Parshas Emor: Spring Charity

 Parshas Emor: Spring Charity

If you’ve been counting the way I’ve been counting, then congratulations on making it this far in Sefiras Haomer. (Trust me, there are years I missed counting on day two!) More seriously, if you’ve been counting the way I’ve been counting, then you are fulfilling a mitzvah from this week’s parsha: “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the day of rest, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the waving, seven weeks shall be completed” (Vayikra 23:15).

 

It is a fact that we take our holidays very seriously. Vayikra 23 is just one of several places in the Torah where they are listed in detail, which actually makes it easy for one to just glance over them when reading the parsha and sort of nod to one’s self. Yup – Pesach, omer, Shavuos…yup, Seventh month…got it, yes. Tucked in among those perakim, however, is an extra commandment – one that seems to have nothing to do with the holy days. It is the only verse in Vayikra 23 that is, seemingly, unrelated to the holidays. It says: “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corner of your field, neither shall you gather the gleaning of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor, and for the stranger: I am the L-rd your Gd” (Vayikra 23:22).

 

The obvious question, of course, is why this verse is here at all since it seems to take away from the general subject. While one can insert basic principals of logic, such as “Seeing that the principal period of harvesting commences around the time of Shavuot, the Torah chose to speak of this season first, when discussing special laws of benefit to the poor connected with the act of collecting the harvest” (Chizkuni, Leviticus 23:22:1), this only answers the question of what is the connection, not of why it was connected here.

 

Shavuos is a strange holiday. In the Torah it has no official date, just that it is celebrated at the end of the count. It is a convocation without any specific rituals. Much of how we celebrate this chag is based on minhagim rather than rules, such as all night learning and eating dairy. If we lived in an agrarian society, as Bnei Yisrael once did, Shavuos might have a more potent impact as we would be right in the middle of the spring harvest. We would have been working for weeks, and we would be highly aware of all the effort that went into the production of the food. If we were running a farm, we might come to feel that all the grain we had brought for the omer offering was enough to lose from one’s hard work. But, “Perhaps the Torah wanted to inform us that the owner of a field from which the barley for the Omer sacrifice has already been taken is still subject to the variety of tithes the farmer is commanded to leave for the poor when he harvests his field” (Or HaChaim on Leviticus 23:22:1). The Or Hachaim goes on to say that the Torah interrupts itself here, in Vayirka 23, so that a person would not think that their barley field would “no longer be subject to the legislation of the various donations which have to be separated from the harvest” (ibid.).

 

This is a very practical and efficient understanding of the verse. Perhaps we can add to that an understanding for the Jewish generations of the 21^st century, most of whom are not agrarian and none of whom yet have access to the Beish Hamikdash.

 

Reaping the harvest of the land is the glorious culmination of hard work. Our chagim are the gathering times that we today, with our long-distance families and our overbooked lives, can look forward to as a time to get back to what is most important – our spirituality and our relationship with God. On all of these holidays, we must stop and be aware not just of how fortunate we are but also on how we can help others in a dignified and meaningful way.

 

This reminder could be inferred for any of the more agriculturally aligned holidays – the shlosh regalim. It is inserted after the commandment of Shavuos, perhaps because Pesach and Sukkot are themselves so full of mitzvot and are therefore busy times for this reminder. Or perhaps it is the other way around. Sukkot and Pesach surround the winter. In the fall, as the temperatures drop, we are all aware of the upcoming need for stocked food and warm clothing. In the early spring of Pesach, we have not yet recovered from the winter, so we are more aware and conscientious of those in need who might have suffered more challenges. But in the late spring/early summer, when warm air and the sunny skies make us all feel joyful and lighthearted and optimistic and we are celebrating a holiday for which we do not have weeks of physical preparation, it is easy to be wrapped up in a sense of ease.  But even if it is warm and sunny, there are still many people who are struggling to get their basic essentials.

 

This probably is not the reason that Vayikra 23:22 is included in the middle of all the chagim. However, with today’s lifestyle being so very different from that of the majority of our ancestors, we need to seek out an application that resonates. The laws of the Torah are laws that can be eternally applied; it is up to us to see a deeper perspective and to recognize that Hashem has made it clear that chesed is always important.

Enjoy the spring. Enjoy our movement toward the celebration of Matan Torah. Have a beautiful Shabbas.

Parshas Kedoshim: Three Times the Ghost

How much time in your day-to-day living do you spend thinking about Hashem, how to get closer to Him or what He really wants from you? This week’s parsha brings us to the quintessential command for living – holy you shall be. So simple to say; not so simple to implement or even to understand on its deeper levels.

There are many ways that we can think about being holy. Simplistically, one might say it is to be religious, to be part of the community that lives life to a higher standard. Many of these standards, mitzvos and laws, are set down in this week’s parsha, Parshas Kedoshim.

 

There are many fascinating structural elements to this parsha, such as the frequent repetition of Ani Hashem, that are intriguing to explore. One of these interesting elements can be found in the thrice repeated prohibition regarding Ohv and Yidoni, which seems to most often be translated as ghosts and familiars.

 

If this gave you pause, that is not surprising. Most of us knew that there was a prohibition against necromancy; that in itself is not odd. What is interesting is how it flows in and out of the parsha that is generally subdivided into multiple, brief topics. This prohibition is mentioned in 19:31, 20:6, and 20:27 – the last pasuk of the parsha. Allowing for the concept that there are no extra words in the Torah, there is then a question of what distinguishes each of these perakim.

 

Interestingly, when set one after another, the three verses read as follows:

19:31 – Do not turn to ghosts or to familiars, do not seek to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.

20:6 – And the soul that turns to ghosts or familiars, to go astray after them, I will set My face against that soul and cut him off from his people.

20:27 – A man or a woman that is within them [meaning divines through] a ghost or familiar shall be put to death. They shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.

 

From this perspective, there appears to be a progression from commandment not to do so, to the consequence of seeking such “guidance,” to the punishment for the one who performs those actual rituals of “communication.”  And the verses go from no punishment, to a punishment that is generally considered spiritual, to a punishment that is physical – to death. One might deduce from this progress that the man or woman mentioned in verse 27 has gone beyond negating holiness to being one who destroys the holiness of others.

 

But one still needs to ask why these pesukim are not set one after the other since they are so obviously related. Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsh provides interesting insights, both on 19:31 and 20:6, on deeper concepts that might be drawn from these prohibitions in each of their locations. Verse 19:31 follows a restatement of keeping Shabbas, but, more significantly, it precedes the commandment “You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear your God: I am Hashem” (18:32). Rav Hirsh points out how this is the “complete positive opposite.” Perhaps we should understand from here that a person who seeks guidance from ghosts and oracles and familiars should do far better to seek that guidance from those who have lived and experience a great deal of life, particularly those who have steeped themselves in Torah.

 

Similarly, 20:6, which describes those people who actually turn to this guidance, comes immediately after Hashem reiterates His feelings about those who turn to Moloch. The worship of Moloch was hideous and included the burning of children. It is also interesting, however, to note the name of this false god and how it so closely reflects the term Melech, king. Hashem is Malachei Hamelachim, and this avoda to Moloch represents the absolute dismissal of Hashem’s reign. Many people turn to idolatry because, perhaps, they have trouble with the distance Hashem needs to keep in order to give us free will. This is the same drive that leads someone to consult oracles and ghosts. Rav Hirsh points out that “The belief in the imaginary power of oracles is closely related to that of the power of Moloch, a power of ill-luck or providence apart from God. It is seeking pronouncement on the desirability of taking action or abstaining from it, and of one’s fate, from other imaginary sources.”

 

The third reference follows the verse “And you shall remain holy to Me, for I, God, am holy and I have separated you from the nations to be Mine” (20:26). Hashem chose us, and it is up to us to make a relationship with Him. That is the very purpose of being kadosh. If we feel the need to seek out ghosts or familiars, oracles and divination [as some translations go], then we, as a nation, have lost our purpose.

 

When we hear that the Torah bans necromancy and communing with the dead, as the wording is often put in the modern modes of language, many of us laugh a bit inside. Who would do such a thing? It is so obviously a contradiction to what we believe. And yet it is so strongly repeated in the Torah because it is a natural inclination in man. But one that has such a desire can react to it by following the path of his elders and learning Torah and connecting to God, or that person can follow the path of ultimate destruction and destroy his or her relationship with the Divine. It is up to us to choose the path, to have the strength to be holy even when we face the vast unknown.

Parshas Acharei Mos: Wandering Thoughts on Civilization

The dictionary definition of the term “civilization” is, in my opinion, rather funny. According to Oxford Words, it means: “The stage of human social and cultural development and organization that is considered most advanced.” Why is this funny? Because it is based on an incredibly subjective reality. Who, after all, gets to determine what “advanced” means? And yet, for centuries Western “Civilization” has done just that.

 

Perhaps the decline started during the era of the enlightenment, but many would say that it accelerated in the 1960s, when the concept of free expression transformed into a cult of personal liberation. Over the last half a century, however, there has been an increased whittling away at tradition and community that has led to a society in which the adulation of “freedom” has become the be all and end all. This is certainly not everyone – quite probably not even the majority – but it is a voluble minority filled with news makers and cultural idols.

 

We have just completed the holiday of Pesach, the holiday of freedom. Our concept of freedom, however, is not about celebrating our individual identities. It’s not about what “I” want or who “I” am above all other things. This is, in fact, a major aspect of this week’s parsha, Parshas Acharei Mot.”

 

Breaking into personal honesty here, this has always been a parsha that made me uncomfortable. In fact, it was one of my son’s bar mitzvah parshas, and I remember worrying that one of the other children had read it too closely (and, indeed, she did tell me that she read it in English, but asked no further questions). An entire perek of the parsha, perek yud ches, is a description of whose nakedness one shall not uncover. On the whole, it is a summation of the Torah’s prohibition against incest, but it goes farther than that. How we behave in our most intimate moments is a basic foundation of a society.

 

The fact that I felt uncomfortable with this perek was a reflection of many things, and among them was the understanding that the general society in which I was raised was filled with an ever-growing counter-culture that abhors the idea of personal limitations. The 21^st century mores of personal rightness make sense in an advanced technological “civilization” wherein we have a sense of being able to control all things. We “make” meat without a cow. We grow plants without dirt. We build machines that can think. Why would we accept ancient dictates of right and wrong when we obviously know better?

 

Our so-called advanced civilization appears, right now, to be calling for support of terrorist organizations. There is a masochistic urge to support ideologies that diametrically oppose Western Civilization. Our society rejects itself and, particularly among young adults, there seems to be a great self-hatred even as there is a vaunting of the ideal of absolute personal expression.

Something’s wrong.

This year I read Perek yud ches with a different perspective. Societal norms for intimacy – whether adhered to by all members or not but that are recognized and accepted as norms – are foundation stones. The term civilization is built from the term civil, as in civil law. The civil laws in the Torah are known as the mishpatim, and they are often defined as the laws that are necessary for a just society (no stealing, no murder, etc.). The laws in Acharei Mot are mishpatim, even if they deal with the most individual and personal choices of life.

 

It is straight forward and honest. To build a civilization, a place of advanced social and cultural development, one must look to tradition. Hashem gave klal Yisrael a blueprint that sets out rights and wrongs because when human beings start to believe that they know best, ego and hedonism play powerful roles in swaying our perception. Granted the ability to make and create, given our inherent power, we tend to forget that He who created the world, and Who creates the world on an ongoing basis, is the One is the one in charge. It’s not us. It’s not about Me.

 

Good Shabbas