Emor deals with two kinds of holiness: of people and of time. Chapter 21 relates to holy people: priests, and above them, the High Priest. Their close contact with the Sanctuary means that they must live with certain restrictions: on contact with the dead and whom they may marry. Chapter 22 recaps similar laws relating to ordinary Israelites when they…
Emor deals with two kinds of holiness: of people and of time. Chapter 21 relates to holy people: priests, and above them, the High Priest. Their close contact with the Sanctuary means that they must live with certain restrictions: on contact with the dead and whom they may marry. Chapter 22 recaps similar laws relating to ordinary Israelites when they…
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; Ex. 34:18, 22-23), are very brief. They refer only to the three pilgrimage festivals, Pesach, Shavuot, and Succot. They do not specify their dates, merely their rough position in the…
The Parsha in a Nutshell This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks, available to read in full via the left sidebar (or below, if you are viewing this on your phone) Emor contains a chapter dedicated to the chaggim of the Jewish calendar. It is distinctive from the other accounts of the…
The Parsha in a Nutshell Parshat Emor deals with two kinds of holiness: that of people and of time. Chapter 21 relates to holy people: Priests, and above them, the High Priest. Their close contact with the Sanctuary means that they must live with certain restrictions: on contact with the dead and whom they may marry. Chapter 22 recaps similar…
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. The first mitzvah given to the Jewish people as a…
In recent years we have often felt plagued by reports of Israeli and Jewish leaders whose immoral actions had been exposed. 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…
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 nation gathered at the…
…you in Kriyat HaTorah. You have just read parshas Emor, yes? Last Shabbos. And we’re about to read it this coming Shabbos, but one way or another, the source is in Parshat Emor. And it’s Source 1, “U’sfartem lachem mimacharat hashabbat miyom haviachem et omer hatnufah sheva shabbatot t’mimot tihiyenah (Leviticus 25:15).” So you should begin to count Mimocharat HaShabbat,…
The Summary This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks. Alongside the holiness of place and person is the holiness of time, and this is something Emor charts in its deceptively simple list of chaggim and holy days. Time plays an enormous part in Judaism. The first thing God declared holy was a…