April 30th: Emor
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Last week’s Torah portion, Kedoshim, begins with a particularly inspirational charge:
“You shall be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.”
Holiness / Kedushah is a very noble aspiration, but its exact definition is a bit amorphous. Is God talking about righteousness? Or is it more a matter of honesty? Or charity? Or respectfulness or respectability? It is the kind of term that has inspired many Midrashim and sermons over the years—perhaps because the term is more elevated and ethereal than specific. We are called to a higher role in the world, to aspire to a nobility of character and action.
Part of that nobility involves a powerful attraction to the Presence of God. In his definition of Religion, the philosopher William James speaks of the human response to “the more,” an undefinable, non-empirical feeling of a Presence. There is, in some human beings, an intense attraction to the Divine—a desire to draw closer and understand and develop a relationship. It is a yearning experienced by many and one that is expressed in a prayer in the Evening Service:
Atah kadosh, v’Shim’cha kadosh, uk’doshim bechol yom yehal’lucha, Selah!
You are holy, and Your Name is holy, and those who are holy declare Your holiness every day.
There are those of us who want—nay, yearn—to be among those holy ones who declare God’s holiness every day.
This sensibility is reminiscent of the charge God gives to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, just before speaking the Ten Commandments. As we read in Exodus 19,
“You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
While very inspiring, it cannot be a literal command: throughout Exodus and Leviticus, God is very clear that the various priestly duties are only to be carried out by the Kohanim (Priests) and Levites—and not by the general population. How, then, are we to understand these very general, probably metaphorical, exhortations?
In understanding the religious development from Biblical Judaism to Rabbinic/Talmudic Judaism—a process that originated around 200 BCE in the Second Temple Period and continued to around 200 CE with the compilation of the Mishna, the historian Ellis Rivkin sees these metaphors as a modus operindi. While certain duties were reserved for the Levites and the Kohanim (Priests), the Pharisees/Rabbis responded to the yearning of average Israelites to be active participants in declaring the holiness of God and crafted new practices. In the Temple religion, the bulk of the religion was performed by the Priests and Levites, while average Israelites merely supported the Temple worship with occasional sacrifices and attendance. In Pharisaic/Rabbinic/Talmudic Judaism, however, we find a holy lifestyle enabling regular Jews to be among those who proclaim God’s holiness every day. As one can see in the texts of the Mishna, many of these “holinesses” were adapted from the rules for the priests.
This week’s Torah portion, Emor, give us several examples. The first is in Leviticus 21.5. Though obviously sad when close family members pass away, the priests are not supposed to do what were apparently ancient mourning practices: “They shall not shave smooth any part of their heads, or cut the side-growth of their beards, or make gashes in their flesh. They shall be holy to their God and not profane (de-holy) the Name of their God; for they offer the Lord’s offerings by fire, the food of their God, and so must be holy.” This particular requirement for priests evolved into a custom for all Israelites—and not just in times of mourning. It is seen today in the payot/payos and beards that ultra-Orthodox Jews wear as a sign of holiness.
Another example are the various purity/impurity regulations for working priests. In Leviticus 22.3-7, we learn that priests who have recently had sexual relations are prohibited from officiating in the Temple until they complete a period of purification. Though the ritual reading of the Torah Scroll is never mentioned in the Torah itself, this ritual purity for the Temple service was transposed to the synagogue’s public Torah reading: Orthodox Jews who have had recent sexual relations are prohibited from reading from the Torah or even blessing the Torah until they have completed a period of purification.
Even more significantly, the Rabbis took a verse in that same paragraph (Leviticus 22.8), which prohibits priests from eating trayfe, and transposed it to all Jews, moving kosher-slaughtered animals from strictly a priestly and worship issue to that of all food for all Jews. “…the sacred donations are his food (the priest’s); he shall not eat anything that died or was torn by beasts (t’rayfah).”
As Dr. Rivkin explains in A Hidden Revolution: The Pharisee’s Search for the Kingdom Within, the ancient Rabbis were scholars and pietists seeking an enhanced sense of holiness. Using the metaphorical passages from Exodus 19, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” and Leviticus 19, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy,” the Pharisees/Rabbis found a theme and crafted Jewish observances that could make each Jew feel a special closeness to God—a participatory relationship with the Divine.
While we date this particular innovation and enhancement of our religion to around 200 BCE, there are hints that this yearning to be especially close to God has more ancient roots. As we shall soon read in the second portion of Numbers, there existed in Torah times a mysterious institution where individual Jews, both male and female, could dedicate themselves for special holy activities. They were called Nazirites, and we have very limited information about what they did and why they did it. All we know are the rules for declaring their temporary status as Nazirites, the prohibition of cutting their hair or consuming any wine or grapes during their terms, and the rituals for concluding their times as Nazirites. We do not know what they did while Nazirites, but we do know that, during their terms, they were considered “holy to the Lord” (Numbers 6.8).
Religion is understood and experienced in many ways. Among them is the apperception of the Divine and the yearning to be closer and live in relationship with It. To these spiritually motivated individuals, our Tradition offers opportunities for holiness—for connecting to God.
Atah kadosh, v’Shim’cha kadosh, uk’doshim bechol yom yehal’lucha, Selah!
You are holy, and Your Name is holy, and those who are holy declare Your holiness every day.