Emor 5773 - English

By Rabbi Joshua Kullock

Comunidad Hebrea de Guadalajara

The essence of the book of Va-yikra may be summarized with one word: holiness.  Just as happened with the parashiot we read last week, on this Shabbat we will also read regulations which refer to the invitation that appears in the text, to work in order to consecrate our lives on a daily basis.  In this manner, holiness is not an accomplished objective but rather a horizon that signals the North on our compasses: what can we do to fill our lives with meaning, by carrying out specific and daily actions.

In the case of Parashat Emor, the first part of the portion focuses around holiness and the sanctification of the priests.  If we read chapters 21 and 22 of Leviticus, we will come across laws pertaining only to the cohanim.   That is why, at least a priori, it would seem that these laws have little, if nothing, to offer us, at the beginning of the 21st century.  In times where the priestly purity and impurity (almost) do not play a meaningful role in our reality, reading these verses could very well reinforce our wish to close the book and devote our time to something else.  However, our tradition already taught us that what refers to the priests should be of interest to the entire people, since the priests were consecrated by the hand of Moses, whom as you will remember, was not a cohen.  Furthermore, in the Torah we read that God says to the leader of Israel: “and you must treat them [Aaron] as holy” (Lev. 21:8).  Hence that our Hassidic teacher, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter of Gur, also known as the Sefat Emet – maintained that:  “The sanctity of the priests depends on the sanctity of the people of Israel” (3:172).  If the people are not standing behind the priest, the cohen’s sanctity is not too useful.  If there is no consistency between the leaders and the people, the path becomes impossible.  If the same objectives and ideals are not shared, then the potential for success radically diminishes.  In consequence, reading about the laws related with the priests’ holiness should serve as a reminder for the entire people, as well as another more than interesting reason, to do an inspection and an audit of the place where we currently find ourselves, facing our own process of sanctification (remember: always in practical terms, not in an ontological state of spirit).

But the path towards sanctity also appears in our parashah in another way.  If you pay attention, you will see that the text begins with the impurity to which the priest was exposed by his contact with death, whereas around the end, the text is devoted to the description of all the festivities included in the calendar of Israel in those times.  In other words: the path that leads us towards holiness has to do with life itself, with its joys and its times of sorrow.  The message contained in our parashah seems to want to teach us that our actions will be the ones to speak for us at every step of our way.  Because, as Victor Krankl used to say, while we cannot choose the junctures through which we will move in this life, our greatest freedom resides in the way we decide to face those moments: in the manner in which we will celebrate our joys and channel our sorrows.

To sum it up:

Aspiring to holiness means to promote the commitment of the leaders and the people to a common cause.

Aspiring to holiness means to understand that ritual and morality must go together and manifest in real and daily works.

Aspiring to holiness means to face each and every moment of our lives – the good and the not so good – trying to leave a transcendental mark that may inspire those around us and linger for a life of love and good deeds.

On all of these lie the variables that give meaning to our existence and determine the course of our wandering through the world.  It is up to us to start walking, in harmony with the eternal divine invitation embedded in the biblical text and in the interpretations brewed from generation to generation.

Shabbat Shalom u’Meborah!