Page Zero of Torah Tidbits 762 Quite a while ago, we wrote of the Israel Center being like the elephant in the famous poem, "The Blind Men and the Elephant" by John Godfrey Saxe. Six blind men were taken to "see" an elephant. Each Lead Tidbit cont. from Front Page touched a different part of the elephant the mitzva to Sanctify G•d's Name,(trunk, tail, tusk, leg, ear, side) and each, even if it involved being killed. Thistherefore got a different idea as to what an adds a dimension to our quest and elephant was like (snake, rope, spear, tree, challenge to be holy. The Torah often fan, wall). Many TTreaders know the places our becoming holy in Centerthe for the programs that take place at context of G•d's being holy. Simply22 Keren HaYesod. You have a good idea put, one cannot become holy if oneas to the type of people that participate in desecrates G•d's name. Our path to our shiurim, tiyulim, Shabbatonim, video holiness, through the proper perform• presentations, libraries, Torah Tidbits. ance of mitzvot, must go hand in But there is so much more to the OU Israel hand with our continual avoidance of Center that we now refer to the whole Chilul HaShem and our continual operation as OU Israel, of which the Israel sanctification of G•d's name. One who Center is but a part. gives up his life for Kiddush HaShem is called a KADOSH. And we can say We try to give TTreaders a glimpse into it is true for the one who sanctifiessome of the other aspects of OU Israel • HaShem in a myriad of ways day•in our youth programs • NESTO and Makom and day•out throughout one's life•BaLev, our kiruv/outreach program • Lev time. Yehudi... and more. Let's put it like this: And then the Torah presents to us,Torah Tidbits is part of the Israel Center once again, the concept of Sanctity of which is part of OU Israel is part of OU... Time, K'dushat Z'man. We find in Emor, a major presentation of theWORD of the MONTH from p.2 Chagim, all put in the perspective of A weekly TT feature to help clarify practical Shabbat. Perhaps we can say that a and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby enhancing our appreciation of G•d's person cannot hope to attain K'dusha gift to Am Yisrael of HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem... without living a life that is filled with mitzvot in general, and with the holy Imagine having left Egypt, then seeing days of our calendar in particular. We Mitzrayim pursue you, with mountains on either also find in the sedra, references to side and the Sea in front. Then after going sanctity of place • i.e. the Mikdash. through the Sea, having another 5 "exciting" The point: The whole Torah is really a (and nerve•racking) weeks until arriving at manual for "How to go about being Sinai. A lot took place there • some good, some Holy, as G•d wants us to be". But if not • and finally, it's time to move on... you want to narrow it down to a Here's something to think about: The Plan was sedra or two, then it's K'doshim and to be taken out of Egypt, brought to Sinai and K'doshim Two, a.k.a. Emor. Thosegiven the Torah, and be taken into Eretz two sedras contain an amazing 114 Yisrael. We tend to blame the "Sin of the mitzvot of the Torah's 613. That'sSpies" for the long delay in the Eretz Yisrael more than 18% of the total in justpart of the Plan. But, it seems, that we stayed these two consecutive sedras. Theat Sinai from Matan Torah through the first pursuit of holiness is done withanniversary of the Exodus, and an additional mitzvot and with everyday, mundane month until Pesach Sheni, almost another week activitiy. That covers pretty much covers us all 24/7. until we received "marching orders", then the Meraglim... — 0 – Say the sedra is K'doshim part 2 The sedra of K'doshim, as we reported in last week's TT, posed the challenge of K'DOSHIM TIHYU, Be Holy, and gave us a good idea as to how G•d wants us to pursue that goal. The simple answer is: MITZVOT. Loads and loads of them. 51 packed into a small sedra of 64 p'sukim. Dozens more that are counted elsewhere, but add to the raw total of mitzvot in K'doshim. And it doesn't stop there. Not by a long shot, as the expression goes. Emor begins by addressing the kohanim among us and commanding them to be holy • K'DOSHIM YIHYU... V'LO Y'CHAL'LU... and not defile... The concept of K'DUSHA is repeated several times with the kohanim, and further • and higher • for the Kohein Gadol. [Side fact of interest to stat•heads: There are more words by far with the root KUF•DALET•SHIN, variations of the word for Holy, in Emor than any other sedra in the Torah. 48 words. In second place, T'tzaveh with 30.] For the first half of Emor, the Torah speaks to the kohanim, and the rest of us listen in, and learn many things along the way. One should not think that the words to the kohanim are only for them. If that were so, they would have received a separate manual of conduct rather than their mitzvot being part of the Taryag (the Torah's 613 mitzvot). But halfway through the sedra, the Torah addresses us all directly, with the ultimate command of K'dusha • — 1 – — 2 – participate in the funeral and burial of his close EMOR STATS relatives, becoming "Tamei" [264,A37 21:3]. Kohanim (and all Jews) are forbidden to afflict the 31st of 54 sedras; 8th of 10 in Vayikra body in any way as a sign of grief. [This is an Written on 215 lines in a Torah (rank: 20th) example, among many, of a mitzva that appears in a particular sedra, but is counted elsewhere. In 17 parshiyot; 11 open, 6 closed (above avg.) other words, Emor has even more than the "official" 124 p'sukim, rank: 15th; 1st in Vayikra count of 63 mitzvot.] Same as Sh'mot, but shorter in words & letters. Very very close in number of lines; but number of parshiyot affects line•count because of the blank spaces between parshiyot. The Talmud teaches that from this same source, mitzva 264, comes the requirement, incumbent 1614 words, rank: 22nd; 2nd in Vayikra upon all Jews (not just kohanim), to mourn one's 6106 letters, rank: 23rd; 2nd in Vayikra seven close relatives. It is important to note that this is not a case of rabbinic extension of Torah law Relatively short p'sukim account for its drop or rabbinic legislation sanctioned by their obligation in ranking in words and letters to "protect" Torah and mitzvot. This is more. This is part of the definition of the Torah's mitzva #264, as transmitted to us by the Talmud, the Oral Law. The MITZVOT Sages of the Talmud present us with two categories of Law • Torah Law, which includes the Written 16 mitzvot; 11 positive and 5 prohibitions Word AND the Oral Law, and Rabbinic law. They not Only Ki Teitzei (with 74) has more mitzvot only teach us both, but they (most often) clearly differentiate between the two categories for us, so than Emor. Only K'doshim and Ki Teitzei are that we will know what is D'ORAITA and what is more mitzva•dense. Emor has more thanD'RABANAN, thereby neither adding to nor one mitzva per two p'sukim, five times the detracting from the Torah. Our commitment to G•d Torah average. at Sinai includes careful adherence to Torah and Rabbinic Law (since the Torah requires us to listen to the rulings and teachings of the Sanhedrin). But it is important for us to know the difference so that Aliya•by•Aliya we will not have a distorted view of the Torah. (There are also practical distinctions between Biblical and Rabbinic law.) Sedra Summary Specifically, in the case of mourning, the first day is [P> X:Y (Z)] and [S> X:Y (Z)] indicate start of a parsha p’tucha or s’tuma Torah Law, the balance of Shiva is Rabbinic. respectively. X:Y is Perek:Pasuk of the beginning of the parsha; (Z) is the Rabbinic, but inspired by the Torah. But that's not number of p'sukim in the parsha. the same as Torah law itself. Numbers in [square brackets] are the Mitzva•count of Sefer HaChinuch AND On another point... Note the one difference • a Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvot. A=ASEI (positive mitzva); L=LAV (prohibition). kohein becomes Tamei to his sister only if she was X:Y is the perek and pasuk from which the mitzva comes. not married. Today, a kohein sits shiva for a married sister, but still has to maintain the practice of avoiding Tum'a. For a non•kohein, there is no Kohen • First Aliya • distinction as to whether a person's sister is married or not. She is one of the seven relatives that are 15 p'sukim • 21:1•15 mourned. A kohein gets the first Aliya of every Torah reading. That's a Kohanim must be holy and avoid desecrating His given. But this particular first Aliya is perfect for a kohein. Name, because they perform sacred service.