SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL

AND SAY TO THEM: WHEN YOU COME TO THE LAND WHICH I AM GIVING YOU, AND YOU REAP

ITS HARVEST, YOU SHALL BRING TO THE PRIEST AN OMER OF THE BEGINNING OF YOUR

REAPING.

 (Vayikra 23:10)

The world is judged at four

times: On Passover [it is judged] for grain…

(Mishnah

Rosh Hashana 1:2)

We learned: R. Yehuda said in the

name of R. Akiva: Why does the Torah say that the omer should be brought during

Passover? Because Passover is a time for grain. The Holy One blessed be He

said: "Bring me an omer [of grain] on Passover so that I might bless the grain

in the fields for you.

Parts of the commandment's

rationale: That we contemplate the great act of kindness that the blessed Lord performs

towards His creations, renewing grain for their sustenance each and every year.

Therefore it is proper that we offer some of it to Him in order that we

remember His great kindness and beneficence before we partake of it, and so

that through our proper deeds performed before Him we may be worthy and He will

bless our grain and God's fondness for us will be perfected, so that He in His

great beneficence will desire that his creations be blessed. We are commanded

to do it on the second day of Passover rather than on the first in order to

avoid mixing up one joyous event with another, for the first day is devoted to

remembrance of the great miracle that He, may He be blessed, took us out of

slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy.

(Sefer

HaHinukh commandment 302)

And live by them – and Not to Die by Them

Rami Pinchover

In total, words based upon the Hebrew root

KDSh ["holy"] appear about 700 times in Scripture. As would be

expected, the root appears more times (125) in Vayikra than in any other book

of the Bible, and forty of those appearances are found in parashat Emor. Ezekiel

number – 90 – of appearances of the root.

When we talk about holiness in Scripture, we

immediately turn our attention to chapters 17-19 of Vayikra [known to Bible

scholars as the "Book of Holiness," and which takes up parts of the

parshiyot Aharei Mot and Kedoshim]. However, it is surprising to discover that

the root KDSh only appears four times in the Book of Holiness, and a mere nine

times in all of parashat Kedoshim!

This fact cries for explanation and requires

us to look into the subject of holiness in parashat Emor, which, as we shall

see, treats holiness in all of its aspects.

Let us begin with the concluding verse of the

section on the holiness of the Sanctuary and its functionaries, a verse that

was decisively influential in Jewish history generally and for the notion of Kiddush

Hashem ["Sanctification of the Name"] in particular:

You shall not desecrate My Holy Name.

sanctifies you. (Vayikra 22:32)

The

from the Book of Holiness: You

by them. I am the Lord (Vayikra 18:5).

During

the period of persecutions in the Land of Israel, this difficulty was addressed

in a well known halakhic drasha:

And

live by them – and not to

die by them. R. Yishmael would say: "On what basis can you say that if

they told an individual that if he worships idols in privacy he will not be

killed, that he should transgress [the prohibition of idolatry] and not be

killed? It is derived from the verse: And live by them – and not to die

by them. Should he even obey them [if they tell him to worship idols] in a

public setting? It is derived from the verse: You shall not desecrate

My Holy Name. I shall be sanctified

– If you sanctify My Name, then I will also sanctify My Name through you. (Sifra Aharei Mot

13:13, corrected according to the Asasmani 66 ms., pg. 374).

According

to R.Yishmael's interpretation, and in opposition to the verse and

live by them and its comprehensive

application mentioned in the beginning of the passage from Sifra, the

most important verse in our parasha commands us to sacrifice our lives for the

public "sanctification of the Name." Furthermore, R. Yishmael holds

that the holiness of the Holy One blessed be He is dependent upon His Name

being sanctified by His creations.

Forty

years ago Prof. Ithamar Gruenwald proved that the notion of

"sanctification of the Name" in its martyrological sense is absent

from Scripture. The notion of "desecration of the Name" is found in

our verse and in many other verses throughout the Bible, but the expression

"sanctification of the Name" simply does not appear in Scripture.

Gruenwald

states that: "God's holy Name is the name that indicates His holiness, and

the desecration of his name is the desecration of His holiness. In the life of

the nation, God's holiness is not conceived of as a metaphysical category, but

rather as the manifestation of Divinity in the everyday life of the believer. God's

holiness in not just one aspect of Divinity, it is the very essence of the

experience of Divinity, and, therefore, every desecration of the holy is seen

as an insult to Divinity itself. Sanctification of the Name, in contrast,

consists of any action that adds to this holiness and strengthens it" (Gruenwald Molad

214).

Thus

we find that according to the plain meaning of Scripture and the first speaker

in the midrash from Sifra, there is no commandment to voluntarily give

up one's life, neither for the sake of the observance of the commandments nor

for the sake of the Name's holiness. To the contrary: in the verse just preceding

that which we have been studying, we read, And you shall keep My

commandments and perform them, I am the Lord (Vayikra 22:31). This verse demonstrates that as far as the

plain meaning of Scripture is concerned, the observance of the commandments itself

constitutes "sanctification of the Name," as Sifra tells us:

And live by them – and not to die by them.

This

idea finds concrete expression in the story of blasphemer, which appears in the

end of our parasha. We might have thought that God's greatness would not be at

all affected by such things, not even when a person "blesses" His

Name in public. What is mere human speech in comparison to God's power,

considering that God's word brings on the night and His utterance creates the

heavens, the earth, and all their inhabitants?

It

is strange that Moses stands there seemingly bewildered, not knowing what to do

with the blasphemer. It becomes all the more strange when we recall that these

events follow upon the terrible events of the sin of the Golden calf, a

paradigm case of "desecration of the Name." Moses did not hesitate

for a moment in that earlier situation; he immediately ordered the Levites: Let

friend, every man his kinsman (Shemot 32:27). Despite all of this, Moses did not know what to do with the blasphemer.

He had to ask God what the law was regarding those who cursed Him. God answers

with anger and great force: Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and all

community shall stone him (Vayikra 24a:14).

We

are amazed by the punishment's ferocity and it manner of execution, which calls

for the participation of each and every member of the Israelite community. However,

it is not really unusual among biblical punishments. We are also left

speechless by other events, such as the story of Cain and Abel, the Flood, the

Akeda, the killing of the Egyptian firstborn, the story of the man who gathered

wood on the Sabbath, the law of the rebellious son, the law of the seduced town

annihilation of Amalek, the story of Elijah at Mount Carmel, the wrathful

prophecies found in the literary prophets, and other numerous and difficult

passages. We cannot understand or explain the meanings of those events,

prophecies, and laws. They do not distinguish between the sinner and the

righteous, between the guilty and the innocent, between the wicked man and his

neighbor, between the aged and the youth, between women and children, between

infants and nursing babies.

In

the context of an equally shocking and impenetrable episode, the Sifra treats

the deaths of Aaron's sons Nadav and Avihu (the reason for their dying is not clear – see what

my teacher Prof. Avigdor Shinan wrote in Shabbat Shalom issue 77,

parashat Shmini 6759):

"Aaron stood and spoke, wondering: 'Woe unto me, have I and my sons so

transgressed that I deserve this?' Moses visited him and consoled him. He said:

'Aaron my brother, on Sinai I was told: In the future I shall sanctify this

house, I shall sanctify it with a great man. I assumed that either I or you

would sanctify the house, now I find that your sons were greater than I – for

it was through them that the house was sanctified'" (Sifra Shmini 1, s.v.

vayehi bayom).

This

daring midrash claims that Nadav and Avihu did not sin at all. It teaches us that

a series of sacrifices were preordained to be offered on the day of the

Tabernacle's sanctification; these were the sacrifices listed in parashat Emor.

The list was to include a human sacrifice – not the sacrifice of some anonymous

nobody, but rather of two people who were close to God.

A

large part of our parasha is devoted to the holiness of the festivals,

beginning with that of the Sabbath. It is interesting to note that, similarly

to the role played by the deaths of Aaron's sons in the sanctification of the Tabernacle,

the Sabbath was also sanctified by the stoning of the man who collected wood on

the Sabbath (Bamidbar

15:32), as the Mekhilta

explains: "Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

R. Yitzhak says: 'He blessed it with manna and sanctified it with [the death

of] the wood-gatherer'" (Mekhilta Yitro BaHodesh 7). The manna and the wood-gatherer stand on the same plane. This midrash

does not at all mention his sin and its punishment, but rather only the need to

sanctify the Sabbath through the death of a human being.

In

the beginning of this article I stated that parashat Emor is distinguished in

that it treats all aspects of holiness. Our parasha deal with the

holiness of place – the Temple and its functionaries; with the holiness of time

– the Sabbath and the festivals; and with the holiness beyond time and space – the

holiness of God.

Despite

all of the difficulties involved with it, we must remember that Scripture is

ambivalent in its attitude towards human sacrifice (see the fascinating

analysis of the Akeda story and other materials in Prof. Yisrael Knohl's new

book, Emunot HaMikra, pg. 109 passim). While human sacrifice was the target of

especially severe condemnation in parashat Kedoshim (Vayikra 20:1-5), we also discover that there is a

scriptural and midrashic basis for the thesis that the three most holiest

values of the biblical world, the holiness of the Name, of the Sabbath, and of

the Temple, could not have been sanctified without human sacrifice. To put it

in less categorical terms: study of the holiness passages of the Bible reveals

that there seems to be a connection between the sanctification of fundamental

values and a death penalty dealt out either directly by God or in accordance

with His explicit command.

These

matters are opaque and difficult to speak of, to write and to read about. Let

us then conclude with cheerful and pleasant words from the Mekhilta cited

above:

Therefore

the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it – He blessed it with manna and sanctified

it with manna; these are the words of R. Yishmael. R. Akiva says: He blessed it

with manna and sanctified it with blessing. R. Yitzhak says: He blessed it with

manna and sanctified it with [the death of] the wood-gatherer. R. Shimon bar

Yohai says: He blessed it with manna and sanctified it with the luminaries. R.

Shimon ben Yahud of Kfar Akko says in the name of R. Shimon: He blessed it with

manna and sanctified it with human good will. (Mekhilta Yitro baHodesh 7)

These words

people and on all days, whether profane or holy.

Rami Pinchover

is an engineer.

Was the Holocaust a Preface

and Condition for Redemption and Independence?

In the past, grave things were said in

connection with the Holocaust: There were those who claimed that the Holocaust

was a preparation, a kind of price that the Jewish People had to pay in

exchange for the creation of the State of Israel. There were those who clamed

that the State of Israel serves as a kind of compensation for the Holocaust.

They also claimed that this was the only way to cause the Jews, or rather to

force them, to immigrate to the Land of Israel. These are very grave words,

which are difficult to hear.

(From

Harav Yehudah Amital's "Af al Pi shemeitzar umeimar li",

quoted in M. Miyah's Olam Banuy, Hareiv, Uvanuy, pg. 64)

There is no accomplishment or blessing in this

world that can compensate for the burning of those sinless multitudes of

people. All of these words about the creation of the State in the wake of the

Holocaust – they are hollow words. Neither the actual State of Israel, which

occasionally must bleed to survive, nor the ideal State of Israel described in the

prophecy of each man beneath his vine and beneath his fig-tree can begin

to justify what the Jewish People went through during the years of the

Holocaust.

(HaRav

Amital's lecture on the Yom Kaddish HaKlali – Ot Ve'Eid, Perek Iyyun

Ve'Meida, quoted in Miyah op cit pg. 64)

Is There Religious

Significance to National Independence?

The religious

establishment has struggled to shape the religious character of Yom Ha'atzmaut

and Yom Yerushalayim, and this issue continues to engage various sectors of the

religious community. It cannot be solved without coming to an understanding of

the religious value of the historical events associated with those holidays.

Let it be said at the outset: We are not dealing here with the significance of

a "prophetic vision" or "messianic destiny" involving

"the Kingdom of Israel." Rather, we must investigate the significance

of the political creation of the actual State of Israel, which came into

existence in 1948, and the significance of the manner and conditions of its

creation, its wars and conquests. The religious attitudes towards these days

can only be based upon historical understanding, and not upon study of the

halakhic tradition, which never contemplated such situations…

It is impossible to

avoid a clear decision regarding Yom Ha'atzmaut. This day cannot be given a

partial evaluation. One view has it that it is not a holiday, but rather a day

of mourning: the day the Jewish People rebelled against the Torah. Another view

holds that it is particularly apt for us to say the berakha of she'hehiyanu

and to recite the Hallel and mark Yom Ha'atzmaut as a holiday, for it is

the day when the Jewish People opened the door to the possibility of fulfilling

the Torah – a gate that it may enter, if the people decide to apply themselves

to observance of the Torah. This view is not subverted by the fact that the

majority of the present generation does not seek the Torah's observance.

(Y. Leibowitz, Yahadut, Am Yehudi U'midinat Yisrael

pp. 90, 91, 96, 97)

Certainly we view the State of Israel as a

healing process. I cannot imagine what would have happened to the Jewish People

if the state had not arisen. It was so necessary for the rehabilitation of the

survivors! When I think of the refugees from destruction, if they had to

continue wandering from shore to shore, not finding a safe-haven in the Land of

Israel, what would have happened to the Jewish People? In this sense, of course

there is a connection…

The first expression of

independence was "bringing home the individuals." There is nothing

greater than a home… not only individuals who came and found a home after

years spent in concentration camps and death camps.

(HaRav Amital, as quoted in M. Miyah, Olam Banuy,

Hareiv, U'Vanuy, pg. 68)

Rabotai, it may be that all who spoke of "the beginning

of the flowering of our redemption" erred. It is possible that the

disciples of the Gaon of Vilna erred; it is possible that that the disciples of

the BeSh"T erred; it may be that the disciples of Rabbi Akiva Eiger erred

when they spoke of "the beginning of the flowering of our redemption"

as described in books. It is possible that Rav Kook was wrong; it is possible

that Rav Charlop was wrong. Rabbi Akiva, the greatest of the Tanaim, was also

wrong.

(Rabbi

Amital, "To Hear the Voice of a Crying Child", in Moshe Maya's book, A

World Built, Destroyed, and Built, pg. 40).

…with independence we

gained control of ourselves, we achieved freedom of choice. We are not

dependent upon others, and the process of redemption – can be carried out to

its completion, if so we please.

Redemption is not one of the 613 commandments, and the halakhic

meaning of the Redemption lies in political independence, in the possibility of

observing those commandments which require sovereignty and territoriality in the

Land of Israel. The beginning of the redemption is the possibility of observing

the commandments through the sovereignty granted us. The Redemption itself is

the actual observance of the commandments.

(Dov

Rappel: Pitchei Shearim, p. 213)

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