Acharei Mot / K’doshim

Leviticus 16:1-20:27

Rabbi David Hoffman, Scholar-in-Residence, Development Department, JTS

Theirs are more pleasant than ours!

Healthy (and Maybe Even Holy) Ambivalence

Building identity is complicated and sometimes painful work. This is true both on an individual level and when it comes to nations. What makes thinking about identity even more complicated is the fact that identity is really never completely "formed." Sure, a national identity should have core commitments. But I would suggest that we shift our understanding of identity from something that is fixed to a subjective process by which one group comes to recognize itself as being different from other groups. Understood in these terms, identity is dynamic—always emerging and continually being transformed over time.

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Tazria/Metzora

Leviticus 12:1-15:33

This week's commentary was written by Professor Arnold M. Eisen, chancellor, JTS

The Baal Shem Tov, seeking the sort of symbolic meaning in this week's section of Leviticus that we too search out, found the laws of scaling and scalding, bodily discharge, and fungus in the warp and woof of fabric suggestive of the need for repentance and humility.

"Let not a person say in his heart that he is greater than his fellow, that he serves God with greater devekut [devotion], for he is just like the rest of the creatures created by God for the purpose of His service, and God gave his fellow intelligence just as God bestowed it on him. And [indeed] in what is he more important than a worm? For a worm also serves the Creator, may His name be blessed, with all its intelligence and strength, and Man is also a lowly worm, as is written in Psalm 22 [verse 7], 'For I am a worm and not a man . . . '" (Sefer Baal Shem Tov, M'tzora, 9).

Focus on the body—its pains and sores, its frequent need for healing and repair, all of these pointing toward mortality—brings thoughts such as the Baal Shem Tov's to mind. Pretense does not hold up well in the face of unbearable itching, oozing, or boils. When the skin that normally marks the boundary between each of us and the rest of creation breaks down, the rest of the self may break with it. Ridges and crevices that appear in surfaces of flesh that are normally smooth may disrupt our sense of at-homeness in the world. We fear that discoloration on the outside of the body will signal to everyone we meet that something inside us is not right. We are discomfited, uneasy in that skin.

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Shemini

Leviticus 9:1-11:47

By Rabbi David Levy, Director of Admissions for the Rabbinical School and the H.L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music in Between the Lines from the Jewish Theological Seminary

Aaron's Silence

 

ויקרא פרק י פסוק טז- יז

וְאֵת שְׂעִיר הַחַטָּאת דָּרֹשׁ דָּרַשׁ מֹשֶׁה וְהִנֵּה שֹׂרָף וַיִּקְצֹף עַל אֶלְעָזָר וְעַל אִיתָמָר בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן הַנּוֹתָרִם לֵאמֹר: מַדּוּעַ לֹא אֲכַלְתֶּם אֶת הַחַטָּאת בִּמְקוֹם הַקֹּדֶשׁ כִּי קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים הִוא וְאֹתָהּ נָתַן לָכֶם לָשֵׂאת אֶת עֲוֹן הָעֵדָה לְכַפֵּר עֲלֵיהֶם לִפְנֵי ה

Leviticus 10:16–17

[16] And Moses diligently inquired for the goat of the sin-offering, and, behold, it was burnt; and he was angry with Eleazar and with Ithamar, the sons of Aaron that were left saying: [17] "Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, seeing it is most holy, and He hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord . . ."

ויקרא רבה (וילנא) פרשה יג

ויקצוף על אלעזר ועל איתמר וכיון שכעס נתעלמה ממנו הלכה א"ר הונא בשלשה מקומות כעס משה ונתעלמה ממנו הלכה ואלו הן בשבת ובכלי מתכות ואונן... באונן מנין שנאמר ויקצוף על אלעזר ועל איתמר וכיון שכעס נתעלמה ממנו הלכה שאונן אסור לאכול בקדשים

Va-yikra Rabbah Parashah 13

And he (Moses) was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, and on account of his anger his knowledge of halakhah departed from him. Rabbi Huna said, in three places Moses got angry and his knowledge of halakhah departed from him. They are (related to) Shabbat, metal tools, and the laws of an onen (one who lost a close relative but has not yet buried the dead) . . . From whence do we know this in regard to the onen? As it is written: "And he (Moses) was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar," and on account of his anger his knowledge of halakhah departed from him. Specifically, that an onen is forbidden from eating from sacrifices.
 
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Passover Day Eight

Deuteronomy 14:22 - 16:17 & Numbers 28:19 - 28:25; maf: Numbers 28:19-25
Haftarah: Isaiah 10:32 - 12:6   

This week's commentary was written by Dr. Alan Cooper, Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies and Provost, JTS.
Of all the extra festival days that we celebrate in Diaspora (yom tov sheni shel galuyot), perhaps the most irksome is the eighth day of Pesah. The second day of Sukkot adds to the delight of the holiday when the weather cooperates; the second day of Shemini Atzeret brings us the joy of Simhat Torah as a day unto itself. Even the second seder has its pleasures, except perhaps for those who have to prepare the meal and clean up afterward. But the eighth day of Pesah? Enough already! Bring on the pizza and pasta. We might wish that we were in Israel, where we could enjoy the conviviality of Mimouna together with our Moroccan neighbors.1 The mere thought of traditional delicacies like moufleta and zaban makes my mouth water.

From its inception, Reform Judaism did away with the added festival days. The Breslau rabbinical conference of 1846 resolved that "second-day festivals and the eighth day of the Pesah festival, respectively, as well as the ninth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, have no more validity for our time."2 Beginning about 50 years ago, there was serious discussion in the Conservative Movement of the possible elimination of yom tov sheni, culminating with the publication in 1969 of three teshuvot (responsa) approved by the Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.3 The most lenient of the three, written by Rabbis Philip Sigal and Abraham J. Ehrlich, ruled that the observance of yom tov sheni (except for Rosh Hashanah) should be regarded as a custom (minhag) rather than an obligation, with the particulars to be decided by the rabbi of each congregation. Arguing that the controversies, practical considerations, and supporting explanations underlying the institution no longer obtained, they proposed doing away with the additional festival days "in order to provide relief to those who no longer find in [them] spiritual enrichment, and to those who for socio-economic reasons find it is not feasible to observe the second day of yom tov." Nevertheless, they affirmed the value of continued observance "as an expression of personal piety," a stringency (chumrah) that might be a source of blessing.

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