Parsha Perspectives - Emor

Okay, good morning Bokov. Welcome back to para perspectives for today. As always, we're very grateful to our generous para series sponsors Becky and Navi Katz in memory of Becky's fatherish David Benak and Mesh David Gman. Just update next week we are not meeting for Parashir. It's our annual fly into New York. We go to meet Rabanam Rebes and Akanim community leaders. Very excited to go with our with our group and to bring back the inspiration. But it means we'll be on the road and therefore no para show we resume in two weeks from today. Join the para WhatsApp group for bonus material and updates on the schedule and everything you need to know. You can find it on WhatsApp rabbi from goldberg.orgap page 672 in the arts. Hashem speaks to Moshe and he tells him speak to these are the children of Aram and tell them be careful do not contaminate yourself. Do not make contact with a dead person. Do not become impure except for a relative. Immediate seven relatives for whom one mourns namely the mother, the father, the son, the daughter and the brother. That is who a cohen is allowed to become impure. The funeral they are allowed to attend otherwise they are prohibited. And a sister who is not married or doesn't have any children such a sister one could contaminate as well. of a husband among his people shall not contaminate himself to one who desecrated him. So what is the connection between the beginning of this para and the end of last week's para? Last week's para we ended kadoshim with uh with the laws of of arayas with the laws of prohibited relationships and now we begin with kan and what's the connection and his deals with it says the while paras concludes with prohibited sexual relations parash begins with a discussion of the laws of the kohanim whom a cohen is permitted to marry the blemishes that disqualify a coin from serving the laws of impurity which pertain specifically to the cohen what is the basis of this transition from paras kadoshim to paras. Many of the prohibitions of forbidden relationships of arayos were not imposed exclusively on the Jewish people. Even non-Jews in many of these same areas even non-Jews are prohibited in many same areas by the Noahide laws. The same at the time of the flood the earth rebelled against all of mankind as a result of the abrogation of these laws. In other words, the prohibition of aras is not unique or distinct to the Jewish people. Non-Jews also have boundaries. There are also guidelines what's appropriate, inappropriate, to whom they can have marriage, what relationships should be. Sexual immor immorality has a metaphysical consequence that other sins lack. The acts themselves defile the land. If acts of impurity are committed and the land is polluted, there is only one remedy to purify and purge the land. That's why the mob the flood came because people didn't respect boundaries. In fact, it was mid and mida. It was measure for measure. If people didn't respect and honor boundaries, they didn't respect their friend's wife. They didn't respect gender boundaries. They didn't respect appropriate institutions, definitions, and boundaries. Then, Hashem, so to say, said, "If you want to live in a boundaryless world, let me show you what the world looks like without a boundary. where the water will flood the land, where there are no health and healthy and safe boundaries protecting what's within. If you want to blur boundaries, if you want to get rid of boundaries, I'll show you what a world looks like without boundaries. And the flood was the appropriate and correct response, the mid mida for a boundaryless world. And therefore, these laws are not unique or distinct specific to the Jewish people. They apply to non-Jews as well. The Torah begins in braces with the consequences of violating the universal principles of morality. Hashem explains to the Jewish people that their predecessors were ejected from the land for transgression transgressing these laws. However, the Jewish people were given many more restrictions in this domain. The additional prohibitions imposed on Kali Israel were instituted to reflect the unique sanctity that they possessed. His nation must contain a higher standard than required of mankind as a whole. The details of this heightened standard are enumerated in a mo and the punishment are listed in kadoshim. Now in Amore, Hashem imparts another message that even within Israel, there's a group whose restrictions in this regard are more stringent. There are prohibitions that apply to all Jews and those which affect only one sector of the Jewish community. A divorce, a kalal or a zona are allowed to marry a Israel yet are prohibited to a co. The reason the quantum experience so many restrictions in this area because they have a unique responsibility. They offer up the carbonos, the food offerings. They have an added dimension of kaduca of holiness that results from the performance of the sacrificial service. Why does this added dimension express itself specifically through more arayos prohibitions? In other words, the end of last week's paraos and kadoshim were all about these boundaries, definitions, relationships, intimacy, morality in these areas. Now the kohanim have an additional layer of responsibility more heightened laws of aras and wonders rabbi salvichek why specifically in this area why does the cohen not given added responsibilities in other areas for example why is he not required to pray five times a day instead of three why doesn't he have more restrictions in laws of kashas instead of just our regular ones why not identify other areas where the coain has more that they have to observe writes thereof. Sexual morality is not based solely on the sanctity of Israel but on human dignity. Human existence depends on these prohibitions. Homosexuality, adultery, violations of other arayos eradicate the barrier that sets man apart from animal. In the very fiber of human existence becomes destroyed. Non-Jews are thus responsible to keep the basic laws of arayos as well as other restrictions detailed in the seven no laws. In the generation of the flood, the violators desecrated their divine image. Loss of human dignity is tantamount to self-destruction. If we lose our boundaries and definitions, if we if we profane these institutions, we lose our very divine image, we lose our human dignity, and it's tantamount to self-destruction. If certain prohibitions are essential for all of humanity, many more are needed to maintain the kaduca of Ben. and yet more unnecessary to maintain the singular holiness of the the transition from kadoshim to amore tracks the increasing restrictions associated with increased kadusha. So kadoshim we're talking globally the restrictions and the boundaries that apply to all of humanity to the Jewish people then to the kohanim the holier one is or the holier one is charged with being than the greater mindfulness consciousness the greater restrictions one has to practice one has to keep in these very areas sax rather in the newish that I still don't think is out at but that we have a uh early version of he also addresses this area and sax deals writes the following par deals with two kinds of holiness of people and of time the first half of is dealing with the kohanim the added laws that apply to them and then we move over the second half deals with kadusha time the moadim shabas and all the holidays on our Jewish calendar says relates to holy people priests and above them the high priest Their close contact with the sanctuary means they must live with certain restrictions and contact with the dead whom they may marry. Then bay recap similar laws related to ordinary ism when they seek to enter the mikdash as well as defects in animals that bar them from being offered. Then giml is about holy time the festivals about the minor lit daily and the showbread renewed weekly and ends with a story one of only two narratives in all of book of yikra about the fate of a man who blasphemes in the course of a fight which we'll get to maybe hopefully please God it is this narrative that draws to a close the long mishkan cycle before we take up the narrative where we left off inos about hari so that's his introduction to the para describes again that our para emor deals with different kinds of holiness of people kohanim and then and mikdash and then holiness of time which is theim the holidays and what they mean for us. So we begin with the holiness of the kohanim and he or he writes no one of you shall render himself impure. A priest may not touch or be under the same roof as a dead body. This whole notion of impurity we're very unfamiliar very uncomfortable. If you learn these laws, if you're making your way now through the daf and you're learning all about tumas mikt of can't be tame when you enter, you can't have contact with food tumat. They are complicated detailed minutia nuance laws whose a primary source of impurity and it can transfer to a secondary to a a third source and at what can transfer to whom and what and what level and for how long and exposure and contamination and contagion. very very very complicated but it's not familiar to us because unfortunately tragically we don't live with the bas mikdash and we don't live with that heightened level of awareness and of purity the one area where it still is practiced is the kanim a cohen is not allowed to be contaminated so kuan can't go to a cemetery kanim can't go into a hospital if it has a morg kanim can't serve on the kadish and do a tahara kan can't be under the same roof Lenny's pizza is in a strip mall where it's under the same building as a Jewish funeral home and there's a whole shila of how you view is the pizza store detached. It's under the same strip mall. It's under the same building. Therefore, can a coen not enter? Lenny's pizza has a deal. If a coin pulls up, they'll bring the pizza out to your car so you don't have to come in. I don't know what are the ethics of saying you're a co. So, they bring it out to the car and you don't have to go in. We are. So you can all can you call and say I'm a member of the I'm going to pull in front. Please bring the pizza out. It's a good sh. It's a good question. So the kohanim are still warned. That's the beginning of our para more. Speak to the which it applies to those over the age of bar mitzvah and more. We'll see it applies to kanim minors as well. Even a baby child coane male cannot contaminate the file, cannot go to a cemetery or a funeral, even a little baby, even maybe a pregnant woman. Believe it or not, there is literature. We've spoken about this in the past. There's literature. Must a pregnant woman married to a coin undergo a sonogram, a big gender reveal to identify what she's carrying to know whether she can go into a hospital or not. Now, she's going to have to go into hospital at the end of nine months because she has to deliver the baby. That's the safest place to deliver a baby. So, believe it or not, there's literature about that. A a wife of a Coen who may be carrying a little baby boy Coen fetus, can she deliver in a hospital that has a morg that may have Jewish corpses in it? Literature about all this. And do we trust a sonogram? Is that valid to identify the gender or a blood test, DNA test? What do we use to gain full confidence that we know the gender that then requires the pregnant woman? So, a woman who knows she's carrying a boy would not be allowed to enter a cemetery. It could apply even not only to a minor who is in this world, but even to a minor who is in her uterus. It could apply to whom does it not apply? Daughters of kohanim, wives of kohanim does not apply to women. The prohibition to become contaminated or defiled, to become impure only applies to men, not to women. And we'll come back to that in a moment as well. But back to Rabbi Saxs for a moment because as I was saying, this notion of tum is unfamiliar. We don't relate to it. So we think of it as archaic, as arcane, as outdated. Where does it come from? Why is it they can't be near a corpse? A woman once a month when she does not realize the potential to become pregnant and instead experiences her period she becomes so to say to she's impure. She has to go to mikvah. What is this? Where does it come from? So sax writes the coin must remain aloof from close contact with the dead with the exception of a close relative. The law of the high priest is stricter still. He may not allow himself to become ceremonially unclean even for a close relative. To understand these laws and other purity regulations, we first have to return to the concept of holy. Hashem is beyond space and time. Yet he created space and time as well as physical entities that occupy space and time. Hashem is therefore concealed. He's in our physical world. Yet if God were completely and permanently hidden from the world, it would be as if he were absent. From a human perspective, there would be no difference between an unknowable God and a non-existent God. Therefore, God established the holy as the point at which the eternal enters time and the infinite enters space. So, Hashem is not entirely concealed. He does reveal himself to us. We can access him. How? Through the holy. The holy is the intersection. It is the place where the eternal enters time in the holiness of time holiday shabas and the infinite enters space bdash the shul and the like. God's eternity stands in the sharpest possible contrast to our mortality. All that lives will one day die. All that is physical will one day erode and cease to be. Hence the extreme delicacy and danger of the mishkun or mikdash, the point at which that which beyond time and space enters time and space. Just as the highly sensitive experiment has to be conducted with without the slightest contamination, so the holy space has to be kept free of conditions that bespeak human mortality. So if God is infinite and omnipotent, God is eternal and forever and the only way we access him is through holiness in time and space. We in contrast to God in great contra distinction are mere mortal. We are finite. So we can't have the slightest contamination in the place in the point at which that which is beyond time and space enters time and space. And where is that? In the mikdash in the holy ba mikdash or the mishk. Tuma should therefore not be thought of as defilement as if there was something wrong or sinful. Tuma is about mortality. Death besp speaks mortality. But so too does birth. A skin disease like saras makes us vis v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v vividly aware of the body. There's nothing wrong about any of these things, but they focus our attention on the physical, the mortal, the fragility of life. It is notable that a priest, even a high priest, may perform the rights of a mitzvah, one who has no one else to attend his funeral. Here the basic requirement of human dignity overrides the priestly imperative of purity. So by saxs defines tuma is not barbaric, archaic, outdated. Tuma is the beautiful description of the loss of potential. It is mortality. Death creates tuma because it's the opposite of eternity of infinite of immortality of God. So if God's holiness we access it, the barrier or obstacle to it is the opposite of it which is death. And that's why tumm and mikdash can't go together. A tame, an impure person can't enter the mikdash and so on and so forth. Okay. So that is the introduction. That is the introduction. Now we mentioned it only applies to it only applies to men, not to women, to boys, not to girls. Where do we learn that from? Sashi. Srashi. Ben Aon writes Rashi benos Aaron Benet the sons and not the not the daughters the sons of our not the daughters so sons can conotes only male progeny to the exclusion of it's a me we exclude and we learn women are not warned so the daughters of the wives of kanam can go to the cemetery can go to the hospital not a problem but later in our par the Torah is going to tell us one of the laws in our par is an ox or a sheep. You're not allowed to slaughter it and its offspring on the same day. You can't kill the mother and the child on the same day. Why not? Why not? It's cruel. It's unkind. Is that the reason? Do we learn the reasons? But you're not allowed to slaughter them on the same day. Rasha, they're right. It is forbidden to slaughter the mother and its son or daughter on the same day. Oo it the sbeno and it's what does the word beno but there rashi expands the word beno to mean son or daughter you can't kill the ox or sheep and its son or daughter so ask the maral in his gur what happened why over here do we learn bonosa the sons of aron not the daughters so who has to guard safeguard against contamination only the men the boys, not the women and the daughters. And yet later, oz bino beno means son or daughter. It's inconsistent. It's inongruous. Why aren't we consistent? The maral that is the question of the maral. So the maral explains that only regarding people is there a meaningful difference between a son and a daughter each with his specific spiritual inheritance. A male and a female calf are seen equally as progeny of their parents and nothing more. When it comes to an animal, they're not highly differentiated. So when it comes to an animal, children are children and boy and girl, son and daughter, it's the same. When the Torah refers to an animal as a son, it simply means offspring, but it includes all genders. But when it uses the term son with humans, it comes to exclude daughters because it is specific. It is specific in that in that case. That is what the maral that is what the maral says alashita expands on this maral. He says a father bequetss important qualities to his daughter different than a son. So with animals we just have progeny children. They're just lumped together. With human beings, they're differentiated because a parent has a different role, a different responsibility, transmits a different message or legacy to a son and to a daughter. Cites a curious statement. Daughter to her father is a gift of futility out of fear for her. He will not sleep at night. He will not sleep at night. Kazal do not mean to dishearten fathers of daughters. The great responsibility that a man has for a daughter and what's the Taz writes the main advantage of a is she observes her father learning becomes accustomed to his life of Torah she gains that wisdom she sees it firsthand it's what she expects and what she wants to build in her own home he transmits that shim that awareness that awe that fear of shem to her and so it's in congruous it's inconsistent how we translate Benobas When it comes to humans, not animals and that's because there is a difference. When it comes to animals, we lump it together. When it comes to humans, it is separated and differentiated. But I want to draw your attention to an earlier rash. Rashi writes, look at the again speak to the tell them that word is repeated. It's redundant. We don't need it twice. speak to them and say to them, well, if you're speaking to them, you said to them. If you say to them, then you're speaking to them. Why do I needed to say it twice? So, here that the adults have a responsibility here to shine a light, to illuminate, to inspire the children with this message, with this ideal, with this value. and more like the lush zar this week of the zor means this great source of light to illuminate to shine a spotlight alakam the question begs itself where do you see that from the word va rash our rabbis deduce from the word varta it could have just said amore it doesn't just say amore it says amore viama you see from the word viama that laaz Adults should model, inspire, shine a spotlight, transmit to the children. Where do you see that from the word va writes? If you want to motivate and inspire a next generation, it is not enough to say this is what you have to do. If a parent only instructs a child, do and don't. This is the expectation. These are the rules. These are the laws. But the parent says, you know, it's hard for me. I don't necessarily keep it. I struggle. It's a burden. I resent it. I don't enjoy it. If a parent is only or a teacher, if educators are just giving dos and don'ts. If you're giving dry laws, if you're communicating with fear, then the child's not going to learn. The child's not going to be inspired. The child's not going to be motivated. You know what? The last generation, my parents, my grandparents, they just did whatever was right. They did whatever they were told, whether it meant something to them or not. But I'm not interested. I don't want to. Doesn't do anything for me. I'm not moved and motivated. Only when you see that a mother, a father, that a rebi or a moa is not just saying words, only when one witnesses and observes that they're not just communicating dos and don'ts, laws and rules, but this is their life and their lifestyle. This is their life source. This is their joy and their fulfillment and their satisfaction. This is their meaning. This is their purpose. This is their mission. Then the children will say, "I want a piece of that too." We spoke about that. We speak about it every year before Pes. The child who grows up in a home and hears pays off the prices, the cleaning, it's miserable and I'm resentful. I'm exhausted. I'm tired. But it's not only Pes. The child who hears the cost of kosher meat, of kosher food, you can't believe it and it's outrageous and I'm not interested and I don't want to pay it. So that child says, "Well, I just not keep kosher." Child who hears the parents say, "It's shabas. Can't believe what I can't watch and what I can't go and what I have to do." And I'm miserable. The child says today's day and age where the world is their royster and they can do and invited any opportunity they want. says, "Okay, I hate having to go to the da can't believe how long the rabbi speaks. I wish there were no drussa. I find a minion where there's no okay then I guess I won't learn either because if learning is such a burden and learning is so miserable then I don't want it either." says Moshe, you know why you have amore vam? Because there are two things that need to be communicated. Amore means here are the rules. Varta is and we love them and we live them and we're passionate about them and they inspire and they motivate and they are the source of our very life. Where do you see that in the word var says Moshe? Because you need two amiras amore vam. First, here are the laws of Shabas. Here's how you separate the good jelly beans from the bad jelly beans. Here's how you make a cup of tea on Shabas. Here's how you heat food. It has to be dry, not liquid, previously cooked. Here's how you spoon some chant on Friday night. And you could still put it back in the crock pot forever. Here are all the rules. Here are all the regulations. You ready? Here are all the rules. Now I'm also going to give you the sights and the sounds and the flavors and the love and the living and the lifestyle of Shabas Shabas and more are the rules is the joy is I look forward Shabas is the mccor we live for Shabas the gishmach of Shabas we can't wait for Shabas to start and we never want Shabas to end and we live for Shabas that's the va and more here's your sitter there's a sitter party here's you Here's where you're not allowed to talk. Here's where you stand. Here's where you sit. Here's where you bow on your arm. Here's the more these are the rules. I want you to see me don. I don't talk. I don't come late. I don't leave early. You see me with my eyes closed. You see me talking to Hashem like he is my best friend. You see me expressing gratitude, asking what I need. And more are the rules. A marta is you watch and you see I'm communicating through my actions that this is my life. This is what I live for. This is my meaning and purpose. This is my mission. Amore via amore via it has to be made up of it has to be made made up of both parts otherwise the child won't learn. And that's how you see where again what was answering where is in the word. The answer is because two things need to be communicated amore the rules and our attitude our approach our joy of them writes his for the he talks about his own mother and he distinguishes between he says his father from whom he learned everything the didn't learn any yeshiva he didn't go to his father pulled him out when the kaslavich all he was learning was Tanya and not mishna and garra his father pulled him out and taught him at home. His father taught him everything, everything. And he writes elsewhere in man and elsewhere about the makas he poured over that he learned with his father. But he writes, he said, "My father taught me the law laws, the rules, the regulations. But without my mother, he writes, I would be a dry, soulless being. She taught me, my father taught me the laws of Shabas. My mother taught me the holiness of Shabas, the experience of Shabas, to be immersed in Shabas, the smells, the flavors, the feeling of Shabas. And he writes so descriptively, so beautifully. That's the and the Torah. That's the amore and the there's rules and regulations. And then there flavors and aromomas and feelings that come that come from it. And those are the two parts the two parts of it. Skipping down says they shall be holy to their god. They shall be not consecrated not desecrate fire offering Hashem the food for their god they offer. They must remain holy. Uh that's not what I wanted to focus on is what I wanted to focus on is in the next sorry Bivo is bothered and he says the following the is as we just saw Sorry the cogul is not allowed to become tame to even his parents can't be can't become even to his parents in contradistinction to the cohen the cohen can become can go to the funeral of the immediate family but the cog cannot I had the wrong the high priest can't even become impure to his own mother and father, he can't attend their funeral. He can stand six feet away. They put the loudspeaker on the outside, but he can't attend their burial. He can't be in the cemetery. He can't attend their funeral. And wonders of what's going on. Our Torah is all about pleasantness. So much of Allah is informed by the notion of pleasantness, of being reasonable, being normal. And here this seems very extreme and radical. The coin can't attend the funeral of his own parents. And what happened to the value of one of the ten commandments? A very high value in the Torah. Honoring a mother and father to give a proper eulogy to escort them to the burial to participate in their final burial. What happened? What's going on? They look so righteous and religious they won't leave the bish. What does that look like so holy he won't leave the confines of the bikdash even to attend the funeral of his own parents? What happened to the obligation applies in the life of one's parents and after their passing the on his way to the holy of holies in order to go enter once a year to perform the if he finds a corpse lying on the side of the road unidentified no one to bury it. To that corpse, he defiles himself. That burial he does to the stranger. The stranger on the side of the road that he can defile himself. But his own mother and father is immana and his mama that he can't. Where's the what's going on here? Right? We have to reorient ourselves. We have to have a different perspective. We said there's a conflict here. Honoring his parents dictates he has to go to their funeral. And yet, Hashem says his level of holiness and sanctity. His unique role as the high priest singular among the whole nation demands he can't defile. He can't contaminate. He can't leave his work in the B mikdash. What's going on? There's a conflict. says of there's no conflict. The biggest kav aim is to show your parents they raised a kenul to honor parents that they merited to have a son who's the kenul singular in the nation and among the people who is seeking and who's charged with preserving and protecting such a holiness that even for them he's not going to the cemetery cemetery So he tells his parents, he says, "The greatest honor I can show you is that you raised a son who has this distinct and unique and singular role that I can't go to your funeral. the holiness that you raised me and charged me with the level that you put me on the path towards the role that I serve. I can't come. I can't attend. And that's not dishonoring you. That's the highest and the ultimate way I could honor I could honor you. You have a father whose son sits next to him every shabas. And now the son is old enough. It's time to go off to yeshiva and he's going to stay in the yeshiva for shabas and not sit next to his father in shul. So the father says where's your kib? How could you not come home for shabas to be able to sit next to me? So the son says the greatest I could show you is to stay in yeshiva and continue to grow and to learn. Of course I come home and visit. Of course I communicate and stay in touch. But the bigger is to become the person that you told me I could be. The biggest is to fulfill that dream, that picture that you painted of who I could be. That's the bigger. I think it's a powerful insight, a real partial perspective for today because sometimes we put so to say our own needs or wants ahead of that for our children. But if we reorient and we have a different perspective and we remind ourselves what are our dreams and ambitions, what are our wishes and wants, what are our hopes for our children and even if it means in this moment I have to sacrifice somewhat that is in fact their way of showing honor to me. Just like this coing gudul who's not compromising honoring parents by not attending their funeral. He is demonstrating honor by being the greatest most prominent most elevated holiest son that he can that he can be. And we have to think that for ourselves as well. How we define how we define what we want or are looking for in that moment. what we're willing to let them do because we're putting the priority of their becoming their best self ahead of ahead of ourselves. I have three married children and I believe that eventually unless one is going into a life of us people have to work and they have to have a plan absolutely 100%. But I also see the enormous value personally this is not for now to elaborate on but if there is the possibility if person is blessed to be in a position to help their children spend a few years learning right after they're married to forge their marriage and continue to grow themselves and be on the right path and trajectory to launch their lives. It is not an entitlement and shouldn't be an expectation. But if a person can enable that luxury either I went to Griscolo where the yes is yeshiva itself enables it or parents can grandparent whatever the system where people work to be able to do it they can do it. So one of my children was in year three of the two-year plan and I was confiding in a dear friend and I said you know a little bit what happens year three of the two-year plan how long? And he said to me, he said, 'Isn't your biggest dream? He said to me, didn't you, Davenin, didn't you Davenin that you would have son sons-in-law who would sit and learn and take advantage of that time? They would have a plan. They take responsibility for your daughter and their children and that in life take care. It's not forever, but that they would, if given the opportunity, use that time diligently. They would learn. They would learn and take advantage of it fully. Didn't you, Davenin, for such sons-in-law? and now you're complaining that they want to keep it going. And he totally turned me around and reoriented not forever and for as long as it's feasible, reasonable, possible and with responsibility and eye towards a future and a plan of what comes next. But it's really this vort it's really this vort that as parents, how do we define the kib the aim we're asking of them? Is it about what's good for us in that moment or can we zoom out that lens of what's our ultimate dream and aspiration and hope you know for that child so their bigger kim is continuing on that path with exception I'm generally on the team of the children who were asking to stay shabet when I go to visit Israel and yeshivas and I see them and they say you know I'm fighting with my I'm arguing with my parents I'm negotiating trying to come back year two so I say you want my help I'm happy to call your parents again with exceptions Sometimes they shouldn't. They don't belong going back. But often parents say, "Well, they need to come back. They got to start college. They got to start life. They got to start this. They got You have all of life to live life." But that child who wants to spend immersed, if they're doing it sincerely and fully and and they're taking advantage and not wasting or squandering that time, the biggest aim is to become the person that your parent dreamt for you to be. And what a different perspective. And how this kang is defined in aim to not go to the parents funeral is the of the parent because it means that they're the kangle. They're the singular person in that place and in that role. Again, this could be a slippery slope and it could be, you know, one could misuse and misapply it, but the principle of it I think is powerful and very interesting. The Torah here tells us when it comes to these If a coin has a they are disqualified, they're ineligible from participating in this role of the kanim and they do not serve. And this is very troubling to us because we live in a time we've made enormous progress in a very positive way that people who have a mum, people who have what used to be called a blemish. We call it a physical disability or limitation. A physical it's the word I'm looking for. Disfigurement disability means in their ability but also in their body being not disfigured. Help me out here. What's the word I'm looking for? Yeah. Something the body is disfigured or a blemish, a mum, something that stands out, that draws an attention. So the Torah says they're disqualified. We would say the opposite. Encourage them, involve them, create a whole program so that you could be inclusive. Inclusivity. Here the Torah is excluding anyone who has a they're excluded. of here we have all these programs of inclusivity the Torah is excluding so what's going on what's going on with this notion of mach writes some forms of physical difference render a priest unfit for service we might assume this implies that someone who has such a disability is considered less than perfect and thus debarred from high religious office gives a quite different explanation it was he says a concession to illinformed sentiment. People wrongly judge an individual by his physical appearance rather than by his true form. Hashem looks to the heart, but people judge by external appearances. Thus, the Torah excludes kohanim with certain disabilities and physical differences to avoid public disrespect. Rama himself makes it clear that coming with a physical disability is pleasing before Hashem. The legislation surrounding the temple involves the concession to human prejudice. The Ram's understanding of this set of laws emphasizes what human beings lack in empathy. Yet his idea may be taken in a slightly different direction by applying it to what we learned about tum. We saw that what unites the various types of ritual impurity is they focus our attention on the physical. Therefore, they're incompatible with the holy space of the mishk which is dedicated to the presence of the non-physical, the eternal infinite that never dies or decays. This well illustrated at the beginning of the book of Yov. Eov loses everything, his flock, his herds, his children. Yet his faith remains intact. Satan then proposes subjecting Io to even even greater trial, covering his body with soores. The logic of this seems absurd. How can a skin disease be a greater trial of faith than losing children? It isn't. What the book is saying is that when your body is afflicted, it can be hard, even impossible to focus on spirituality. This has nothing to do with the ultimate truth and everything to do with the human mind. You cannot give your mind to meditating on truth when you're hungry or thirsty or homeless or sick. And the skin disease or bodily abnormality in one person tends to prompt in others the thought this could happen to me. They reminded us of the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. This is the logic, if logic is the right word, of tum. It has nothing to do with rationality and everything to do with emotion. That which distracts from eternity and infinity by making us forcibly aware of our own mortality, the fact that we're physical beings in a physical world, that is what we distance from the operation of holy precincts. Something similar may be said of the appearance of bodi abnormalities in the tabernacle. So sak says the reason there could be no tuma connected to mikdash mikdash is about immortality. Tuma is contact with mortality. Mum is a reminder. It draws attention to the body. The mikdash is all about the spirit and the soul. So it's not god forbid because the person with the disability or the disfigurement is less than is inferior. It's because they're going to draw negative attention. And a person is going to focus on their body what is incomplete about it and that's the opposite of where the focus should be in the Mishkan. Needless to say, however, our attitudes of disability have changed significantly. The principle of integration, for instance, played a part in a 16th century chuva of Slanic. This is the mass mas. He'd been asked whether a blind man may be called to the reading of the Torah after citing the authorities who rule affirmatively on the question. It's a good question, right? Can a blind man get an aliyah? Why is that a good question? What is the person getting the aliyah supposed to do? Follow the Torah reading inside. In fact, if you learn the Gumar migillah, really, it used to be everyone who got an aliyah read their own aliyah. What happened? It was embarrassing. Most people are not a balor. They didn't know how to read. So over time we designated a designated balor and we just caught all called up the people to get the aliyah but they're meant to read along inside with the balor. So how could a blind man get an aliyah? He can't read inside the Torah. So the masin quotes several postkim who came to the conclusion it was permissible. But he himself adds at the end, quote, "We must allow the blind to be called to the Torah to utter the braos in order to include them in the acceptance of Hashem's dominion and to give them spiritual satisfaction." Inclusion of those with disabilities within the faith community was for him a significant factor. If we treat others disrespectfully, we diminish their humanity and thereby our own. This too is part of the heritage. So the Torah here says that the balm doesn't serve but not because we're excluding. We believe in inclusivity as a value. It's a concession to the reality. And the reality is that people stink says it much more eloquently, but I'll tell it to you the way it is. People are terrible and they stink. And if a person is disfigured will come up on the beimma and den and people will see they won't be listening to the braha. They won't be focused on the nama. It will remind them of the body. And the bas is a place of souls, not of bodies, of immortality, not mort mortality, of eternity, not of being mere mortals. And therefore, the didn't serve. We move over to safeguarding the kadusha of chuma and blemished animals and desecrating or making don't deseesecrate God's name. Sanctify God's name among the Jewish people. I am God who sanctifies you. I am God who sanctifies you. There's a whole discussion we don't have time for now. My friend of Zikman has a long essay on unfortunately a question which has come up again in our time and that is the question of if one is about to give their life do they make a we make a every morning. Is there a braha for the mitzvah of dying ones? Raoshri the RV of the coven ghetto has a chuva in his chasim from the depths. Also in the holocaust he was asked in the coven those chasakim. We learned them in the shabas ko a few weeks ago the question of a young man a boy who was learning in the mix in the coven ghetto climbing over corpses walking around dead bodies lost his whole family somehow still wanted to learn he turns to the rub of the coven of us and he says I cannot imagine dying never having the experience of wearing fillin and yet statistically it is unlikely almost impossible I'll live to my bar mitzvah can I put on fillin even though I'm not baritzvah That was his question. Can you imagine? That's the question of a young boy who's lost everything and who's living through the gene in this world. Similarly, someone asked the coven, I'm going to go to the gas chamber. We're going to get deported. This is not going to end well. And when it does, do we make a bra for dying? And he has a whole essay. Do you make a bra for giving your life plus has a long essay on that and other aspects of keshm and tragically tragically tragically we den that not only Alexander that should open the gates for the rest of the hostages to come home but too many have lost their lives among them holy kadoshim of soldiers and the question has returned yet again as it's been asked so many times over these 2,000 years does one make a braha for this mitzvah Israel a mitzvah of keshm we think of the mitzvah of kdishem to die for kdhashem you know what's an even bigger mitzvah to live alkashem it is hard to give one's life to die alkesh in some ways arguably for some it can be harder to live alkesh the different conflicts or positions that people are put in to have to live al keshashem Bakaya writes in terms of this mitzvah of living says on this mitzvah. Hashem can forgive us even when we cheat on him. Even for acts of infidelity towards him. Even when we worship another god, God can forgive us. He can overlook it. But no doesn't earn forgiveness. Our own death doesn't earn forgiveness. Nothing can erase and eradicate the impact. If you make there's only one answer, one antidote, right? If a person makes what does that mean? If you leave a negative impression, if you didn't say thank you to the checkout person at Publix or CVS, if you didn't leave a proper tip, if you were rude and loud and obnoxious and left a mess in the back of the Uber, if your word is not your bond in business, the people with whom you do business think you have no integrity, no honesty. God forbid you land in a headline in the newspaper for cheating in business, being dishonest. If a person makes that hashem says I have no tolerance I have no patience and there is no path towards forgiveness that is irredeemable that is unrepable it is beyond unacceptable and intolerable says one thing you could do by the way where we tend to mistakenly think that these two options of desecrating God's name or sanctifying it are when you're out in the world at work with the non-Jews, with the Gentiles, when you're going on a school trip to the museum. No, that's not how the Torah formulates it. You know what the Tor Torah says? The primary arena where you will either live is among your fellow Yidden, your fellow Jews, affiliated and unaffiliated, observant and nonobservant. There's a holy Jew who I love, a friend and neighbor of mine who regularly struggles with his relationship of Judaism because of too many Jews he knows. And every time he has a ne negative experience with a Jew, an observant Jew, and the more observant they are, leaving a bad taste in his mouth for Judaism, the more he struggles with his observance. So I'm constantly telling him, don't judge Judaism by the Jews. Don't judge Judaism by the Jews. He said this last week in the Amunir. If you caught your trainer at the gym in the corner eating a donut, you wouldn't say, "I'm not going to the gym anymore. This whole thing is a joke." You'd say, "My trainer is also human. Maybe he's hypocritical. Maybe I need a new trainer, but why would I punish myself and not go to the gym? Just because I caught my trainer eating a donut in the corner of the gym." So, because there are Jews who are not living a proper Judaism doesn't mean you should give up Judaism. Don't judge Judaism by the Jews. But the bottom line is so many are. They're watching carefully and closely and they're deciding their attitude, their relationship towards their Yiddishkite based on who we are. And the more religious we are, the more responsibility we have in our business conduct, socially in the supermarket, the way we run our HOA and HOA meetings, everything we do, honesty and integrity, and above board. And another friend in the community who would ask, does it pass? He loved to call it the Suns Sentinel test. I don't even hear it. Does it still exist? the Suns Sentinel never even hear about it. There's a newspaper in Florida, the Sun Sentinel. It's the local Florida newspaper, the Suns Sentinel. And he would say, "Rabbi, I know what you're doing with the Shoul's doing. You could explain it. You have an answer for it. You can make sense of it, but would it pass the Sunset test?" If the non-Jewish newspaper made it a story on that headline, what would the world think? Does it pass the Sunset test? Not could you explain it? Could you justify it? Could you rationalize it? Would it pass the newspaper test? Yes or no? If it wouldn't, don't do it. Don't do it. So says, if a person, God forbid, makes you didn't hold the door, you didn't leave a tip, you left a mess, you were loud and obnoxious, you weren't honest, you didn't follow through, your word wasn't your bond, you didn't run things above board, you didn't pass this test, what's the only way to repair? You have to overcompensate. You have to go in the opposite direction. You have to become Mr. Mrs. Keshm. If you made a wordal means a vacuum, a hole, an abscess, an opening. If you created a space in this world where you now knocked God out for those people, for that HOA, for that committee, for that business, for that Uber driver, you just created a space where there is no God because you, the representative of God, acted ungodly. So now you erased, you eradicated God from that space. That's the only antidote, the only answer, the only thing you can do to improve it is fill that space now with Hashem. You better become this incredible engine, this driver. You better become this incredible catalyst of he says the quotes says notice you have to make is you have to get all the Jewish people. It's not enough if you made to personally individually try to overcompensate by making a kishem. What else you have to do? You have to inspire your fellow Jew. You have to create a big movement called keshashem. A big movement. Hashtag bumper stickers, social media posts. Create a big movement where everyone is focused on a kittish hashem. Share a picture. Share a story. Share a moment. Inspire others. Get everyone to make a kdish hashem. Whenever I fly domestically or internationally on a non-Jewish or a Jewish airline, unfortunately, sadly, tragically, because still we have too many of our fellow Jews who on the airplane is a big platform for not following rules. You ever hear the joke which is not funny of the airplane that landed the end of December, the pilot comes on and he says, "For all those still seated, merry Christmas. for all those standing in the aisles. Happy Kaneka. It's not a funny joke before they get to the gate. So, every time I I try to be overly friendly to every flight attendant, overly friendly helping people. Can I help you put that up? There's always a fight about someone who took too much space to overhead because Jews always have seven bags. In addition to their check on, they also have food in case the plane is grounded for four days. They have enough food to fill feed the whole plane. They got to make space for that, too. And it's always tuna fish or herring. So the whole plane stinks. So you got to make a big kishm. You're not entitled to go on a plane and put on a baseball cap and pretend you don't know anyone and duck your head and keep it down. You can't do that. You got to overcompensate for the smell of her. You've got to overcome the tuna fish bagel. You've got to overcompensate for whoever's going to take up too much of their seat, too much of the overspace or stand up too soon or sit down to. You've got to overcompensate. overly friendly, overly kind, overly thoughtful, overly courteous, overly obedient of the rules because that's the only antidote says for all the that there is or being created, we have to create and it has to be a movement. It has to be a mission. We have to be able to be charged and excited and committed and all of us really making it happen. Okay, what else do we have time for? Let's [Music] see. Now we move from holiness in people to holiness in time. Page 682. The mob. What does the word moed mean? We translate it as holiday. But it doesn't mean holiday. What does it mean? It means a rendevu point. A moed tishab is called a moed because a moed doesn't mean a holiday. Not in the sense of a happy holiday. Tishab is the saddest day. What is a moed? A mo means an appointed time a rendevu point a point of connection. So these are the of that you will call them. These are the points the rendev points. We're about to list all the Jewish holidays. My friend and mentor Rabbi Friedman Shalom used to love to say what's the next Jewish holiday? This is a bad week to do it because we just had pes yesterday and lag bommer Thursday. But aside from lom, what's the next Jewish holiday? Shabas. Most would say shabus. But it's wrong because the Torah introduces these are the Jewish holidays. And which the first Jewish holiday lists? Shabas. We're z. We have a shab. We have a holiday every week. It's called shabas. You don't have to wait for shabus and pesk and pum and tishv and tv. You have a holiday every week. It's called Shabas. It's the next Jewish holiday. On any week, it's often the next Jewish holiday. And here the Torah formulates six days. Do your work. Seventh day is don't do your work. It's a shabas form in all of your dwelling places. Why does the Torah first say do six days of work and then on the seventh day? It is this holy Sabbath, a day of holiness for God. Don't do work. Why not do the opposite? Say the seventh day is Shabas. Shabasa, not just the dos and don'ts, not just the 39 categories of creative labor, but the beauty, the gishmak, the love, the passion. If Shabas is what's so special, Shabas is Shabas is the payday. Start with Shabas and afterwards say after Shabas, six days of work. Why does the Torah preface it with says when you have to educate a child, train a child, don't start with what's forbidden. This is wrong. You can't do this. You can't do this. That's out of bounds. That's off limits. No. No. No. And no. Child says what? I didn't sign up for this. I'm not interested in this. What? But if you start with this you could do and this is beautiful and this is galdic and this is and this is great. And now what will enhance all those great things you can do is abstain, refrain. Let's avoid those. So before you create the boundaries of what's outside the boundary, first start with everything that's inside the boundary. First start with everything you could do and everything that's great and everything that's first your child's child for six days. You could go on your Nintendo for six days. You can play on your game for six days. You can get in the car for six days. You can go where you want for six days. The world is open to you. You could write and you can erase and you can plant and you can plow and you can bake and you can cook and for six days you can do what you want with other boundaries. But when it comes to these so first we start with what you can do and then we tell you what you can't. What's the first mitzvah in the Torah? Most assume it's purvu. It's the obligation go multiply, have many children. Some say it's you can't eat from the that's the first mitzvah. But it's not. What is the first mitzvah? I don't mean the first mitzvah. The first proper mitzvah of is correct. What's the first instruction that God gives? Many mistakenly think the first instruction he gives is multiply. Wrong. Some think the first instruction he gives is You can't even wrong. What's the first instruction he gives? From the whole garden, eat go enjoy justadas. You can't touch. First thing he says is this is all for you. From the whole garden, go and eat. He doesn't quote this, but that's essentially what he's saying. Hashem doesn't start with let's begin with something you can't do. He starts and he begins with here's what you can do. You want to light a fire under a child. You want to get them excited. You want to inspire. You want to draw them in. Don't start with the don'ts. Don't start with the can't. Don't start with the boundaries. Don't start with the off limits. Start with here's what we can do. Here's what's great. Here's what's going to work. And now what enhances that is to have boundaries around it and therefore what you can't do. So first we begin with six days you work. And then the seventh day, the payday. What makes the six days of work even more meaningful is the beauty the holiness the shabas the other understanding of this is six days work mosha has a different answer he says you know why it starts with six days of work then the seventh day of shabas why doesn't it say the seventh day of shabas and if you can also make the first day second day third day fourth day fifth day sixth day also like shabas don't work those days either why doesn't the Torah tell us that if you like shabas if you like rest one day all the more so you should love rest the other six days also right wrong because in Judaism and Torah work is not a concession work is a value this is related to my comment learn grow take that time and then for six days work is a value conquer the world contribute to the world participate in the world improve the world repair the world make the world operate with whatever profession you will choose but work is not a concession we have to I wish we didn't try to get out of it work is a value and here the Torah articulates and communicates that value six days add to the world through work and then the seventh day you get shabas then the seventh day is shabas that's another explanation of why we started with six days of a holy log ba we have a log b program here on Thursday night you should Here you should be a day of Yeshua. Please remain for safer.