Shalom Friends;
This week, our Parshat HaShavua, Emor is being sponsored anonymously and dedicated for the safety of the Chayalim, as well as for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. To our anonymous sponsor, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShavua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to subscribe, and hopefully to sponsor a Parshat HaShavua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards and stay safe,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
Subscribe to the Israel and the Sin of Expulsion blog, to ask questions or to sponsor a Parsha Vort at: olehchadash@yahoo.com
***********************************************************
Our Parsha opens:
“Hashem said to Moshe: ‘Say [Emor] to the Kohanim, the sons of Aaron, and you shall say [Amartah] to them: to a [dead] person he shall not become impure among his people;'” [Sefer Vayikra, Perek 21, posuk 1 as rendered to English in “The Sapirstein Edition, The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary”]
Rabbi Hershel Reichman asks on the opening posuk of our Parshat Emor in his Sefer, “Living the Chassidic Legacy — Lessons Based on Shem Mishmuel, Volume Two” and offers commentary (page 454 – 455) :
The Parsha starts with an unusual expression. repeating a conjugation [Noun: Grammar — an act of joining; the state of being joined together; union; conjunction] of the word “emor” twice in one posuk. Why does the posuk use the language of “emor” twice?
The Midrash says that when Hashem speaks… to the angels, He only has to speak once. But when Hashem addresses people, who have an evil inclination, He speaks twice. For example, the Midrash says, take our posuk: “emor… v’amartah.” Angels [Malachim] need to be addressed only once by Hashem. …Angels completely control their actions according to their intellect. The Kohanim are people, with an evil inclination, so they need to be told the Mitzvah twice; hence the double usage of “emor.”
On a simple level, the idea… is that people are hard to convince, so they need to be told twice. However… the Shem Mishmuel wants to understand this on a deeper level. He begins… with an idea of his father, the Avnei Nezer. When Hashem speaks to a person once, He relays a truth that is important for the person to know. Once the person hears the message from Hashem, he can intellectually accept it as his Creator’s will. However, every human being, even prophets [nevi’im], face a special challenge at this point. They need to move this knowledge from their mind into their body and hands in order to act on it — something that can be quite difficult.
…Chassidus… often speak[s] about various levels of the soul. Clearly, the intellect is not the only level of a person’s being and personality. There are many levels between mind and body. When a person wants to express his awareness and beliefs in actions.he must first integrate his knowledge into his emotional makeup. This is a distinct second stage apart from learning in the first place. Only after this process will one act on what he knows.
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, in his sefer “Growth Through Torah” (page 266) cites Rashi regarding Sefer Vayikra.Perek 16, posuk 1 from Parsha Acharei Mos: “Hashem spoke to Moshe after the deaths of Aaron’s two sons” in explaining this concept of levels in what this author understands as a different way, by explaining the effectiveness of not merely citing a fact, but providing examples to illustrate the fact cited:
Rashi cites… Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariya… [about] an ill person who is visited by a physician. The doctor said to him, “Do not eat such and such foods, and do not sleep in a damp place.” Then another physician came to him and said, “Do not eat such and such foods, and do not sleep in a damp place in order that you should not die like this certain person.” The second doctor will have a much stronger effect than the first doctor.
Returning to Rabbi Reichman’s commentary on the Shem Mishmuel (ibid, pages 456 – 458) :
The Shem Mishmuel notes a fact… from our history and the persecutions we have suffered. Many of the gentile thinkers and philosophers spoke of wonderful ideas of morality, acceptance, tolerance and freedom. However, they were far from translating these noble ideas into physical reality. How many spiritual leaders spoke so beautifully and nobly about peace and equality but then waged vicious anti-Semitic wars against our people? Others could write that G’d has endowed men with inalienable rights to freedom, but those same philosophers were themselves slave owners. They could intellectually accept the concept of freedom and equality of all men. In practice, through their greed and desire for free labor, they owned slaves.
There is an almost universal disconnect between what people believe to be an intellectual truth and their actual behavior. The Torah addresses this problem by repeating the words “emor v’amartah.” One has to work on integrating those thoughts into his heart and actions so they become real.
This may be the greatest challenge we face as people. How do we overcome the barrier between what we know and how to act on that knowledge in a proper way?
The Shem Mishmuel says that Torah study will quickly and most effectively clear the channels between our minds and bodies… We call… evil energies and blockages the yeitzer hara, the evil urge. Studying the word of Hashem and the words of our Holy Sages is a strong way of clearing pathways between the mind and body.
Regarding Rabbi Reichman’s commentary about those who “wrote those beautiful words in the Declaration of independence,” who were themselves slave owners out of their greed, and lust for free labor, this author would propose adding that racism played a role in slavery as well. And such racism, based on skin color, continued after the Civil War in the United States through to the passage of Civil Rights Laws in the mid-1960s.
And we continue to see a type of racism being played out, actually against American citizens, by one of America’s major political parties, under the guise of “democracy,” by way of their promotion of voter registration without any kind of identification for tens of millions of non-citizen illegal immigrants. Part of their false and fraudulent claims are that Voter ID discriminates racially against those who cannot secure identification. This tactic is but a raw attempt by that party to use the votes of illegal immigrants to seize permanent governing authority of the United States at all three levels of governance — executive, legislative and judicial.
And what of those “beautiful words — democracy, freedom, equality” in the United States and Canada as anti-Semitic violence has increased in both countries on university campuses and in the streets hundreds-fold in recent years?
And the lack of support among many in America, Canada and throughout the so-called “democracies” of Europe for gentiles being physically brutalized and persecuted under Islamic rule — under the “p.a.,” in Lebanon, of course in the Islamic caliphate of Iran, Yemen, Turkey, and more is noted, as certain social media commentators, and unfortunately including some Jewish legislators, blaspheme [verb — used with an object: to speak evil of; slander; abuse] Israel accusing the IDF of murdering civilians while fighting Hamas in Gaza, and now during the war against Iran.
And there is the Israeli left who invoke that “beautiful word — democracy” in fighting to maintain a judiciary based on unrepresentative legal committees, in fact: a judicial dictatorship strangle-hold on Israel’s governance.
There seems to be a long distance to travel between the intellects and the actions of man. B’Ezrat Hashem that this gap soon be bridged.
In the ongoing Milchemtah Shel Torah, there seems to be an unwritten, unspoken Divine Command to utterly defeat and eradicate Amalek.
May our government and military bring about the total and complete, Final and Decisive victory over Hamas, their 7 October so-called “civilians(sic)” collaborators, Iran and the entire terror cabal, B’Yad Hashem, and become Totally self-sufficient as to manufacture of military equipment and aircraft, weaponry, munitions — heavy munitions, as well as showing independence of actions responding to any threat, regardless of so-called “super powers.”
May we see, from here on, that border guard personnel at all points of possible danger are listened to and treated with respect and dignity. May we see, with Operation Roaring Lions — the joint action by our Chayalim and the United States against the Mullahs of what has been the Islamic Caliphate dictatorship controlling Iran, that Islam and its barbarous terrorist tentacles of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, as well as Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and all who seek war against the Jews be totally eradicated, both in Israel’s neighborhood, as well as internationally, B’Ezrat Hashem. May we see a government of Israel secure in it’s foremost service of, and emunah in HaKadosh Borchu, B’Ezrat Hashem! And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael. May these words come to fruition B’Ezrat Hashem.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his sixth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, the recent recovery of the remains of Tzvi Feldman as well as the recoveries of the remains of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
———————————————————
Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Moshe is available for editing of English language documents, articles, manuscripts and more. Please be in contact with him at olehchadash@yahoo.com for your English language needs.
*********************************************************