From the Desk of Rabbi Shlomo Rizel Dvar Torah Portion: Emor

ב״ה

From the Desk of Rabbi Shlomo Rizel Torah Portion: Emor Message from the Rabbi Dear Friends, As Jews we always attempt to find the bright side—the silver lining—in everything that happens, even when things do not seem to be going all that well. With the continued impact on so many people’s lives and livelihoods, we can be hard pressed to find a positive angle to current events. But this week we observe a relatively unknown Jewish holiday which can perhaps help us maintain some optimism. The 14th of Iyar, exactly a month after Passover, is called “Pesach Sheni”—the Second Passover. In Temple times, if someone was either impure or far away and unable to bring the Passover offering on the holiday, he was given an opportunity to do so a month later. This is the first time the concept of being given a second chance is mentioned in the Torah, and Pesach Sheni has since come to represent the concept of there always being an opportunity to turn things around. Today, with so much upheaval in the world, we are encouraged to be optimistic that things will eventually turn around. There will be a second chance to make up for everything that we missed over the last few months. And not only will we make up for it, we will do better, grow stronger, until the lows of today are but a distant memory! Shabbat shalom! Shlomo Parshah in a Nutshell Parshat Emor The Torah section of Emor (“ Speak”) begins with the special laws pertaining to the kohanim (“priests”), the kohen gadol (“high priest”), and the Temple service: A kohen may not become ritually impure through contact with a dead body, save on the occasion of the death of a close relative. A kohen may not marry a divorcee, or a woman with a promiscuous past; a kohen gadol can marry only a virgin. A kohen with a physical deformity cannot serve in the Holy Temple, nor can a deformed animal be brought as an offering. A newborn calf, lamb or kid must be left with its mother for seven days before being eligible for an offering; one may not slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day. The second part of Emor lists the annual Callings of Holiness—the festivals of the Jewish calendar: the weekly Shabbat; the bringing of the Passover offering on 14 Nissan; the seven-day Passover festival beginning on 15 Nissan; the bringing of the Omer offering from the first barley harvest on the second day of Passover, and the commencement, on that day, of the 49-day Counting of the Omer, culminating in the festival of Shavuot on the fiftieth day; a “remembrance of shofar blowing” on 1 Tishrei; a solemn fast day on 10 Tishrei; the Sukkot festival—during which we are to dwell in huts for seven days and take the “Four Kinds”—beginning on 15 Tishrei; and the immediately following holiday of the “eighth day” of Sukkot ( Shemini Atzeret). Next the Torah discusses the lighting of the menorah in the Temple, and the showbread (lechem hapanim) placed weekly on the table there. Emor concludes with the incident of a man executed for blasphemy, and the penalties for murder (death) and for injuring one’s fellow or destroying his property (monetary compensation).