Shabbat Table Talk

Parashat Emor
Erev Shabbat, 09 May 2008
Week of 04 to 10 May 2008
Torah portion: Lev. 21:1-24:23
Haftarah: Ezek. 44:15-31
Sunday Readings for 11 May, Pentecost: Acts 2:1-11, 1Cor. 12:3-7, 12-13, Jn 20;19-23

Emor is the second of two parashot/portions which change the nature of the entire book of Leviticus. We have seen that Israel is to be “separate” from the nations around it in various ways. Chapters 18-26 emphasize very strongly what God had first put before Moses on Sinai: that Israel was to be a “kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” [Ex. 19.6].

What has this to say to us today? Dr. Akiva G. Belk quotes a friend of his often saying to his students, “Remember, the Torah is perfect. Jews are not.” Christians can identify with this also. Many holy things which were so essential in the Torah are gone, the Beit HaMikdash, (the Temple), Holy of Holies, and the Holy Menorah are all gone. The Kohenim who are holy and served in the Beit HaMikdash cannot do so because it is gone. With these and many parts of the Jewish Holy Existence missing, he points out that “we still have our Holy Torah, our guide to holiness and we can study. We can still sanctify the Creator’s name through blessings, we still have the Holy Shabbos.” The Torah states “You (Kal Yisroel) shall make him (the Kohen) holy,” and Rashi says “even against his will.” His point is that righteousness is expected of us, and none of us has any excuse not to grow in holiness. The Leviticus chapters 18-26 are dominated by the call to holiness; the central lines came last week in K’doshim “Holy are you to be, for Holy am I, YHWH your God” [Lev. 19:2; Fox].

In the middle of this parashah there is a verse that describes two of Judaism’s key mitzvot commandments, “You are not to profane my holy name, that I may be hallowed amid the children of Israel; I AM YHWH, THE ONE-WHO-HALLOWS-YOU” [Lev. 22:32; Fox]. God hallows us by His holiness that we might hallow His Name. God calls us into a relationship of intimacy in sharing in the Divine life. Abraham Heschel said, “Just to be is a blessing, just to live is holy.”

The Hebrew word for sanctifying God’s Name is Kiddush HaShem. We are all called to sanctify God’s name but the question is, HOW? Rabbi Yoseph Edelstein points out that the Hebrew word we translate as profane is chillul, which literally means to create a vacuum. Committing a Chillul HaShem—profaning God’s name—is creating a vacuum in the world in which it appears that God does not exist. A Chillul HaShem makes God’s presence seem less real in the world. A Kiddush HaShem is therefore acting in a loving way so that those who witness it become aware that there must be a God in our world; it makes God’s Presence more real and creates a truer image of a loving God.

There is a famous Kiddush HaShem recorded in the Talmud (Yerushalmi Bava Metzia 2:5). Rav Shimon ben Shetach’s students bought a donkey for their teacher from an Arab. They discovered a precious stone attached to the donkey unbeknown to the seller, and Rabbi Shimon ordered them to return it. When questioned why it was necessary to do so since the law did not require it, Rav Shimon replied that his goal in life was not amassing wealth. Rather he desired hearing a non-Jew blessing God more than all the wealth in the world!

While studying this parashah with my Torah partner, we became aware of a whole new meaning to the words we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray “hallowed (holy) be your name” we are expressing something which is integral in the Jewish spirituality of Jesus, the deep sense of the holiness of God’s name. These words call us to constant conversion, to change our attitudes, behaviors, values, and words, so that we become more loving and unselfish. The personal Divine mission for each of us in this world is to sanctify God’s Name; we all have daily challenges to do this. Sooner or later we have difficult relationships in which we can make a Kiddush HaShem by not answering back or insisting on our way, but by responding with gentleness and peace.

We live in a very competitive world which can easily lead us to get where we want to be by walking over others. A difficulty we experience today with this parashah stresses the importance of physical perfection. Any disability rendered a person excluded from serving in the priesthood. Today it calls us to develop a greater sensitivity to those with special needs.

A beautiful story is told of a man whose son was in a Jewish school for children with special needs. He stood up in a meeting, and with great emotion asked why God allows such disabilities when the Torah places great emphasis on perfection. He then went on to tell his listeners how he had been walking with his son near where other boys were playing baseball. The boy wanted to join in, and hesitatingly the father asked the players if he may do so. The boys said they were just losing by a few points but they agreed to let him come in. When his turn came to bat a player moved in to help him. He could easily have been caught out but each of the opposing team, with great sensitivity, kept sending the ball wide of the next post while they all cheered him on to run, run! The boy completed the circuit and the others lifted him high and cheered him. The father had tears in his eyes, and said that that day he saw a true Kiddush HaShem committed by those boys who went completely beyond themselves for the sake of his son. God’s name was made Holy and Yah’s presence more real.
Some time ago I started to develop the habit of blessing drivers around me on the road, especially those who were aggravating me by their driving! I discovered that the blessing came back to me and I became more conscious of my road courtesies such as letting others into the line of traffic ahead of me, for which there are constant opportunities in the driving chaos of Lusaka! While searching the internet for this parashah, I was fascinated to read a commentary by Elliot Forchheimer entitled, “Does it really matter how I drive?” He tells of a rabbi friend of his who consciously drives cautiously and courteously since not to do so would bring dishonor to God and the Jewish people, thereby committing an act of Chillul HaShem. In the same way, our manner of driving can be a way of praying the Lord’s Prayer, of hallowing God’s name.

We exist because God’s spirit and life are in us—life itself is holy. A wonderful quote by Marianne Williamson, often attributed to Nelson Mandela his inaugural speech, runs this way, “We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in all of us.” As Jews and Christians, we are encouraged to act every day in a moral and ethical way. We can hallow God’s name simply by speaking, working, and playing in a loving, honest, and just way. In Bernadette Farrell’s hymn, God beyond all Names, we sing, “All around us we have known you, all creation lives to hold you. In our living and our dying we are bringing you to birth.”

Haftarah: Ezekiel 44:15-31 In a very significant verse, God says of the priests, “This is to be their inheritance: I am their inheritance; you are to give them no property in Israel: I am their property” (v. 28). Through our baptism we share in this priesthood, belong to God, and God is our inheritance.

Sunday Readings: On this Feast of Pentecost we open our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit in a new and deeper way in our lives. The Holy Spirit is truly the one who sanctifies and gives us the power to hallow God’s name.

For Reflection and Discussion:[1] How far do you think the message of the universal call to priesthood and holiness has been accepted by the people of God? [2] What does “Hallowed be your name” mean to you in practical terms?

Bibliography: Goldstein (ed.), The Women’s Torah Commentary (Woodstock, 2000); Plaut, The Torah, A Modern Commentary (New York, 1981); Fox, The Five Books of Moses (New York, 1997); www.MyJewishLearning.com, www.ou.org/torah/savannah/5761/emor61b.htm.

~~~~~~~

This week’s teaching commentary was prepared by
Sr. Ann Kelly, fmdm, Lusaka, Zambia. Bat Kol Alumni 2007