בס״ד אֱ מֹ ר EMOR In loving memory of Frida Mirel bat Chaim Simcha z"l Volume 34 | #28 “These are the appointed festivals of God, the holy seasons 1 May 2021 which you shall fix in their appropriate time.” 19 Iyar 5781 (Vayikra 23:4) Shabbat ends: London 9.17pm Sheffield 9.38pm Glasgow 10.00pm Edinburgh 9.54pm Birmingham 9.28pm Southport 9.46pm Hull 9.36pm Jerusalem 7.59pm Please look regularly at the social media and websites of the US, Tribe and your community for ongoing updates relating to Coronavirus as well as educational programming and community support. You do not need to sign into Facebook to access the US Facebook page. The US Coronavirus Helpline is on 020 8343 5696. May God bless us and the whole world. INSIDE: Bless You by Rabbi Nick Kett Emor Napoleon Bonaparte Artscroll p672 by Simon Goulden Hertz p513 Soncino p740 Eli Cohen (1924-65) Haftarah by Rabbi Michael Laitner Artscroll p1176 Hertz p528 Sefer Shofetim Soncino p761 Daf Hashavua by Pnina Savery Sidra breakdown אֱ מֹר Emor 8h Sidra in: Bless ַו ִ ּי קְ רָ א Vayikra By Numbers: 124 verses 1,614 words YouBy Rabbi Nick Kett, Community Rabbi, Bushey & District 6,106 letters United Synagogue Headlines: A few years ago, I about the Kohanim and their service Laws of Cohanim, shared an idea with in the Mishkan, and latterly the sanctifying God’s my ‘Lunch and Learn’ Temple. The Kohanim have the group in Bushey, which unique opportunity to bless the Name and Yom Tov was so breathtakingly Jewish People with Birkat Kohanim, simple, but which captivated the the Priestly Blessing (Bemidbar group’s attention in such a way 6:22-27). In Israel, even today, that they still remind me of it the Kohanim bless the community occasionally after all this time. during the daily morning service, Perhaps it will resonate with you and for many, they feel proud and too… privileged to have this powerful In this week’s parasha we read blessing at their fingertips. United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by US Living & Learning Sidra Summary together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue 1st Aliya (Kohen) – Vayikra 21:1-15 Editor-in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis God instructs Moshe to tell the Kohanim not to come into contact with a corpse, Editorial and Production Team: with the exception of when burying specific close relatives. They are not allowed Rabbi Daniel Sturgess, Rabbi Michael Laitner, to shave their heads or wound themselves during a mourning period (Rashi). There Rebbetzen Nechama Davis, are restrictions on whom Kohanim can marry. There is a mitzvah to show Kohanim Joanna Rose specific forms of respect (Rashi). A Kohen Gadol is not allowed to bury a close Available also via email US website relative, nor marry a widow. www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please 2nd Aliya (Levi) – 21:16-22:16 contact Danielle Fox on 020 8343 6261, Specific types of physical blemishes on a Kohen disqualify him from bringing or [email protected] offerings in the Temple; however, he may still eat from the offerings. A Kohen If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email who is ritually impure (tamei) can neither bring nor eat an offering until he is pure [email protected] However, it seems a little unfair and that only the non-Priests receive waiting these words of blessing. Who is to infuse blessing the Kohanim! Do they not our lives with deserve to be blessed too? more blessing. Who The answer to this lies all the would not want to take way back in Parashat Lech Lecha, advantage of this! when God was speaking to Avraham When we are walking (then called Avram) for the very first down the street and we pass time, instructing him to leave his a home, we could pause for a town and birthplace, and journey moment and confer blessing to a place yet to be revealed. God on the people living there, seeks to reassure him by saying and voila! More blessing from “I will bless those who bless you, God! and he who curses you I will curse” We do not fully appreciate (Bereishit 12:3). the power that lies within Embedded in this early message each and every one of us. is the promise that any time a It is not just Kohanim who have person seizes the opportunity the ability to bestow blessings to bless another Jew, they are on others; we all have that gift. guaranteed to be blessed by God! It comes with a divine guarantee This means that any time the that any time we take the time to Kohanim bless the community, they wish others well, we will also be too will be blessed. blessed. The ramifications of this are far For my ‘Lunch and Learn’ group, greater and more empowering than this was a life-changing idea. There we could ever imagine. Any time we are some things in life that come take an opportunity to bless another naturally and easily to us. For many person, we are divinely guaranteed people, greeting someone politely to receive blessing from God. When and consciously wishing others well we greet someone with a ‘Shalom are on that list. It is empowering to Aleichem’ or a ‘Shabbat Shalom’ – know that Heavenly blessings await also types of blessing – God is ready us for these simple gestures. In loving memory of Devorah Bat Avraham z"l (tahor). The laws of terumah, the first crop tithe given to the which lasts seven days, we eat matzot. The first and Kohanim, are stated. Whilst this tithe should not be eaten last days are Yom Tov, on which we refrain from specific by a non-Kohen, a Kohen’s wife and his Cana’anite servant prohibited activity (melacha). On the second day of Pesach, are permitted to eat it. the barley Omer offering is brought. There is a mitzvah to count 49 days from 16 Nissan (the second night of Pesach) 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 22:17-33 until the night before Shavuot. On Shavuot itself, the double Offerings brought to the Temple must be free of certain bread wheat offering (shtei ha’lechem) is brought and blemishes which disqualify them. An animal cannot be melacha is forbidden. brought as an offering until it is at least eight days old. Offerings have to be eaten within a certain time. There is a 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 23:23-32 mitzvah to sanctify God’s Name. Rosh Hashanah is called ‘a day of shofar blasts’. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting. On these days, melacha is also forbidden, 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 23:1-23:22 but the punishment for doing melacha on Yom Kippur is Laws of Shabbat and the festivals are listed. On Pesach, more severe. Napoleon Bonaparte by Simon Goulden, Education Consultant to the United Synagogue This week we mark the to use them to reinforce the French 200th anniversary of nation. the death of Napoleon Napoleon actually had more Bonaparte: Corsican by influence on the Jews in Europe birth, self-declared – and crowned than his decrees might indicate, - Emperor, conqueror of most of as he broke up the feudal system mainland Europe and possible friend to of mid-Europe and introduced the the Jews. Quite what that qualification Revolutionary ideas of equality. means we can learn from his comments Recognising the Jewish community and actions. as an entity, he established a In the French Revolution, with national Consistoire Israelite in its promise of liberty, equality, and to the British and he never carried France, intended to serve as a central fraternity, the rights of citizenship out his alleged plan. Some historians authority for Jewish religious and were extended to Jews. Still, respect believe that Napoleon intended the community life, a system which he and rights were conditioned on the proclamation only for propaganda repeated in many other lands which willingness of Jews to abandon their and to build support for his campaign fell under his power. age-old customs and their communal among the Jews in the Holy Land. On closer inspection, things may not identity. This was the meaning of the Others think that the newspaper have been quite as wonderful for the slogan “To the Jews as individuals, was reporting a rumour, as there is Jewish community. The Consistoire everything, to the Jews as a people, no documentation that Napoleon Israelite in France consisted of three nothing.” contemplated such a policy. rabbis and two lay individuals. In During Napoleon's siege of Akko Nevertheless, Rabbi Aharon Ben- charge of the Consistoire Israelite (and (Acre), Israel in 1799, Le Moniteur Levi of Jerusalem seems to have added the consistory system in general) was a Universel, the main French newspaper his voice to the proclamation, calling 25-member board, all Jews, who were during the French Revolution, published on the Jews to enlist in Napoleon's appointed by the (state-appointed) on 22nd May 1799 a short statement army "to return to Zion as in the days Prefect, which allowed the French that, translated into English, said: of Ezra and Nechemia" and rebuild the government to manage and regulate "Bonaparte has published a Temple. Perhaps Napoleon had the idea the system of consistories and, in turn, proclamation in which he invites all to establish a national home for the various aspects of Jewish life. When the Jews of Asia and Africa to gather Jews in the Land of Israel and that the Napoleon was finally defeated, most of under his flag in order to re-establish Jews would repay the favour by serving Europe slid back into its old, antisemitic the ancient Jerusalem.