Parashat Emor
Leviticus 21:1 - 24:23

Topics (click on any link)
Synopsis of the Torah portion
Spiritual insights into Parashat Emor
Key verses
Creative Midrash for Parashat Emor

Synopsis                                      return to top 
Emor covers rules of behavior for priests, instructions for the acceptance and the consumption of the sacred donations, and sacred times.
Chapter 21
These are some rules for the priests handed down by God through Moses. No priest shall defile himself for any dead person, shall shave smooth any part of his head, or shall marry a harlot or a divorcee, only a virgin.  No priest may offer sacrifices if he is deformed in any way: the blind, the crippled or the hunchbacked. The priests shall not profane the sacred places of the Lord.

Chapter 22
These are the instructions for the sacred donations (the food offerings). No priest, who is unclean, for any reason, shall eat from it. He shall not eat anything that was torn by beasts or died, thus becoming unclean. As soon as the sun sets, he shall be clean and eat of it.
No lay person is to eat of the sacred donations. A series of conditions are spelled out as to precisely who may eat of it and penalties for those who eat of it unwittingly.
Instructions for the conditions, by which a priest may accept a sacrificial offering, are laid down. The animal may have no blemishes or other physical defects. When an animal is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days and afterwards it is acceptable as an offering. No animal shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young. All thanksgiving offerings must be eaten on the same day, nothing shall be left until morning.

Chapter 23
The attention is now focused upon sacred occasions. This chapter contains a summary of the laws to be observed for Shabbat and the major holidays: Passover, the seven weeks of the Omer, Shavuot, Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret. These are presented in the same order that we celebrate these holidays in the course of the year.

Chapter 24
Instructions are given to the priests to maintain an eternal fire before the Lord, in the Tent of Meeting. Further rules are initiated to bring twelve loaves of bread to be placed on the table, before the Lord. They belong to Aaron and his sons to be eaten in the sacred area, as they are most holy. A story pursues about an Israelite who was placed in custody, over an accusation that he pronounced the holy Name in blasphemy. A decision by the Lord was expected, and God decided that the blasphemer must be stoned to death. The chapter concludes with series of laws concerning the killing or maiming of other people, and it was enacted that the guilty party must pay: eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

Spiritual insights into Parashat Emor                          return to top 
Emor is known to contain two distinct divisions.  Chapters 21 and 22 focuses on any personal defect that would render a person unfit to offer the Lord's offerings by fire. Included in this category are persons who are defiled or impure by reason of being in contact with anyone deceased, except for close members of the family. The Torah brings to us an important concept here, "But he shall not defile himself as a kinsman by marriage, and so profane himself. " (Lev. 21:4) Profaning oneself, the opposing side of holiness, is precisely where the Torah prohibits us from going. To be close to God is to be holy.

So now the Parashah categorizes all of those who are disqualified to make the holy offerings because of physical defects--the blind, the lame, hunchbacks and dwarfs and others that exhibit an array of unpleasing features.  The Torah is not persecuting those unfortunates because of social inequality, but merely to point towards perfection as an ideal of holiness. Not only are people invalidated from making offerings, but the offering itself (the ox, the lamb, etc.) must be perfect as well.

Chapters 23 and 24 contain the laws regarding the three major Jewish festivals and included here are the laws about observing Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Not only are people, animals and objects subject to levels of holiness, but here the Torah is teaching us that time also is to be separated between holy and profane. Leviticus 23:1 point out, "These are My fixed times, the fixed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions.  

Key verses:                                           return to top 
This page is not a commentary on the text, but a chance for you to express your own comments and feelings in order to gain deeper insight into your own life.

Leviticus 21:1
The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron and say to them: None shall defile himself for any [dead] persons among his kin.
Food for thought:
1. Why do you think a priest would defile himself in the presence of a dead person?
2. Do you think the Torah is being too demanding over the purity of the priests?
3. In what way is this rule carried out today?

Leviticus 21:17
Speak to Aaron and say: No man of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God.
Food for thought:
1. What's wrong with a person who has a defect that he cannot offer food of his God?
2. Why must the priest be physically perfect?
3. Do you think there are certain duties which priests can carry out today? Was sacrifice the only duty he had?

Leviticus 22:6
The person who touches such shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat of the sacred donations unless he has washed his body in water.
Food for thought:
1. The "such" here is any of the forms of uncleanness previously discussed. What does it mean to you to be unclean?
2. By what means do we wash our bodies in water today in order to purify uncleanness?
3. Why do you think an unclean person may not eat of the holy donations, the food set aside for the priests?

Leviticus 22:19
It must be acceptable in your favor, be a male without blemish, from cattle or sheep or goats.
Food for thought:
1. One of the duties of the priest is to deem sacrifices acceptable. Why must the sacrificial animal be perfect, without blemish?
2. What do you think would happen if a priest slaughtered an imperfect animal?
3. Why should the sacrifice be only a male? What's wrong with a female? Are there any instances in which a female animal is sacrificed?

Leviticus 23:2
Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: These are My fixed times, the fixed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions.
Food for thought:
1. What do you think "My fixed times" actually means? Does God have times that are fixed and times that are not fixed?
2. If God has fixed times why should we, His people proclaim them as sacred occasions?
3. Do you think that periods of time could be made sacred, like people or objects?

Leviticus 23:39
Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the yield of your land you shall observe the festival of the Lord [to last] seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day.
Food for thought:
1. Which holiday is the Torah referring to specifically in this verse?
2. Which month is the seventh month? Which is the first month?
3. Of all the holidays listed in Chapter 23, only this particular holiday is mentioned twice, both in this verse and in verses 34-36. Why only this particular holiday?

Leviticus 24:5-8
You shall take choice flour and bake of it twelve loaves, two tenths of a measure for each loaf. Place them on the pure table before the Lord in two rows, six to a row... He shall arrange them before the Lord regularly every Sabbath day--it is a commandment for all time on the part of the Israelites.
Food for thought:
1. In what way do we acknowledge the twelve loaves today?
2. What do you think "two rows, six to a row" actually signifies?
3. What happened to those twelve loaves after they were placed on the table of the sanctuary?

Leviticus 24:19-20
If anyone maims his fellow, as he has done so shall it be done to him: a fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.
Food for thought:
1. Do you think such retribution is fair treatment to the guilty party?
2. Laws of civil damage required fair payment to the injured party. Do you think that such physical punishment is just? Or is it only symbolic of other kinds of penalties?
3. In view of the above verse, how would you vote today on the death penalty?

Additional questions to ponder:
1. What is it about the story, a verse, a word that seems to resonate with some aspect of your life?
2. Is there something about the story that rings a bell?
3. Can you recall experiences in your life when you have experienced something similar to this story?
4. How would you describe the characters in the story? Who do you know who's like them?
5. Can you personally identify with any one of the characters in the story? Which one?
6. Can you find a similarity between yourself and all the characters in the story?
 

Reflections:
The Rabbis of old would meditate on such questions, sometimes for weeks at a time, to help find deeper meaning in the verses. You may wish to contemplate just one or a few of these questions at a time, rather than tackling them all.
In what ways we any of your responses to the questions personally meaningful?

Suggestion:
Some of the questions here are of a personal nature which in some cases could be emotionally upsetting. If so, try relaxing your body as much as possible and takes long slow breaths of air. That usually helps to relieve anxiety.

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What have you learned so far in Leviticus about holy and mundane? About clean and unclean? About purity? About sin? What does all this have to do with modern life? What does all this have to do with your life? Do you think that Leviticus is applicable in any way to how Jews live today? Do you think that Leviticus is worth studying? Or is it just a handbook for rabbis or priests? Does the Book of Leviticus help us in any way fulfill the role that God assigned us to be a nation of priests? Are we behaving as priests to the rest of the world? Would you recommend others to read Leviticus?

Spend some time thinking about these questions. After you mentally process them for a day or two, it could be helpful to record your conclusions in a journal. It's not important to have correct answers; it's more important to wrestle with the narrative. In time this process can teach you to change many of your unproductive thoughts and beliefs for new ones that work more effectively.