B'har-B'chukotai

Leviticus 25:1-27:34

A New World 

The reinterpretation of the term 'forever' encourages us to strive for new realities within our own lifetimes. 

By Rabbi Asher Brander

The primacy of the Oral Law has always been the bedrock of our belief system.
Torah Shebichtav (Written Law) without Torah Sheba’al Peh (Oral Law) is likened to a body without a soul. Thus, when Oral Law seems to contradict the Written Law our sense of textual loyalty seems violated.

Our parshah is home to one of the classic examples of this apparent incongruity. The Torah states, “You shall sanctify the 50th year and proclaim freedom throughout the land for all of its inhabitants; it shall be the Jubilee year (Yovel) for you.”

What are the implications of this freedom?

The Torah teaches that a Jewish servant works a six-year period of service. At the seventh year, “if the servant shall say, ‘I love my master...I don’t [want to] go free,’ then his master shall bring him to the court…and he shall serve him forever (le’olam).”

The Torah Sheba’al Peh, however, clarifies that the term “forever--le’olam” means until Yovel. How so? Ibn Ezra (12th century Spanish commentator), cites a verse from Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) which implies that the world olam can mean a period of time. Since Yovel is the longest block of time in the Jewish calendar, the word olam, taken in the sense of “a long time” is appropriate.

But even if Ibn Ezra is technically correct, we must still ask why the Torah opts for the more ambiguous “olam” when it could simply say, “Yovel.” Why create confusion in the first place?

The words of the Ramban (Nachmanides) on this topic are cryptic: “The enlightened one will understand that ‘forever’ (le’olam) is literal--for one who works until Yovel has worked all the days of the world (olam). In the words of the Mekhilta (legal midrash on Exodus): Rebbe says, Come and see that the world is only fifty years old as it says, ‘And he shall work forever--until the Yovel.’”

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Emor

Leviticus 21:1−24:23

Sanctifiers Of Time 

The commandment to proclaim the festivals includes concepts of communal responsibility and imitating God.

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer

In the midst of a book devoted to kedusha (sanctity), the apex of the Torah's value system, we revisit the subject of the festivals:

And Hashem spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: The festivals of Hashem which you will proclaim (tikr’u otam) as holy convocations, these are My festivals.

For six days shall work be done, and on the seventh day is the Shabbat of complete rest, a holy convocation, all work shall you not do, it is Shabbat to Hashem in all your dwellings.

These are the festivals of Hashem, the holy convocations which you will proclaim (tirkr’u otam) at their occasion.

The festivals were discussed earlier (Shemot 23:14-17; 34:17-23), where it was established that Pesach must be during aviv (spring in Israel), and consequently the other pilgrimage festivals would coincide with their proper seasons: Shavuot with the first offering of the wheat-harvest and Sukkot with the in-gathering of the harvest. Based on the inspection of the grain, the flowering of fruit trees and the vernal equinox, the Sanhedrin (high court) would decide whether to intercalate the year by adding a month before the month of Nisan.

Furthermore, the rabbis teach (Tractate Sanhedrin 11a; Rambam, Laws of Sanctifying the Moon, 4:5) that the Sanhedrin can intercalate for other reasons, which can only be described as communal needs: when late winter rains cause the obstruction of roads, the destruction of bridges or the ruining of earthenware ovens for roasting the Pesach sacrifices; or, if Jews in the Diaspora have begun their pilgrimage to Jerusalem but will not arrive in time.

Rashi, based on Torat Kohanim (also called Sifra, the Jewish legal midrash on Vayikra) Emor 9:1, refers to this last consideration:

"Speak to the Children of Israel…The festivals of Hashem:" Make the festivals so that Israel will be accustomed to them, when intercalating the year for the Diaspora Jews who have left their places to make the pilgrimage and they have not yet reached Jerusalem.

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Acharei Mot-Kedoshim

Leviticus 16:1-20:27

The Limits Of Spirituality

Nadav and Avihu died in an act of sanctification; our goal should be to sanctify God through our lives, not our deaths.

Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron's four sons, were killed, the Torah states, "when they came close before God." The Torah then goes on to describe the service performed by Aaron on Yom Kippur.

Who were Nadav and Avihu, and what do their deaths have to do with Yom Kippur?

Furthermore, why were they killed? Is it not the duty of every Jew to strive to come close to God?

Nadav and Avihu died during the sanctification of the Mishkan (Tabernacle).

"They offered before the Lord an alien fire, which He had not commanded... and a fire came forth and consumed them."

They were not just killed; they were consumed. Their death can be viewed as sacrificial. Describing their death, the Torah adds two words: They died "before God." God did not distance Himself from them, but reached down and brought them up. "Bikrovai ekodeish, I will be sanctified through those who are close to me," God says of Nadav and Avihu. They were the tzaddikim (righteous people) of their generation and died attempting to find Godliness and spirituality in their own way.

By attempting to experience God in His fullness, they sanctified themselves, but their mere physicality could not endure it.

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Tazria—M'tzora

Leviticus 12:1–15:33

FALLING UPWARD

In this week's parsha we learn about the diagnosis and treatment of "tzoraas" (a leprous disease, which one would suffer because of some moral failing) by a kohen. The kohen might observe a whitish sore on the person's skin, and, if he diagnosed it as "tzoraas", he would declare the person "tamei" [inadequately translated as "unclean" or "impure"]. In general, the whiter the sore, and the larger the area it covered, the more "tamei" the person would be; but -- and here is a remarkable thing -- once the sore covered the whole body, the person became "tahor" ["clean", "pure"] again! (Lev. 13:13)

How can we explain this? The Gemara (Sanhedrin 97.) quotes R' Yitzchak as saying that the Messiah will not come until all the governments of the world will have become heretical. His pupil Rabba says: Where did he learn this from? From the above verse. (meaning: everything will be bad before good can come.)

Well, that was not much of an explanation of our original puzzle! If anything, it made it more puzzling.

I cannot claim to give a complete explanation, since the laws of purity and impurity are difficult to understand, but perhaps we can give some clue to the situation.

There is a story in the Gemara (Avoda Zara 17.) about a certain Eliezer ben Durdaya, who visited every house of sin that he could. One day he heard of a prostitute who lived overseas, and was very expensive. He collected the money, and sailed "across seven seas" to visit her. While they were together, she suddenly started to berate him about his lifestyle, saying "Eliezer ben Durdaya, there is no hope of forgiveness for you!" (Many questions arise here: What moved her to admonish him thus? How could she know that there was no hope of forgiveness for him? And who was she to talk? But let us leave these questions aside for now.)

Eliezer, hearing this from her, fled to the countryside. He said to the mountains and valleys: "Pray for mercy for me!" But they responded: "We cannot, we are busy praying for mercy for ourselves." He made the same request of the sun and moon, and the stars, but they gave the same answer. Finally he exclaimed: "I see that my salvation depends on no one but me!" He lowered his head between his knees screamed out with cries of anguish and died. At that moment, a heavenly voice said: "Rabbi Eliezer ben Durdaya, there is a place for you in the world to come."

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SH'MINI

LEVITICUS 9:1-11:47

The Role Of The Elders

Several commentators discuss the relationship of the elders to the priests, the people, Moses, and God.

The great day has finally arrived! All that preceded this day--the Exodus from Egypt, the Revelation at Sinai, and the building and dedication of the Mishkan (Tabernacle)--was a process designed to bring Hashem’s uninterrupted Presence into the camp of Israel.

The shameful sin of the golden calf nearly brought about the destruction of the people of Israel.

However, after much painful soul-searching, Hashem and His people are reconciled. For seven days, Aaron and his sons have trained to serve as the Kohanim (priests); now, on the eighth day, nearly one year since the Exodus on the first of the month of Nisan, the moment of Divine union is here:

1) And it was on the eighth day that Moses called for Aaron and for his sons and for the elders of Israel.

2) And he said to Aaron: Take for yourself a young calf for a sin-offering, and a ram for an elevation-offering, complete without blemish, and offer them before Hashem.

3) And to the Children of Israel you shall speak, saying: Take a he-goat for a sin-offering and a calf and a sheep in their first year, complete without blemish, for an elevation-offering,

4) And an ox and a ram for a peace-offering to sacrifice before Hashem, and a meal-offering mixed with oil; for today Hashem appears to you.

5) And they took that which Moses had commanded before the Tent of Meeting, and the whole congregation drew near and they stood before Hashem.

6) And Moses said, “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded you to do, and the glory of Hashem will appear to you” (Vayikra, chapter 9).

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SH'MINI

LEVITICUS 9:1-11:47

Kashrut After Refrigerators

Jewish dietary practices allow us to welcome the sacred into our daily lives and into mundane acts.
Without attempting to justify the elaborate Jewish dietary laws, the Torah provides a lengthy list of which foods are kosher and which are not.

Animals with cloven hooves and which chew their cuds are kosher. Fish with fins and scales are kosher. Birds which eat grain and vegetables, and which can fly, are kosher. Insects, shellfish and reptiles are not.

Since the earliest stages of our history, Jews have understood the patterns of kashrut (the dietary laws) to be at the very center of our heritage. Jews have sacrificed their lives rather than desecrate themselves with 'treif' (non-kosher) food. From the biblical and into the rabbinical period, new guidelines and restrictions developed as Jews encountered different cuisines and aesthetic standards, yet the core of kashrut has remained unchanged over the millennia. Some of our most stirring stories of Jewish martyrdom--of Jews who preferred to lay down their lives rather than abandon their Judaism--center around the laws of kashrut.

Thus, as early as the time of the Maccabees (167 B.C.E.), we have stories of Jews forced to eat pork by the Syrian oppressors. In those stirring tales, the Jews chose to die with their integrity intact, to expire still obedient to the dictates of God and Torah. They could not conceive of a Judaism without kashrut, so central were the dietary laws to the entire rhythm of Jewish living.

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