Emor

Leviticus 21:1−24:23

Dvar Torah by Robert Tornberg, RJE, for ReformJudasim.org

What Would Moses Say?

In the Babylonian Talmud (M'nachot 29b) there is a wonderful midrash1 in which Moses is depicted as watching God sitting and writing crowns (embellishments that look a bit like crowns) on some of the letters in the Torah. Moses asked God why the Holy One was doing this. God responded "There is a man who will appear at the end of several generations and Akiva ben Yosef is his name. And he will need these crowns, because from each and every mark he will derive scores and scores of laws." (In a sense, Akiva will create midrash to explain the presence of these marks, and anything else unusual in the text of Torah.)

Moses retorted, "Ruler of the Universe, show this man to me." The Holy One said, "Turn around!"

Moses found himself sitting in the back of Rabbi Akiva's beit midrash (classroom) and he did not understand a word that was being said. He felt faint and frustrated. When the class reacted a certain point in the discussion, a student asked Rabbi Akiva, "Rabbi, what is the source for this ruling?" He said, "It is a law given unto Moses at Sinai."

In the opening sentence, I called this midrash "wonderful." I did so, because I find it to be a "wonder-filled" example of how Jewish tradition changes, and yet, remains rooted in Torah.

This week's Torah portion is Emor meaning "Speak." In this parashah we find an extended discussion of the regulations regarding the priests who must remain in a state of "holiness" in order to offer sacrifices in the Temple. There are rules relating to the Tabernacle and laws about one who blasphemes the Name of God. This parashah also has an extended section discussing the observance of Shabbat, Rosh HaShanah (not identified by that name, however), Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Sh'mini Atzeret (not actually called this in the Torah), Pesach, and Shavuot (also not referred to specifically by this name).

Each description of the festivals and observances of the Jewish calendar obviously focuses on how the day was marked in biblical times. Some of what we hear is familiar and some is quite foreign to our experience. In our learning this week, I would like to focus on what the text tells us about Pesach:

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