Miller’s Musings Parshas Emor: The Great and the Good

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Miller’s Musings

אמורפרשת

The Great and the Good

Though it appears almost as a vignette at the end, the incident with the blasphemer is something of a break from the array of mitzvos that are listed in the rest of the Parsha. Despite there seemingly being some uncertainty about the matter, ultimately the offending party is put to death and the matter resolved. Yet this idea of someone who blasphemes, cursing someone else in the name of Hashem, is rather puzzling in its very nature. For cursing someone indicates a belief that one is able to control Hashem and cause Him to submit to one’s own schemes. This would seem to represent a rejection of Hashem and a Torah view of Him. And yet evoking Hashem’s name to produce the required result implies that one truly believes wholeheartedly in Hashem’s power, for why else would one do this? How can we understand this apparent contradiction in behaviour?

It is a curious irony that in order to fight someone, at least in former times, the two people would come closer to each other than they would have ever otherwise. In a fight to the death, the two assailants in armed combat would grapple and struggle with one another at incredibly close proximity. And just as this is so in physical conflict, so too it is in a spiritual one. So when a person wants to rebel against Hashem by ‘using’ Him to curse another, he actually at that point comes incredibly close to Hashem. But just as in the case of a physical confrontation the closeness is a negative one, so too in the spiritual one. Yet, explains Rav Shimon Schwab, there is an additional element to this that must be considered. For just as the pure connecting with Hashem created by prayer and Torah learning produces tremendous pleasure, so too this impure version of the connection. It is a pleasure that originates from sources of impurity and evil, but it the yetzer horah feels this as a true joy as a parallel to the authentic, genuine elation of a sincere relationship with Hashem. The enjoyment is fleeting and ultimately lacking in the eternal nature of its real equivalent, but it is enough to entice one who knows Hashem yet is unable to resist this imitation of what he could have gained through the path of the upright.

A mistake that those trying to choose correctly often make is in thinking of the choice as being between that which is good and that which is not. It is of course ultimately exactly so. But in the short term we are often not making a choice between the good and the bad, but rather between the good and the better. If sin was not pleasurable it would not be able to seduce us and tempt us into its traps. No one ever said that transgressions do not provide pleasure, albeit momentary and often superficial. They may be enjoyable in a transient way, but they will never be the ultimate pleasure. They will never achieve the greatest pleasure that we can experience; a closeness with the Creator of all existence. He has created us in order to give us pleasure and being the Ultimate Good, the pleasure He desires that we partake of must be not just any pleasure, but the ultimate one. Life is about making those decisions; to reject the simple pleasures for the greatest ones and gratification for eternal happiness.

*May this Shabbos bring us true pleasure and true happiness*

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Parshas Emor

After discussing the festival of Shavuos, the Torah warns us about some matnas aniyim, some of the mitzvos involving providing for the poor (23:22). The seems a little strange. What is the connection between Shavuos and taking care of the needy? The simple answer may be that Shavuos is the time when the fields were harvested and so we are told not to harvest the whole field, but rather we should leave a corner of the field for the poor. Similarly, we should not gather the gleanings of the harvest. Rather they should be left for the poor.

But there is more to it. Shavuos is the time when the Torah was given (and in a certain way, every year during this time, it is given again). A person may think that the only aspects of the Torah that were given on Shavuos were the mitzvos that are not normal human behaviour, but mitzvos that are common decency such as providing for the poor, were not given then. If this were the case, the ramifications could be disastrous. The attitudes of people change and what was once considered to be common decency can easily become obsolete. Just take a look at the world around us. Honouring parents was once upon a time ingrained in every child and now for many, it is out the window! Morals without an absolute rule book will not last and will change to meet the needs and desires of society.

Therefore the Torah linked providing for the poor with Shavuos to teach us that all the mitzvos were given on Shavuos, even the common decency mitzvos. And that is why the verse concludes, “I am Hashem, your G-d.” Even if the mitzvos make sense that is not why we do them. We do them because Hashem commands us to do them. And therefore even if the moral standards of the world around us change, we will still be faithful to the values set out by our Book of Life, the Torah. (Meshech Chochmah)

Munchies For A Mentch

In this week’s parsha, Emor, we find a description of the service involving the bringing of a measure of the new year’s wheat produce as a sacrifice and expression of gratitude to Hashem for providing mankind with its required sustenance, represented by wheat- man’s staple grain.

The commentators make the observation that a similar korban, representing the same theme is brought on Pesach, but with one difference-on Pesach the Korban Omer consists of barley whereas the offering brought on Shavuos is made from wheat -why?

An enlightening approach is the following; In the Talmud barley is always described as being a type of grain typically fed to animals whereas the superior grain-wheat, is accepted as being a food of quality fit for human consumption. During Pesach we thank Hashem for providing for our needs and so too on Shavuos – but there is one major difference on Pesach we hadn’t yet received the Torah, on Shavuos we had. A human being without a divinely instructed code of moral conduct (as opposed to a moral code created by man purely for the sake of pragmatism and efficiency which can so easily be dropped when “necessary” ) is not all that different from an animal-just a bit cleverer.

The Torah is our moral guide book and our instruction manual as to how to achieve perfection and true success in life- how to be a “mentch”.

R’ Ezer Pine

Lag BaOmer

This Thursday night and Friday is Lag BaOmer

Make Them Holy

The Torah tells us to sanctify the kohanim, “You should sanctify him, for he offers the food of your G-d…” (21:8). One manifestation of this is that the kohen reads first from the Torah. The Torah seems to stress that we should sanctify him because of the service he does in the Beis HaMikdash, therefore some hold that the Biblical mitzvah only applies when there is a Beis Hamikdash. There is still a rabbinic obligation to sanctify him even if there is no Beis Hamikdash. Others hold that the Biblical mitzvah still applies nowadays.

There are two aspects to the holiness of kohanim. One is that they should not become impure from a dead person nor should they marry certain women. They definitely cannot forgo this aspect of their holiness. The other aspect is to honour them and let them come first in all matters of sanctity. In this aspect there is a dispute regarding the idea behind it. One approach is that the honour is not really their honour. Just like when a person honours a servant of the king he is really honouring the king, so too by honouring the kohanim, the group chosen by Hashem to serve in the Beis Hamikdash, Hashem is honoured. Accordingly, it should follow that this aspect also cannot be pardoned by the kohanim – it is not their honour to forgo. Others suggest that the honour is the kohanim‘s own personal honour and therefore it should follow that the kohanim can forgo their honour. (Kedushas Hakohanim Kehilchasa)

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Striving for Perfection

Sforno explains that even though there are blemishes that actually increase the strength and value of an animal, they nevertheless render the animal unfit for sacrifice. Throughout the Torah we find completion and wholeness taking precedence over quantity. Thus a whole roll takes precedence over a much larger portion of a loaf of bread, in the recitation of hamotzi.

From this we learn that our actions are measured not by quantity, but by how close it comes to perfection. Since Hashem is the ultimate perfection, our goal must be to also achieve the greatest measure of perfection possible for a human being, for we are exhorted to emulate Him and “to be complete with Hashem.” Only by being as close to perfect as possible can we hope to have a relationship with Hashem.

After the Jewish people were freed from subjugation in Egypt to serve Hashem, the first step in that service was to strive for perfection. That striving took the form of counting seven complete weeks, forty-nine complete days, until the giving of the Torah on the fiftieth day.

Fifty represents perfection (fifty gates of wisdom, fifty gates of purity). Our task is to count forty-nine. We are not capable of creating perfection; only Hashem can make something perfect. All we can do is strive towards it. But by counting for forty-nine days, it is as if we counted the fiftieth also. For the fiftieth level is the automatic result of our efforts in securing the first forty-nine.

This is the significance of Lag Be’Omer (this Thursday night) as explained by the Maharsha (Moed Kattan 28a). The majority of the omer count is reached when two-thirds of the time passes. That occurs on the thirty-third day. Once most of the period has passed successfully, one can be confident he will he successful in likewise fulfilling the remainder. Lag Be’Omer is a day to rejoice in one’s successful quest for perfection. The traditional bonfires symbolize the pure, intense fire of the heart that is the basis of our quest for perfection.

The Midrash comments: “When are the days of the omer perfect and complete? When we fulfill God’s will” (Vayikra Rabbah 28:3). It is the intensity of our quest for perfection in performing God’s will that infuses our counting of the omer with added meaning and effectiveness.

May we strive for perfection in all that we do, so that our efforts will be crowned by success by Hashem, Who will bring us to the ultimate perfection, “granting His nation strength and blessing it with peace.”
(Rabbi Zev Leff)

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Miller’s Musings Parshas Achrei Mos-Kedoshim: Little By Little

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Quote of the Week: “You drown not by falling in a river, but by staying submerged in it.”

Miller’s Musings

אחרי מות-קדושים פרשת

Little By Little

I think it is pretty safe to say that the Egyptians, during our servitude there, were not a people that we would ever want to emulate. The most malignant slavery, torture and ultimately genocide were only part of what they represented. But in addition there was the idolatry that was such an entrenched element of their culture and the deviant immorality that was so pervasive in their lives. It therefore comes as no surprise that we are instructed to steer clear of their ways. Our question however hinges on the wording of the command which asks us “not to perform like the practices of the land of Egypt.” Why not simply not to perform the practices? What is added with the word “like”?

Knowing your enemy is surely the first step to defeating him. The more one is aware of and comprehends the tools he employs, the schemes he constructs and the tactics he brings to the fight, the more chance one has of survival and ultimately victory. Each one of us possesses an enemy within, an evil inclination whose entire reason for being is to entice us towards sin. It understands us perhaps better than we understand ourselves and knows precisely how to lead us astray. To make us do terrible things right from the off would be impossible. We cannot be convinced to do that which we know to be reprehensible. But if he can persuade us to do something small at first and then a little more and a little more, this is a way in which, given time, he can achieve his goals of corrupting us in ways we would have thought inconceivable. To act like the ways of the Egyptians would be considered reprehensible and repugnant. But to begin by acting a little like them. To do things that even merely reflect their attitude. This is something that the yetzer horah would deem absolutely attainable and something we therefore must be warned not to fall victim of. Once we begin to fall down it is so easy to keep falling.

To be holy is regarded as an aspiration for us all. It is a separation from all that would keep us from Hashem and extends to even those things that are in reality permissible, but may bring us eventually to sin. It makes perfect sense then that the instruction “you shall be holy” follows the Parsha we have just discussed. It gives us the means to prevent the slow descent we have spoken of. For if, when confronted with the opportunity to do something only slightly untoward, knowing the road down which it leads, we immediately reject it, then our journey towards spiritual decay will finish before it even begins. This is how we must view those things that hover on the border of wrong. The acts that according to the strict letter of the law are not truly a sin, but we know are not truly right for us. It is easy to convince ourselves that they are only minor and can be no harm. But we have to think not of the act itself, but of the direction it may set us on. Yes, it is not so bad. No, it is not strictly contravening any rules. But is it really who and where we want to be? Is it the beginning of something great or the beginning of something that will keep us from greatness? The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. What that first step is, will determine the nature of the journey we are taking.

*May this Shabbos be the type of beginning that we need*

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Parshas Acharei Mos/Kedoshim

The Torah tells us to do something that is seemingly impossible (19:18). If someone hurt you in some way, you are not allowed to “repay” him for it and you cannot even bear a grudge against him for upsetting you. And if this is not enough, you should love him like yourself. Yes, that very person who upset you, not only can you not take revenge or even harbor any negative feelings in your heart towards him, but you should love him completely! How can the Torah expect us to do this? The nature of people is the exact opposite – revenge is sweet!

The answer lies at the end of the verse. “You should not take revenge and you should not bear a grudge against the members of your people, you should love your fellow as yourself – I am Hashem.” Hashem can give us such an instruction. We are able to behave in an angelic fashion. Why? Because Hashem created us and injected us with the capability of succeeding (R’ Shimshon Pinkus). Hashem knows we can do it. We just need to act on it. No-one said it is easy but it can be done.

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Crossroads

In the first of this week’s parshios- Acharai mos, we find a description of the temple service that was carried out on the high holy day of atonement- Yom Kippur.

The priest was required to select two identical goats, then he was to cast lots in order to determine the fate of each goat- one was chosen to be used as a sin offering, to be part of the process of enabling the Jewish nation to obtain national atonement. The second goat was sent out into a harsh wilderness.

The commentators offer the following explanation regarding the above service and thereby explain why the message contained is so appropriate for Yom Kippur. These two goats were identical. They looked the same, had lived similar life experiences, had similar qualities, the same needs and yet whilst one attained the ultimate accomplishment (for a goat)- being instrumental in obtaining atonement for the whole Jewish nation, the other was cast away into absolute isolation- symbolic of being guilty of abject failure. The message is clear- the package of abilities and limitations that makes up who we are, offers us the opportunity to choose which path we will take- the path to success or to failure- it’s in our hands!

R’ Ezer Pine

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Pirkei Avos