold type on the front page of the newspaper, and then when innocence has been discovered, will print a retraction in small type buried in the back of the paper, if at all. By then the damage has been done, the reputation of the accused has been tarnished, even ruined beyond repair.

Rabbeinu Bechaye on Leviticus 22:27 (Emor) highlights the fact that God has the contrary approach to vindication. He gives an analogy to a woman from a royal household of whom rumors of some misdeed are spread about by members of the royal court. The king himself investigates and finds the rumors to be baseless. The king then proceeds to throw a royal banquet, inviting the entire royal court, and places this innocent woman at the head table next to him, thereby declaring in the clearest possible way that the king has found her to be innocent and favorable in his eyes.

Thus Rabbeinu Bechaye explains the question as to why the bull is mentioned in the Torah as the most important animal to be sacrificed. He states that the elevated importance of the bull comes to publicly vindicate the grave sin which was committed with its likeness, namely the sin of the golden calf. By giving such honor to the adult version of the calf, God is in a sense stating that the Children of Israel weren’t truly to blame for that egregious sin. God “researched” the matter and discovered that it was not the Israelites that initiated the turn to idol worship, but rather the “Erev Rav,” the mixed multitude of people who had joined the Jewish nation during its exodus from the slavery of Egypt. It was this multitude of peoples, of idolatrous background, who called for and incited the impressionable Jewish people to worship the golden calf.

God does forgive the nation of Israel, and the importance of the bull in the sacrificial order demonstrates the public vindication for that sin.

May we always be found innocent of misdeeds and may we be vindicated of any misattributed wrongs, sooner or later.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To Akiva Schwartz on his Bar-Mitzvah.

5777, Emor, Hirsch, Leviticus, Parsha, The Times of Israel

Allergic to Death

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Allergic to Death

Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours. -Yogi Berra

Ancient civilizations, believing in the mysterious afterworld, gave much honor and respect to the priestly caste that kept its secrets. These priests, always charged with caring for the dead, were held in high esteem and perhaps even fear and trepidation, for they held the very keys to eternal life. The rituals they performed, the incantations they chanted, the diligent yet inexplicable preparations they undertook all created an impenetrable fog of religious inscrutability that forever divided the uneducated superstitious masses from the elite clergy that grew fat and rich off of the naiveté and trust of their congregants.

Rabbi Hirsch on Leviticus 21:5 explains that the Torah takes a diametrically opposed view of the role of priests within Judaism, which can be seen in the laws that guide their conduct. Starting with the establishment of the line of Kohens, with Aaron the High Priest as its founding member, he and his sons are prescribed with rules and strictures that are the antithesis of other priestly castes in the world.

A Kohen not only doesn’t tend to the dead – he is strictly forbidden to even have any contact with the dead (except for his own immediate family). This ingrained aversion or even allergy that a Kohen has to death ensures that the Jewish priestly elite would be much more preoccupied with life and the living than with death and the dying. In Rabbi Hirsch’s words:

“Judaism teaches us not how to die but how to live so that, even in life, we may overcome death, lack of freedom, the enslavement to physical things and moral weakness. Judaism teaches us how to spend every moment of a life marked by moral freedom, thought, aspirations, creativity and achievement, along with the enjoyment of physical pleasures, as one more moment in life’s constant service to the everlasting God.”

Judaism takes death seriously, but it takes life even more seriously. May we live it to its fullest potential.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

In honor of V Day which was commemorated this week, and all the men and woman who sacrificed their lives for freedom.

5776, Emor, Leviticus, Parsha, Sfat Emet, The Times of Israel

Powerful Humility

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Powerful Humility

What makes humility so desirable is the marvelous thing it does to us; it creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God. -Monica Baldwin

Humility should not be confused with low self-esteem. Moses, considered the most humble of men, did not lack self-esteem. What he did accomplish was to submit himself completely to the will of God. That was part of his unsurpassed humility and his greatness.

The Sfat Emet in 5637 and 5638 (1877 and 1878) on the weekly Torah reading of Emor explains the power of being humble. A person who humbles himself before God, who controls his own desires in favor of what he understands to be God’s commands, will merit seeing God alter the very fabric of reality to realize the humble man’s positive desires.

Furthermore, the humble man, who does his positive actions discretely, will eventually have a public reward. The converse also being true, that the sinner who sins privately, and remains unrepentant, will eventually have the ignominy of some public shame.

May we reach true humility, by having a correct relationship to God and witness miracles and blessings.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the humble people at Kohelet Policy Forum who are accomplishing powerful things.

5775, Baal Haturim, Emor, Leviticus, Parsha, The Times of Israel

The Sin of Missed Opportunities

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First posted on The Times of Israel at: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/emor-the-sin-of-missed-opportunities/

Baal Haturim Leviticus: Emor

The Sin of Missed Opportunities

Four things come not back. The spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity. -Arabic Proverb

Jewish faith is defined, constrained and guided by a set of rules. Commandments direct how we should act, speak and even think. Jewish law (Halacha) in all of its complexity and subtlety is meant to be a guidebook for life.

To a person that is just becoming familiar with the plethora of laws, the extensiveness and detail of the commandments can be overwhelming. However, there are a number of overarching principles that can assist and that are worth keeping in mind:

  • Continuous Torah study is fundamental – if you don’t know, you can’t do.
  • Don’t do unto others what you wouldn’t like to be done to you.
  • The Sabbath is a key mainstay of the Jewish people.
  • Idol worship is a fundamental negation of Jewish faith.

There are a few others, but one that Baal Haturim relates to is chosen by one of the most authoritative redactors of Jewish Law, Rabbi Yosef Karo, to start off his magnum opus, the Shulchan Aruch.

The Baal Haturim on Leviticus 22:29 warns us not to let the opportunity to perform a Mitzvah (a commandment) pass us by. The chance to fulfill a precept of Jewish law is often fleeting and once lost is gone forever. We are enjoined to be swift in the pursuit of God’s directives. We must awaken with alacrity to use our time, our resources, our intelligence, and our strengths to lead a life that seizes upon the opportunities that are in front of us.

May we always grasp the opportunities to do good.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the team of Merkaz HaHalacha (Center of Jewish Law) who continue to grow and succeed.