Parashat Emor
Iyar 20, 5772 ~ May 12, 2012
by Alex Hart
This parsha is always read around the time of Lag B’Omer, which we
celebrated this past week. We may recall that a fatal illness affected 12,000
of Rabbi Akiva’s talmidim, with no more contracting the disease after this date.
The Talmud in Yevamot teaches us that this illness struck the students due to a
lack of respect for each other and as such, many attribute this to divine
punishment. But Rabbi Yosef Telushkin, in his book ‘A Code of Jewish Ethics’
elucidates with a more accessible interpretation for these deaths: “Bad manners, epitomized by a refusal to show
one’s colleagues honor and respect, causes animosity amongst people.”
Therefore, when Rabbi Akiva and his disciples joined Bar Kochba’s rebellion
against Rome, it is possible that this brewing ill will made it impossible for
the students to coordinate their efforts and this made them more vulnerable to the
Roman attacks which resulted in their deaths. This theme of antagonism sadly,
is recurrent in our past, with a range of tragic consequences. For example,
during the 2nd World War, Leo Baeck, the leading Reform rabbi in
Germany, sent Rabbi Frank Rosenthal on a mission to the Lodz Ghetto Jews, with
the aim of sharing a suggestion as to how some could be saved from the Nazis.
The Lodz leaders would not listen to him. They harbored a bitterness towards
the German, recalling an offensive response they had had when they had visited
Berlin years earlier and Rosenthal’s mission was a failure.
Care of speech is a recurrent motif
throughout the sedra and extends beyond our close circle: The following commandment
appears in (Lev. 22:32). כב פרק , in לב פסוק: “ישראל בני בתוך ונקדשתי קדשי שם את תחללו ולא “You shall not profane my holy
name that I may be sanctified in the midst of the Israelite people.” This is the basis for the concept of
Kiddush HaShem (sanctifying G-d’s name) and Chillul HaShem (profaning G-d’s
name). The term Chillul HaShem extends beyond the Jewish nation and is applied
to behavior that brings Jews into disrepute. Chief Rabbi J.H. Hertz, writing in
1936, had strong words on this subject: “Every Israelite holds the honor of his
faith and of his entire People in his hands. A single Jew’s offence can bring
shame on the whole House of Israel…Wherever Jews are guilty of conduct unworthy
of their Faith, there the wild beast in man is unchained against Israel.”
Help is at hand. The parsha opens with the
prerequisites of a Kohen. Each is to be physically perfect. My Dad joked
painfully that my youngest brother would never have made Kohen (being a Yisrael
notwithstanding) as he was born without a left hand. In this material world, yet
also an age where we are taught to be accepting, how are we to understand these
requirements? Those who are physically disabled were barred from the avodah? Rabbi
Aryeh Carmell z’ts’l used to say that acts of Kiddush HaShem and Chillul HaShem
are not defined by how they affect non-Jews’ opinion of us, but whether they
are authentic Jewish values. Kiddush HaShem is doing the right thing, and Chillul
HaShem is doing the wrong thing, whether our neighbors approve or not. How then
can we understand that we are to value our words, yet dismiss the impaired?
Rabbi Dardik helped to explain, advising that conversely,
no Kohen is to be too eye-catching either. A Kohen was to be the stage manager,
part of the wallpaper, ensuring that those bringing sacrifices could, without
triangulation, focus with total concentration.
In this past week’s ‘J’, Ira Israel examines the ‘crazybusy’ era
in which we all seem to live. If we were to take the time to speak, not tweet, focus
not post, the Spoken word would not become a lost art. The Chief Rabbi advises
“Non-Jews respect Jews that respect Judaism” and thankfully, we have Shabbat
and the chagim in which to switch off, bed in, focus and connect face to face. A time in which to value that which is
important to us as we complete the final
days of the Omer and in which we are able to keep the maxim
with which Rabbi Akiva is attributed uppermost כמוך לרעך ואהבת; a time for growth and introspection.
