EMOR, LEVITICUS 21:1–24:23, PESACH SHENI
The parsha for this week is EMOR. In the parsha among other things, there are stated laws that pertain to the Kohanim, and also the festivals of Jewish calendar, including the counting of the Omer. The mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem is also stated.
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In Parshat Emor we learn
about what was once the exalted character of the Kohanim and their responsibility to the
nation of Israel. They were our teachers.
Who are our teachers
today?
They are you and I.
In our prayer service
today, immediately before the Kohanim bless the congregation, they recite the
following blessing:
ברוך אתה הי אלוחינו מלך
העולם אשר קדשנו בקדןשתו של אהרון וצונו
לברך את עמו ישראל בהאבה
"Blessed are you
Hashem our God, King of the universe who has sanctified us with the holiness of
Ahron and commanded us to bless the people of Israel with love".
In the Ethics of the Fathers, 1:12, Hillel says:
הוי מתלמידיו של אהרן,
אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה
"Be a disciple of
Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them closer to
the Torah”.
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At 22:32 we learn:
וְלֹא תְחַלְּלוּ, אֶת-שֵׁם קָדְשִׁי, וְנִקְדַּשְׁתִּי, בְּתוֹךְ
בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: אֲנִי יְהוָה, מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם.
"And
you shall not profane My holy name; but I shall be sanctified among the
children of Israel: I am the LORD who sanctifies you".
Jews burned alive for the alleged host desecration in Deggendorf,
Bavaria, in 1338, and in Sternberg, Mecklenburg, in 1492; a woodcut from the
Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
This verse is called "Kiddush Hashem, sanctification of the Name". it refers to private and communal conduct that reflects well on us, the Jewish people.
Kiddush Hashem also has an aspect of martyrdom or public self-sacrifice. This is in accordance with Jewish practice and identity where there is the possibility of being killed for no other reason than being Jewish. There are specific conditions such as forced conversion that deal with self-sacrifice, be it willing or unwilling.
In
Hebrew a martyr is known as a kaddosh which means "holy
one", and martyrs are known as kedoshim meaning. The six
million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust are known as the Kedoshim.
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In Parshat Emor we learn
again about the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth Law of Retaliation that has
come down to mean monetary compensation for inflicting personal injury. There
is one major exception: if you murder someone, you are put to death. There is
no monetary compensation for taking someone's life. You cannot buy your way
out.
At 24:19-20 we are taught what amounts to “עַ֚יִן תַּ֣חַת עַ֔יִן שֵׁ֖ן תַּ֣חַת”, "An eye for
an eye".
This is a principle that is sometimes referred to as reciprocal justice or measure for measure or in Latin, lex talionis, the law of retaliation or possibly equitable retribution. On its face this principle seems pretty straight forward: A person who has injured another person is to be penalized to a similar degree by the injured party.
I think the original intention of “An eye for an eye” may have
been two-fold:
· To
prevent excessive punishment at the hands of either an avenging private party
or his Family or Clan or Tribe. It served to prevent feuds and vendettas.
· To
ensure that the standard of care for a wealthy perpetrator, who may wish to buy
his way out, be the same as for an improvised person.
At the time when we
received the Torah at Mt. Sinai there was a Babylonian legal code present in
Mesopotamia called the Code of Hammurabi. Included in this code was the
principle of “An eye for an eye”. What the law would have been in
Egypt I do not know. I do know that 500 years later at the time of the Judges,
as shown in 1:5-7 and Chapter 30 the law of retaliation was still in force.
Looking at the Book of
Numbers, Chapter 35: 31-32 except for the crime of murder it may have been
possible for a monetary payment, כֹפֶר to
be acceptable in place of
bodily punishment. Sometime later, it is hard to say when, the lex talionis was
"humanized" by the Rabbis who interpreted "an eye for an
eye" to mean reasonable monetary compensation. The Rabbis of the
Talmud interpreted it that way. And it is so today.
Question: Is this
dangerous ground? Is the reinterpretation
of lex talionis an example of the ability of Judaism to adapt to changing
social and intellectual ideas
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COUNTING THE OMER
Leviticus 23: 10, 15
Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you come to the Land which I am giving you, and you reap its harvest, you shall bring to the kohen an omer of the beginning of your reaping.
And you shall
count for yourselves, from the morrow of the rest day from the day you bring
the omer as a wave offering seven weeks; they shall be complete.
Counting of the Omer סְפִירַת הָעוֹמֶר, Sefirat HaOmer, is a ritual in Judaism.
It consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of
Passover and Shavuot.
Counting the Omer is
also a spiritual journey. We embark on a 50-day trek from Passover, the
beginning of freedom onward to Mt. Sinai where the Hashem will be revealed and
the Torah will be given and we celebrate Shavous, the Festival of Weeks.
The mystics envision each week to comprise an individual attribute of Hashem. We endeavor each day to improve our being in order to prepare for Mt. Sinai.
Another aspect of the
Omer is that it is a time of mourning.
Those of us who are loyal to tradition are now in a period of mourning. It’s a time of mourning. No weddings or parties; no public entertainment, opera, concerts, theater, or cinema.
There is a legal code called Shulchan Aruch (R. Yosef Caro, 1563) which says that “We have the custom not to get married from Pesach until the 33rd day of the Omer because of what befell the pupils of Rabbi Akiva.” It then adds that one also does not get one’s hair cut until the thirty-third day.
The Talmudic basis for this is found in Tractate Yevamot 62b which says that twelve thousand pairs of Rabbi Akiva’s pupils died during this period because they did not treat each other with respect.
A better explanation is
that many of the 24,000 of Akiva’s students were soldiers and perished in the
Bar Kokhba revolt. The Talmud often
wishes not to give the impression that Jews are rebellious people capable of
violence. This is what happens when you
do not have your own land and are living in the Diaspora.
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PESACH SHENI
On the evening of May 4,
we observe Passover Sheni, the 2nd Passover.
The Biblical origin for
this observance is found in the Book of Numbers 9:6-12 –
|
6. There were
men who were ritually unclean [because of contact with] a dead person, and
therefore could not make the Passover sacrifice on that day. So they
approached Moses and Aaron on that day. |
|
7, Those men said to him, "We are ritually
unclean [because of contact] with a dead person; [but] why should we be
excluded so as not to bring the offering of the Lord in its appointed time,
with all the children of Israel? |
|
8. Moses said to them, "Wait, and I will
hear what the Lord instructs concerning you." |
|
9. The Lord spoke to Moses saying: |
|
10. Speak to the children of Israel saying, Any
person who becomes unclean from [contact with] the dead, or is on a distant
journey, whether among you or in future generations, he shall make a Passover
sacrifice for the Lord. |
|
11. In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in
the afternoon, they shall make it; they shall eat it with unleavened cakes
and bitter herbs. |
|
12. They shall not leave over anything from it until the next morning, and they shall not break any of its bones. They shall make it in accordance with all the statutes connected with the Passover sacrifice. Pesach Sheni is in
modern parlance what we would call a do-over. |
A do-over is a new
attempt or opportunity to do something after a previous attempt has been
unsuccessful or unsatisfactory.
As a child growing up in Brooklyn, do-overs were very popular when playing street games and you wanted a second bite at the apple. In some religious circles Pesach Sheni has come to mean a chance to Teshuvah, repentance.
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The Haftarah portion for Parshat Emor is from
Ezekiel 44:15-31.
It concerns the Kohanim Priesthood when the 3rd
Temple is established. According to Ezekiel only Priests from the line of Zadok
will be legitimate.
There is a verse at 44:22 that is problematic:
And neither a widow nor a divorced woman may
they take for wives, but they shall take virgins from the descendants of the
House of Israel; also the widow who is only a widow, some of the priests may
marry.
Compare to Leviticus 21:14 which refers to the
Kohen Gadol, and only he is restricted.
A widow, a divorcee, a woman who is desecrated
or a prostitute he shall not marry [any] of these. Only a virgin of his people
may he take as a wife.
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