On Not Being Afraid of Greatness Embedded in this week’s parsha are two of the most fundamental commands of Judaism – commands that touch on the very nature of Jewish identity: Do not desecrate My holy name. I must be sanctified among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who made you holy and who brought […]
Radical Uncertainty There is something very strange about the festival of Succot, of which our parsha is the primary source. On the one hand, it is the festival supremely associated with joy. It is the only festival in our parsha that mentions rejoicing, “And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.” (Lev. […]
Three Versions of Shabbat There is something unique about the way Parshat Emor speaks about Shabbat. It calls it a mo’ed and a mikra kodesh when, in the conventional sense of these words, it is neither. Mo’ed means an appointed time with a fixed date on the calendar. Mikra kodesh means either a sacred assembly, a time at which the […]
The Duality of Jewish Time Alongside the holiness of place and person is the holiness of time, something parshat Emor charts in its deceptively simple list of festivals and holy days. (Lev. 23:1-44) Time plays an enormous part in Judaism. The first thing God declared holy was a day, Shabbat, at the conclusion of creation. […]
Holy Times The parsha of Emor contains a chapter dedicated to the festivals of the Jewish year. There are five such passages in the Torah. Two, both in the book of Exodus (Ex. 23:14-17; 34:18, 22-23), are very brief. They refer only to the three pilgrimage festivals, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot. They do not specify […]
Sanctifying the Name A President guilty of sexual abuse. A Prime Minister indicted on charges of corruption and bribery. Rabbis in several countries accused of financial impropriety, sexual harassment and child abuse. That such things happen testifies to a profound malaise in contemporary Jewish life. More is at stake than simply morality. Morality is universal. […]
On Not Being Afraid of Greatness Embedded in this week’s parsha are two of the most fundamental commands of Judaism – commands that touch on the very nature of Jewish identity. Do not desecrate My holy name. I must be sanctified among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who made you holy and who brought […]
Faith as a Journey In its account of the festivals of the Jewish year, this week’s parsha contains the following statement: You shall dwell in thatched huts for seven days. Everyone included in Israel must live in such thatched huts. This is so that future generations will know that I caused the Israelites to live […]
Eternity and Mortality Our parsha begins with a restriction on the people for whom a Cohen may become tamei, a word usually translated as “defiled, impure, ceremonially unclean.” A priest may not touch or be under the same roof as a dead body. He must remain aloof from close contact with the dead, with the exception […]
