Emor

In this parsha

Emor sets out special laws for the kohanim, limits on contact with the dead, restrictions on marriage, and the physical blemishes that disqualify a priest or an animal from Temple service, with added stringencies for the Kohen Gadol. It then presents the cycle of sacred times: Shabbos, Pesach, the Omer count, Shavuos, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkos. The Torah commands the kindling of the menorah and the weekly showbread, and closes with the episode of the blasphemer and the laws of just recompense for bodily injury.

Themes

• Purity from Torah's pure words
• Mesirus nefesh, sanctifying the Name
• Three holinesses: Hashem, Torah, Yisrael
• Shabbos, gateway to the festivals
• Bnei Yisrael as Hashem's witnesses
• Refining the body to reveal holiness

Must-read teachings

1. 1Purity flows from cleaving to the divine utteranceIn the Midrash: "pure sayings, etc." (cf. Tehillim 12:7, "the sayings of Hashem are pure sayings"). The Midrash on the parsha opens with the verse describing Hashem's "sayings" as pure, linking the theme of purity to the divine utterance. F…תרל"ב
2. 2Torah's pure sayings draw all to taharahIn the Midrash: "The sayings of Hashem are pure sayings…" — "the living God and eternal King…" — children who know how to expound the Torah, forty-nine "faces" of purity and forty-nine "faces" of impurity… "You, Hashem, shall guard them" — …תרל"ג
3. 3Refining the body to reveal holinessOn the verse "and I shall be sanctified among Bnei Yisrael" (Vayikra 22:32), our Sages expounded: give over yourself and sanctify My Name. Chazal derive from this verse the obligation of mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) — giving up one's ver…תרמ"ז
4. 4Three holinesses: Hashem, Torah, YisraelOn the verse "and I shall be sanctified among Bnei Yisrael," to which is juxtaposed the parashah of the Moadim (festivals) — this is to hint that one merits kedushah by means of the Moadim. The Torah places the festivals right after "v'nikd…תרנ"א
5. 5Shabbos as the gateway to the festivalsConcerning the placing of Shabbos before the festivals. The Sefas Emes asks why the parsha lists Shabbos at the head of the festivals, and what this ordering teaches. As it is written, it is "the first of the holy convocations." Shabbos sta…תרמ"א
6. 6Showbread, Shabbos, and the inner TorahIn the passage of the lechem hapanim (showbread): "On the day of Shabbos he shall arrange it..." (Vayikra 24:8). The Sefas Emes opens on the mitzvah of arranging the showbread on the Shulchan specifically on Shabbos, which he will read as a…תרמ"ח
7. 7Bnei Yisrael as living witness above natureOn the verse, "And I shall be sanctified in the midst of Bnei Yisrael, I am Hashem… who brings you out of the land of Mitzrayim…" (Vayikra 22:32–33). The Sefas Emes takes up the mitzvah of kiddush Hashem (sanctifying Hashem's Name), which t…תרמ"ט
8. 8Aharon's bitachon elevates Yisrael above natureIn the Midrash: what is written above? "if there be among them a ba'al ov (a necromancer)..." (cf. Vayikra 20:27) — this is the meaning of "and you shall be only above" (Devarim 28:13) — to inquire of the Urim VeTumim above and not below th…תרנ"ג