Tonight is a peaceful night after a beautiful day here in Eugene. This shabbat (Saturday) we read a parsha (weekly Torah portion) called Emor which means, “Tell.” Why? Because the parsha begins with haShem (god) telling Moshe (Moses) to TELL to the priests, the sons of Aharon a whole lot of things such as not to become tamae (mixed) by the soul of a member of the nation. The implication here is that the soul means when a person dies and they need to be buried.
A priest can only tamae himself if the deceased is an immediate family member. We then read of restrictions they have regarding hair, all because they are kodesh (holy/separate) for their god and they should not profane the name of god. We then read of restrictions the priests have on who they can marry, again because of the priest being kodesh. You know, it seems like this is the parsha that should be called kodesh, not the parsha from last week!
If you feel like there is some foreshadowing going on, my guess is that you are right. 🙂
The parsha continues with what happens if a daughter of a cohen (priest) profanes herself via prostitution. Next is the restrictions regarding the cohen gadol (high priest), things like not being able to bury anybody, even his parents, or only being allowed to marry a virgin.
If you think the cohanim (priests) have it tough, wait. For now we see that they cannot be involved in the sacrifices if they have a blemish. What are blemishes? Blindness, lameness, a sunken nose, disproportionate limbs, a broken leg or arm, heavy eyebrows, cataracts, scabs, or crushed testicles. So, not only do you have to be a son of Aharon, you also have to be a perfect physical specimen. Talk about an exclusive club! To be fair, these blemished cohanim can eat the holy food, they just cannot approach the altar because, “I, haShem, sanctify them.” (Note: the word sanctify has the word kodesh as its root).
Again god tells Moshe to tell something to Aharon and his sons: they are not to approach the holy items (like the altar or menorah) while they are tamae (due to many things the Torah lists, that for brevity’s sake I will let you read). Next we read about who can eat of the holy food and what happens if someone eats the holy food by mistake.
Now, we come to offerings. The torah says that for the offering to be favorable, it must be unblemished (just like the cohen, eh). Also, we are told, not to offer up the bread sacrifice that comes from the hand of a foreigner.
And on to more rules: you cannot sacrifice an animal until it is at least 8 days old. You cannot sacrifice an animal and one of its parents on the same day. A thanksgiving offering must be eaten the day it is sacrificed. We are to do things because, “I am haShem,” and we are not to profane his kodesh name for she will be kodesh within the children of Yisrael.
So much here. I will try to condense this as much as I can. We now get details and rules on the holy times. Shabbat is the first, it is a day of no work. We then read about Pesach (Passover) and the festival of unleavened bread, and the waving of the omer (a sheaf of barley) which is done for 50 days, which leads us to the day of the offerings of the first fruits which is another holy day. At this point, we again are told to leave the corners of our fields unharvested for the poor (wasn’t that also in the previous parsha?). Next is the holy days of the seventh month, the first of the month is a day of remembrance and blowing the shofar (ram’s horn), the 10th day, Yom haKippurim, a seven day period starting on the 15th, called Sukkot, and the 8th day which is called Atzeret. I am skipping the details of these holidays, but I assure you they are there. If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to read them for yourself!
After all that, we read about the pure olive oil needed by Aharon to light the menorah, and of the 12 show breads for the table just outside the curtain that is before the ark of testimony.
And as we come to the end of the parsha, we read of a fight between the son of an Egyptian man, and the son of a Yisraelite man. The son of the Egyptian uses the name of god in a curse and is taken into custody. Moshe asks god what to do with him, and god says that the people should put their hands on his head and then stone him. We then read that you kill a man who kills a man, and the whole business of an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. And we finally end by being told there is only one law for both the native and the non-native living there, and that the people take the guy who used haShem’s name in a curse and stoned him.
Wow, so much. I just reread this, hoping to make it smaller, but I didn’t know what to take out! I hope it wasn’t to taxing on you to read that and now to read what ideas haShem shared with me regarding this parsha.
Ok, as I said way back at the top, it seems from the content, that this parsha should be called kodesh. After all, we keep reading that word over and over again. Yet, the parsha is instead called Emor, to speak. Why? Could it be that there is some connection between the parsha from last week (which is called Kedoshim) and the parsha from this week? I suspect so. The parsha Kedoshim introduced us to a couple of very important ideas. One was that kadosh or holy, also means to separate. In other words, to make something special, you need to separate it and distinguish it from the general. It is special and needs to be treated differently. The second thing we learned is that all these rules help us to learn something about our creator, the creator of the world.
So, now we get into this week’s parsha, which is called Emor which means, “To tell,” and we see throughout the parsha this word, as god tells Moshe to tell Aharon and his sons (the cohanim) this rule and that rule, and we also see the word, “Kodesh,” used over and over again. I think haShem is trying to give over a very, very important lesson here. If you recall, god spoke the world into being (god said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, etc.). From this we can see that speaking is a very powerful thing. So powerful, we need to make it kodesh. That’s right, we need to separate it out of our everyday life and make it holy. We need to restrict our use of it.
Now, I don’t mean to stop speaking. What I mean is to not speak just for the sake of speaking.
Why is this so important? Because a careless word or sentence has the power to destroy. For example, imagine you are talking to a friend and your friend mentions that he is thinking of hiring Joe Bloe. Casually you mention that you heard somebody say Joe Bloe was unreliable, or a thief, or something worse. Admittedly, this is pure gossip, however, don’t you think your friend will now not hire Joe Bloe? If it was you thinking of hiring Joe Bloe and you heard somebody say that Joe Bloe was not to be trusted, or was a bigot, or something worse, would you be less likely to hire him? These accusations might have no shred of truth to them, and they certainly have no proof behind them; yet, Joe Bloe remains without a job, all because somebody spoke with no concept of sanctity in what he was saying.
The case could be worse. Joe Bloe might be ready to ask his soul mate to marry him, when she hears this gossip, and so she dumps him.
The Torah takes this to the ultimate extreme at the end of the parsha, where we have a man, so upset and in a fight, that he uses the holy name of god in an unholy way.
Now before Moshe speaks on what to do with this man, he restricts his voice, his speaking, to make it kodesh, or holy, talks first with god, and then only speaking what god tells him to say. Quite a contrast to the examples described above.
Imagine how different the world would be today, if every time we got upset and wanted to say something hurtful, we stopped and connected with the divine, and then spoke. It would be so peaceful. Imagine if before saying anything about anyone, everybody stopped and connected to the most divine. Hold this thought, and add to it the idea that we are created in the divine image and that (with speech) is how the creator creates. Put the two ideas together and can you see how making speech holy can transform the world?
Here’s to a better world!
If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.