Leviticus 21:1-24:3 – Ezekiel 44:15-31 – Luke 17:11-25

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Emor
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
In Summary
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Parashat Emor

1. According to our parasha should purity be a goal of only the priests or of all Israel?

Seth Ben Haim

As we read these words, Israel is celebrating the 60th anniversary of world recognition of a Jewish Homeland in the Land that God gave us long ago. I am celebrating this important date, this year, in the Israeli army, doing active combat reserves in the Mountains of Samaria, the heartland of our nation.

Our passage deals with standards of conduct for Benei Yisrael (The Children of Israel) and in particular the Priests are singled out in their calling to live at an even higher standard of conduct. As he will be a vessel of service for the rest of the people in the Tabernacle of the Almighty, the Priest sets an example to the rest of the people, in his devotion to tahara (Ritual Purity).

The Haftara in Ezekiel 44 gives an image of the priesthood in a 3rd Temple in which the standards of conduct for the priests are raised even further. In our days we can see that elements of these higher standards are already expected of the Jewish People, - this Am kohenim (Nation of Priests), especially amongst those of us who have already been re-gathered up to the Land of Israel. There is no way to understand the scrutiny in the heavens and on earth of this tiny piece of real estate and small people other than that God is allowing our people to be held to higher standards.

As I do my reserve service in the Israeli army and I see the standard of conduct that we are expected to keep compared with the armies of the nations we are in combat with or even many western democratic nations with whom we associate, I understand better the role of the priest. While we are being watched at all times by the nations, we are being given the opportunity to be a light unto the nations, to be a menora shining with a pure light into the darkness of the world around us. This is not to say that at times we do not find tuma (ritual impurity) amidst our army and our people in general, but God is purifying us and supplying us with a pure oil that will shine brightly.

God is calling on the Jewish people to be this mamlechet kohanim and goy qadosh (Kingdom of Priests a Holy Nation). Many of the directives given in our parasha actually state clearly that it is to be taught to the whole of the people, in general, and not just the Priests. This seems to emphasize the expectation that the people as a whole should strive for purity and not expect the Priests alone to be pure. As the Priest could be barred from service due to a tuma until declared tahor, we as well need to search within our lives and see the areas that we must be cleansed so that the King can be Lord over our whole life.

Tuma required distancing and then purification. The Jewish people as a whole have been going through this process of distancing from the Land and going into exile for thousands of years, but we are now beginning to see the change spoken of in Ezekiel 36, here again we have another Emor (22-38):  The LORD is drawing us back and planting us on the ground that He gave our ancestors for his Holy Name Sake.  He is sprinkling clean waters in us and removing our tuma and causing us to become tahor. He is giving us a new heart and a new spirit within us. We are walking more and more according to His Laws and Commandments (Torah) and He is saving us.

We as a people are not worthy of this high calling in and of ourselves, but through the mercy of the Almighty who chose to use and restore our people to the place of being a light unto the Nations. Indeed the State of Israel celebrating it's birthday this week is not a work of perfection that the Jewish people have accomplished but this is a miraculous work in progress that God is cleaning out the tuma that would prevent us from serving as a Kingdom of Priests and making us tahor ultimately through the work accomplished by the Mashiach Yeshua, who is in the work of Tikkun Olam not exclusively but especially in and through our people showing the higher standard that he can establish here on earth.

2. Parashat Emor begins with the command to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that they are to defile themselves by attending to the burial of those relatives who are closest to them - mother, father, son, daughter, brother, and unmarried sister (Leviticus 21:1-4). Is this command obligatory or something they may choose to take upon themselves? What spiritual lessons do we learn from this section of Leviticus?

Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan

Throughout Leviticus the kohanim (priests) are commanded by God to avoid any practices that might compromise the sanctity of the priesthood. They are responsible for the holiest aspects of Jewish life - the rituals performed inside the sanctuary - and must remain ritually pure lest they defile that holiness. Leviticus 21 is concerned with instructing the sons of Aaron on those practices which would lead to them defiling themselves and thus rendering themselves unfit for priestly service.

Primary among those things that make a priest ritually impure and unfit for their priestly duties is contact with dead bodies. However Torah does instruct the priest to defile themselves in particular cases:

None shall defile himself for any person among his kin, except for the relatives closest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; also for a virgin sister, close to him because she has not married, for her he may defile himself.

Leviticus 21:1-3

Thus the kohen shall defile himself to attend to burial of his seven nearest relatives: wife, father, mother, son, daughter, brother, and unmarried sister. Incidentally, these are the seven relatives for whom all Jews are supposed to observe the cycle of mourning rituals (Shiva, Kaddish, etc.). However, our sages have raised the question as to whether Torah is granting the kohen permission to defile himself if he chooses to do so or explicitly commanding him to defile himself. Sefer HaChinuch answers this question for us definitively:

I might have said that by these things mentioned in the Torah portion, they were permitted to defile themselves if they so chose. However, the tradition of interpretation comes to us against the assertion that such an action is in the realm of permissible (reshut). Rather such an action is in the realm of commandment (mitzva) and is thus obligatory.

Thus, when reading this part of the Torah, we might think that the commandment is against priests defiling themselves by contact with a dead body. The Torah then grants them permission if they so choose to attend to the burial of their closest relatives. However, our sages have understood that there are two commandments here: one to avoid contact with dead bodies and another to attend to the burial of their closest relatives.

Joshua Tallent 

Luke 17:11-25 - Hoping for the Kingdom of God

In the beginning portion of our Besora reading we find a story about Yeshua's encounter with ten men with tzara‘at (skin disease). It has only been a few weeks since we read what the Torah has to say about this affliction (in Tazria and Metzora). As Rabbi Jason Sobel pointed out in the Set Table commentary for Metzora,

Thus according to rabbinic tradition, the primary sin that causes the supernatural spiritual affliction of tzara‘at is lashon hara‘, gossip and slander (Numbers 12:1-10). Two other major causes given by our Sages for tzara‘at include ga'ava, arrogance and tzarat ayin, miserliness.

Let's assume for the moment that these ten men were not afflicted with tzara‘at for gossiping, but for being arrogant. They asked Yeshua for pity. That request in and of itself lends the impression that they had learned from their mistakes and had allowed God's instructions to lead them to a change of heart.

However, despite this apparent change of heart, nine of the men neglected to show appreciation for the great gift Yeshua had given them. Only one showed that his experience had truly brought some level of redemption. Yeshua acknowledged that by telling him that it was his trust that brought him deliverance.

In the second portion of our Besora reading, Yeshua talks about the Kingdom of God. His words may seem hard to understand, but the overall message he gives us is clear. When people try to tell us that the Kingdom has come, it is up to us to discern the veracity of their claims. The Kingdom of God, whatever it ends up looking like, will be easy to see. We will all know that we are living in it, and Yeshua's presence and authority will be plain.

That knowledge should give us hope and reassurance. While we may "long to see even one of the days of the Son of Man" now, the promise Yeshua gives us is secure: we will see those days and that Kingdom when the time is right.

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT BEHAR

Leviticus 25:1-26:2
Jeremiah 32:6-27
Luke 18:31-43

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