Acharei Mos-Kedoshim - 4th Portion

Join me as we learn Humash for today for Wednesday, the Torah reading of Acharei Mot and Kedoshim combined. And we continue into the inappropriate relationships that we started with yesterday with the different prohibited relationships that the Torah enumerates, which are considered inappropriate and prohibited. Chapter 18 verse 22. V'zachor lo sishkav mishk'vei ishah t'eivah hi. You must not be with a male the way you are with a woman. This is considered as an abomination. Rashi verse 22 V'et zachar There's no Rashi on this and we continue. V'chol b'heimah lo siten lishchov lishchov t'cholat tamah vah. And you must not be with any animal, thereby becoming spiritually defiled because of it. V'ishah lo s'samach lifnei v'heimah A woman must not stand in front of an animal to be able to be with the animal. L'reivah tavel hum. To to be able to fornicate with it because this is a disgusting way of doing it of an unnatural way of mingling of humans and animal seed. Rashi tavel hum. If all the other prohibitions of the inappropriate relationships are disgusting, this one is most disgusting of all and therefore uses a terminology of kodesh of where it must be holy. Ervah v'niuf, this is something which is disgusting and inappropriate. And something which is unnatural as we mentioned for the as we're soon going to see the word tavel. Weird as he gets for the word tavel. V'apil tavel is some, so to the word tavel comes to mean that my anger was on their disgusting behavior. Dover Acher, another explanation of why he uses the word "tavel". Tavel "ulasham lilo eero of tavel" means to mix. And that this fact that they're mixing the seed of an animal and the seed "Zera Adam u'Zera Behema" the seed of an animal and the seed of a person of a human is something which is not nice. The Torah then continues in verse 24, "Al Tetame Bechol Eleh" do not become impure with all these because of all these types of impurities is why I've sent away the nations before you which were inhabiting the land of Israel. Verse 25, "At Tima Aretz" and the land which they were in became impure. And because of this I brought on the account of these sins "Ki Toki Aretz Yishveha" it vomited its inhabitants out of it. "Ve'Ushmartem Et Chukotai" and therefore you must safeguard my rules "U'Mishpatai" and my ordinances. "Velo Ta'asu Mikol Hate'evot Ha'Eleh" and do not do any of these abomination of these abominations all ill of all these that we mentioned also "Anshei Ha'Aretz Asher Lifneichem" because I'm sorry "Mikol Hate'evot Ha'Eleh" and do not do any of these abominations "Ha'Ezrach" the native-born "Ve'Hager Ha'Gur Be'Tochachem" nor the convert who dwells amongst you. Verse 27, "Ki Et Kol Hate'evot Ha'Eleh" because all these abominations that we mentioned "Asu Anshei Ha'Aretz" the people of the land did before you "Asher Lifneichem" that were before you "Vatitma Ha'Aretz" and because of that they made the land disgusting and defiled. "Velo Taki Ha'Aretz Etchem" and therefore why the land will not vomit you out "Be'Tame'achem Otah" when you will then make it impure "Ka'Asher Ha'Goyim Asher Lifneichem" just as it vomited out the nations that preceded you. Rashi verse 28, "Velo Taki Ha'Aretz Etchem" Moshe Rabbeinu Melech This is an example. Why does it tell us about following the laws and what did the previous nations were vomited? Why would the Why would the land of Israel vomit out those who sin? So Marshall of Edmelech, this is an example of parable given to a prince who is very particular or very spoiled on the foods that he ate. She ate something that he ate something which was disgusting, something which he wasn't able to tolerate. That it doesn't stay in his stomach. He vomited. So too the land of Israel. It's not able to tolerate those who transgress. The sins. And abrogate the laws that are and therefore vomits them out. The Targum translates the word the Saki it will empty out. They empty out on their own. Verse 29. Whoever does any of these disgusting abominations. And they will then be They will then be cut off from the midst of the people amongst of their people. Meaning that they will die prematurely and childless. Rashi. Verse 29. This includes male and female the same. Those that were involved in any of these types of behaviors. Verse 30. And therefore you must safeguard my charge. So you do not commit any of these abominable practices. That were performed before you. They will not become impure this way. I am your God. Rashi gives the job to be gives the job to be to warn and to safeguard that the people don't behave immorally. What is this telling me if you do and purify the place and you like then I discard you you're no longer my nation and I am not your God what pleasure why would I want to be with person does such type of behavior and they are therefore deserving of destruction Therefore he says I am a God meaning my whole godliness being your God depends in you observing and you protecting your holiness that you have This thing concludes the first part of of the fourth reading we now go into the second reading which is the reading of ocean The reading of of is one of the readings that has the most Commandments in it this by their by being called that you should be holy holy and observing the Commandments as we'll soon see as we go into the is I am a lemon as God spoke to Moses saying to all the children of Israel speak to the entire Jewish community you will tell them to you should be holy because I am because I am holy because God your God is holy Why is he saying speak to all the Jewish community why is it so unique here that he doesn't say just speak to the Jewish people it teaches us this reading was said by every 7 years when all the Jewish people at the Gathering men women and children by the holy Temple they were told these Commandments she doing because most of the laws of the Torah are dependent on the following words and they are fundamental and foundational to the words and the observances of the Torah and therefore was said and that everybody should hear it You should be holy have a portion you should separate yourselves from these inappropriate behaviors That you were already warned about, the Niddah, and also of the uh abrogations. Any time you um the Kedushah, any time you will find that the terminology of creating a fence of by an inappropriate relationship, you will also find the opposite, which is considered something holy, and because of that they are warned to be particularly careful about it. For example, you'll find as when it talks about in the next week's Torah reading when we learn about the prohibitions that a Cohen has in who they're allowed to marry, so it says about the woman that they're prohibited from marrying. I am God, you're holy. So, too, you should not desecrate your children. I am God that makes them holy. You should be holy. So, too, in all the different cases where it says one should be holy, it tells us about the prohibitions of the inappropriate relationships. One of the interesting things that we find over here that the Rebbe points out of why is it that this Torah reading specifically is fundamental? There are so many other Torah readings that are fundamental and foundational. Why is this one specifically that we say the most of the Mitzvahs are dependent on? And if we look over here, Rashi is alluding to a certain practice and an important note that when we want to educate somebody and tell them about certain behaviors and how they should behave, you can either tell them how terrible and despicable they would be if they don't, or you can stress and accentuate the positive. And over here, the Torah is telling us that if you want somebody to observe the Torah and the commandments of many of the commandments I mentioned, what does the Torah begin with? It's saying in the introduction, you are holy, and therefore you should observe the commandments. A positive reinforcement will help and go further in encouraging one to follow the commandments. Verse three. A man must fear A man must observe must fear his mother and father. And they must observe the Sabbath. I am I am A man must Each one of you, that means man and woman must observe and fear their father or mother. This is the simple interpretation. The Midrash explains why over here does it say use the terminology that they should fear? I only know that a man has to fear. How do I know that a woman also because it uses the terminology ish, man? How do I know that this applies to a woman as well? Therefore, he says which is a plural. That's two, which includes the man and the woman. So why doesn't the Torah just say it clearly? Why does it use the terminology ish, man? Because the man always has the availability to fear his father or mother. A woman is married to her husband and her obligation is first to her husband and her husband can withhold her as the Talmud explains in Gittin and Kiddushin from certain items and therefore she might not always have that ability. The mother and father, why over here does he say the mother before the father when it comes to respect it says the father before the mother? Here he puts the mother before the father because it is natural that a son should fear the father before the mother. Therefore, it says the mother before the father. However, when it comes to respect the COVID However, when it comes to respect it is natural that the child should respect the mother before the father because the mother is the one that usually appeases him and speaks to him softly and therefore is not the necessarily the discipline enforcer. So therefore the respect comes automatic to the mother, fear comes automatic to the father and therefore the Torah switches them around. So therefore the person should always have and be wary of it. You you observe the Shabbos. Some of Shmira Shabbos made of, he puts the observance of Shabbos in the same verse as fearing your father. Lo amar to tell you, "Af al pi she is article even though I commanded you al meida of about the fear of your father, im yim lo chalo lo she Shabbos, but if your father tells you desecrate the Shabbos, al tishmal lo, do not listen to him." V'chein b'shar mitzvos, so too by all the other commandments, therefore he finishes off "Ani Hashem Elokecha, I am your God." Atov avicha chayav b'kavod, you and your father are obligated to listen to me. L'fi rishus mal l'vatel tz'varti, therefore you have no obligation to listen to him to desecrate what God said, because your father also has to follow what God said. Now, what does it mean to fear? Is fear means you have to tremble. What is the definition of fear? It's a Rashi explains. Eizehu morah? How does one define fear? So, it's more awe. Lo yeshiv b'makom asher hu omed, so in this place, in a specific place, lo y'daber b'fanav, don't speak in front of him. V'lo yistoreh divarav, do not contradict his words. V'eizehu kavod? What's considered honor and respect? Ma'achilo u'mashkehu, giving him food and drink, malbisho u'man'ilo, getting helping him get dressed and putting on his shoes, machniso u'motzio, taking for a walk, taking him where he needs to go, that's part of respect. Verse four, "Al tifnu el ha'elilim, do not turn to other gods." Towards idols. "V'elokei maseichah lo sa'asu lachem, do not make worthless gods molten deities for you. V'ani Hashem Elokeichem, I am your God." Ani altifnu el ha'elilim, of them, the means of here he calls them idols. Lo of them, to make them elilim, you are making them l'shain kel, comes from the word of a god. K'lo hu chashuv, it's like it's nothing, therefore he uses a double terminology. Elilim, you consider them a god, but they are actually not a god. V'elokei maseichah t'chilas elilim heim, v'im atem panim acherim you look at them as another god, but then if you start following them, then do you start to make them as your God and consider them as something of importance. Don't make for yourselves. Don't make these graven molten images. Don't make it for others. Don't have others make it for you. From here we see that a person is not allowed to make it for himself and this is part of the abrogation of a negative commandment not to make these molten idols at all. If you might say okay, I can't make it for myself, but others can make it for me. Already says already have the second commandment of the 10 commandments. You should not have any other gods. Nobody should make it for you. You shouldn't make it for others and you should not have them. Verse five, when you were going to slaughter a peace offering. For Make sure that it must be with the intention that it should be acceptable of being a proper offering. What this means is as Rashi explains as follows. a person slaughters it, the actual beginning of the slaughtering must be that it should be for the intent to be brought as a sacrifice. Because if you're going to have on it an intent, meaning that you want to eat it in the time which is inappropriate or a place which is inappropriate, then that is already considered a non-wanted sacrifice and that God is not interested in that kind of sacrifice. What does it mean? For example, What does the word mean? For example, he uses the French word which is also English, appeasement. That means you want to appease me and therefore you will bring this as a sacrifice. This is the simpler interpretation. Our rabbis have explained from here. What does it mean? For example, he uses the French word is that if a person has the desire to bring a sacrifice. And when he's interested, that means when he takes the knife or anything that he does, if he has does not have the proper intent, it will be forbidden to be brought. Should he slaughter it? It's not as if you can throw a knife into the ear and then if it falls in the right place and slaughters it, and it'll be fine. You have to have the intent to slaughter it properly when you're slaughtering. Verse six. It must be eaten on the day you slaughter it and the next day. If I wish to leave whatever is left over until the third day, but it should has to be burnt. Verse When you slaughter it, you have to slaughter it. At the time of slaughtering, you have to have the intent that it will be eaten in its appropriate time, which is that day and the next day. Verse seven. If it would be eaten on the third day, it is considered pigul, which is contemptible. It is not something that is accepted or valid. If it is not slaughtered at the right time, What is this talking about over here? Why does the Torah have to tell me again that if it's going to be eaten in the wrong time, didn't it just tell me in the previous verse that if it would be eaten from the flesh of the peace offering in the wrong time, it is not only that it doesn't only refer to in the wrong time, in the inappropriate time, but also in the inappropriate place that it would tell you that it's something similar to it that in both of these cases would be considered an invalid sacrifice. I would think that because since you're comparing the two, therefore he'll be liable for the punishment of premature death because of eating it as well. Therefore, the verse tells me the one that eats it will then carry a sin, meaning we menu from this, but not from something else, meaning if it was eaten in the wrong time. Meaning eaten in the wrong time is when they have the punishment of being dying prematurely. Not any which excludes a case where it was slaughtered and about having thinking eating it in an appropriate place. So the actual prohibition where we talk about there's two prohibitions here. The prohibition of eating it in appropriate place and the prohibition of eating it in an appropriate time. The one of eating it in an appropriate time would be liable for the death of premature premature death. However, not the so when it comes to eating it in an appropriate place. Pigul, what does the word pigul mean? I'm a suaf, disgusting, something which is contemptible. Like it talks about those that eat the pig and when he refers to an Isaiah that their vessels were contemptible. Verse 8. And those that eat it will carry their sin. Because the the holiness of God sanctity of God they have desecrated and therefore they will die prematurely. They'll be cut off their soul from their nation, which means they will die prematurely. Rashi the news are going to be a custom of that over here we're talking about what laws are we referring to? Is this the law referring to when a person eats after its time when there was left over? What is the Torah talking about when there's complete left over? In other words, Shakur me at the custom of we're talking about the punishment of dying prematurely. This is only when it was eaten in the wrong time, not in the wrong place. Shakur me at the custom because the Torah already alluded to it and made this as an exception. And this verse is talking about complete leftovers. We are the person that didn't eat it in its appropriate time and therefore it would be liable for chorus, which means this dying prematurely. Masak the clay And in the tractate of trisos, they have it learned from a verse which when you have two words in the same verse, you are able to infer from one to another and that's called exedra shava. Verse nine. Now we're going to go to new laws, with laws pertaining to fallen gleanings in the field and the agricultural obligations that have to be given to the poor people. When you will have reap harvesting your land, do not fully reap the corners of your field. And do not gather the one or two gleanings from your harvest. Rashi. Leave a corner at the end of your field. These are the little stalks that fall out while harvesting. It's the three. That's already not considered the gleanings and that he can collect. Verse 10. And so too when it comes from your vineyard, you must not glean. And normally you collect any fallen individual grapes from your vineyard. So you have the young grapes and they have the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor or the and the convert. Don't take the young grapes. They are young grapes. And one can tell which ones are considered young grapes. How is that? Generally when we talk of grape, the grapes grow grown clusters and if the grapes don't have a cluster, meaning they don't have an hanging stem or ancillary roots that are coming from a shoots that are coming from, then you can know it's still considered young. However, you have also those that fall off ferret can those are singular grapes that fall off the vine and that fall off while a person is cutting them. Your God. I am the one that you can know that if I'm going to punish those that don't follow and he gave me the fascist never I'll take his older. So therefore when a person says from those that go against and abrogate the commandment the punishment may be that a person is liable for um cutting off meaning he may die from this because do not steal from the poor people cuz God is the one who protects the poor and wages their war. And therefore over here if you see that God shows that he's going to punish you can best fill it to be sure that God will give you a reward for giving your charity to the poor people. Verse 11. Late to leave you. You must not steal money or property. You should not lie. You should not withhold you must not falsely deny. Police is shocked by me saying do not lie to one another. Rashi late to leave you. Why over here is he talking about stealing is already one of the 10 Commandments that tell us about stealing because this stealing is a different kind of stealing. Over here we're referring to this is talking about money it's financial stealing. The one in the 10 Commandments is kidnapping. How do we know? Because we have a rule that we can learn each thing from its actual item. Because when we look at the actual content of what we talk about in the 10 Commandments all the negative Commandments they're all referring to things that have capital punishment stealing money financial is not a capital punishment. So therefore the one in the 10 Commandments we know it's similar to what it may be murder and in that case it's kidnapping which is liable of capital punishment. In this case, however, it's only stealing money. Do not deny. Because it says like previously in verse 5, chapter 5, verse 22, and a person will deny something which was given to them, like for example, which is stolen, and he lies, he has to then pay principal plus 20%. We know what the punishment is in the case of a person denying that he owes money or whatever it may be. Where do we see that the Torah gives us because the Torah only tells us about a punishment only if there's a warning beforehand. That means a person doesn't get punished unless the Torah has a negative commandment that it describes clearly what that punishment what that abrogation is. So if we hear it tells us what the law is, and then it tells us what if one does this negative commandment, what the punishment may be that comes from it. Do not lie to one another. Because it tells us that if you lie falsely, then you have to pay principal plus 20%. Therefore, we know what's the punishment. Where do we know the warning for it? The warning's right here. You shall not steal. You shall not steal. You shall not steal. You shall not steal. What is this telling us? Why does it tell us these five commandments of not stealing, not denying, not lying falsely, and not swearing falsely because they're all a lead-up. If you're going to steal, then you're going to deny that you Then because you deny that you stole, you can have to make up a lie. If you're going to make up a lie, then you're going to swear falsely and take an oath falsely in the business. Verse 12, do not swear falsely in my name. You will then be because you will thereby profane and desecrate God's name. I am Hashem, am God. Why says it in the 10 Commandments don't say God's name falsely. The official number because it says by the 10 Commandments don't say God's name in vain. I would think this only applies to God's special name of the shame of I am. Therefore, how do I know that this includes all the other names of God? Therefore, it says do not swear falsely in my name. Any name that I have one should not make an oath falsely. Verse 13, you must not oppress you must not oppress your fellow. Do not steal from him. You may not rob him. Do not hold back your hired worker's wage. Until the morning. It must not remain with you the entire night until the morning. Rashi You should not hold This is one that holds back from paying a person who you hired to work. What about keeping overnight? This is a terminology using a female feminine terminology cuz it's going on the actual action not on the person. It's talking about the activity. Why until the morning? Cuz over here it's talking about two different ones. This is here doing my custom of the other. This is referring to a person who's hired by the day. So therefore, when he leaves work, it's at sunset. So therefore, the Torah gives the owner the person can collect his wages all night. In another place in the book of Deuteronomy, it says you have to give your you have to pay up in that day. The person who's paid who works at night, so therefore you have until the morning to pay him. Cuz you have to pay when one stone comes. So therefore collecting can be all day afterwards. It gives the owner a entire day entire and not day a tire time time frame for a person that works by day the time frame is night for a person that works by night the time frame is day that they have time to get paid from the owner. Verse 14. Do not curse a living or even a deaf person. You must not put a stumbling block in front of a blind person. Fear God, I am God. I know from this verse only for persons deaf. How I know that you shouldn't curse any person. Therefore later as we learned in the book of a leader amongst you should not curse. You can learn why he uses the terminology deaf person. The same way a person who's deaf that means means you can only use it you only use the terminology of deaf on a live person. You don't say a dead person's deaf. Therefore it includes any person alive. This is including any person that the law only applies to people that are alive. The exception it excludes an individual who is not alive. You're not liable for punishment for cursing somebody who is dead. block in front of a blind person. What does this mean? This does not necessarily mean only a blind person with a stumbling block. Any person who may be blind in this specific item. For example, don't give him don't give him bad advice. I'll tell him or don't say something like that. Sell this sell this field buy this donkey really you're conniving and you're trying to set him up for some failure because when I tell him money you're going to tell him to sell them and you're going to buy for cheaper than you're going to resell it or some type of stick that you're going to do. Therefore what is God saying must fear God. Because no person can really know what your intent is. No person knows what's going on in your heart that you give him true advice proper advice was there something which was sincere when you told it him. Whether it was good or bad and every person can come along and say you know what I really truly intended for the person's good. Therefore God says here if you remember you are some of the kind. Therefore it says you must fear God. God knows what your true intent was. God knows what you really had in mind for this individual. I'm making a second guess he knows what you're thinking. Therefore you will find by most things in midst of this where it talks about that are given over by the intent of the individual. Nobody else can really know what this person is really thinking. The Torah says you will fear God because this is something which is between you and God knows what the true intent is. This concludes the fourth Torah reading of parshas acharei mos edition.