(link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor A person who touches these shall be unclean till evening  and shall not eat of the sacred donations Until he bathes his body in water, And the sun sets and he becomes clean (Vayikra 22:6-7)   Until he bathes his body in water – Could it be that he may wash limb by limb? The text instructs "And the sun sets and he becomes clean" – just as the setting sun cleanses his entire body at once, so here, all at once....

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of work; it is a Sabbath unto the LORD in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23, 3)   Shabbat. Means rest, cessation and stoppage from work, and in my opinion it includes study and investigation, from 'I returned and saw under the sun', 'For after I turned back I repented' which is...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor 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 to completion, if so we wish. Redemption is not one of the 613 commandments, and the Halakhic meaning of 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 redemption is the possibility of observing...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor And you shall count for yourselves,  from the morrow of the rest day from the day you bring the omer as a wave offering seven weeks; they shall be complete. (Vayikra 23:15)   The reason why the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded the counting of the Omer was so that every man in Israel was busy with his own harvest and each was in his own granary, and they would forget to make the festival...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and all who heard shall lean their hands on his head. And the entire community shall stone him. (Vayikra 24, 14)   The place of execution had to be outside the Israelite camp (Sanhedrin 42b, "outside the three camps"), outside the city. If the law court itself was outside the city, the place of execution had to be some distance away from it, so that it should not...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor 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 for grain… (Mishnah Rosh Hashana 1:2)   We learned: R. Yehuda said in the name of R. Akiva: Why...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor AND MOSES TOLD TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. SO THEY TOOK THE BLASPHEMER OUTSIDE THE CAMP AND STONED HIM, AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID JUST AS THE LORD HAD COMMANDED MOSES. (Vayikra 24:23)   The place of execution had to be outside the Israelite camp (Sanhedrin 42b, "outside the three camps"), outside the city. If the law court itself was outside the city, the place of execution had to be some...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor ON SIX DAYS WORK MAY BE DONE, BUT ON THE SEVENTH DAY THERE SHALL BE A SABBATH OF COMPLETE REST, A SACRED OCCASION. YOU SHALL DO NO WORK; IT SHALL BE A SABBATH OF THE LORD THROUGHOUT YOUR SETTLEMENTS. (Vayikra 23:3)   Thus Israel too is called holy: Israel is holy unto the Lord (Jeremiah 2:3); and the Sabbath is also called holy: and you shall keep the Sabbath for it is holy unto...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Emor YOU SHALL FAITHFULLY OBSERVE MY COMMANDMENTS: I AM THE LORD. YOU SHALL NOT PROFANE MY HOLY NAME, THAT I MAY BE SANCTIFIED IN THE MIDST OF THE ISRAELITE PEOPLE – I THE LORD WHO SANCTIFY YOU.  (Vayikra 22:31-32)   Profanation of God's Name and Sanctification of God's Name There are other things that are a profanation of the Name of God. When a man, great in the knowledge of the Torah and reputed for...

Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parashat Emor COMMAND THE ISRAELITE PEOPLE TO BRING YOU CLEAR OIL OF BEATEN OLIVES FOR LIGHTING, FOR KINDLING LAMPS REGULARLY. (Vayikra 24: 2)     To bring to you clear oil of beaten olives – This section is repeated, because the menorah is next to the table in order to illuminate the table bearing the lehem ha'panim . Here is explicitly stated that all of this is done for the sake of setting...