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Reading

Insights:

Emor

5785

Overview of the Torah Reading

To be read on Shabbat Emor - 14 Iyar 5785 /May 12, 2025

Torah:Lev. 21:1-24:23; Haftorah: Ezekiel 44:15-31 (Kohanim in Temple)

Pirkei Avot: Chapter Four

Emor is the 7th Reading out of 10 in Leviticus and it contains 6106 letters, in 1614 words, in 124 verses

Parshat Emor opens with laws concerning priests and the high priest: which blemishes or states of impurity disqualify them from serving, with whom they may marry, for which deceased person may they become impure, and more. The next topic discussed is which animals are eligible for sacrifices. The following section speaks about Shabbos and lists some of the dates and laws of the holidays. Then comes instructions about the menorah’s ‘eternal lamp’ and the showbread in the Tabernacle. The  concluding section relays how a Jew blasphemed and what his punishment was.


An essay from Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter, director of Ascent

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In this week's parsha is the commandment to count the Omer. "You should count for yourselves, from the day after Shabbat, seven complete [temimot] Shabbatot" [Vayikra/Leviticus 23:15]. From the word, temima ("complete"), we learn that the counting of the Omer must begin in the evening. This is as the Rabbis teach in the Talmud [Menachot 66a] that the day follows the night.

There is a very obvious question here. The counting of the Omer is counting the days after bringing the Omer offering in the Tabernacle and later, the Temple. All of the offerings called Kodshim are brought in the daytime and can be eaten also in the night. So we see that with sacrificial offerings, the night follows the day! Why is the counting of the Omer different?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe suggests the following explanation.

Without question the normal order is as with the creation, where the day follows the night, as the verse says, "It was night and it was morning, the first day" [Bereishit/Genesis ]. This is because the world, as it is today, is a dark place without the light of holiness. Only through the efforts of man do we infuse the world with Divine light. Therefore, the system, (and our experience) begins with night and darkness and only through our efforts comes afterwards the light and the day. Wow. What a thought to take with us as we go to sleep at night!

However, this is only how it is seen and experienced from below to above. From above to below, from the perception of the Divine, the order is the opposite. Because above, all is saturated with Divine light and there is no darkness whatsoever. There, the light and the day come first and only after come the darkness and the night which we must infuse with celestial light. Therefore, with Divine work, like the offerings, day precedes the night.

Now we can understand why in these days, the counting of the Omer begins in the evening, i.e. the day follows the night, because the commandment of the counting of the Omer is the work of man to lesaper [in Hebrew "to count", but also means to "make shine"]. The work of counting the Omer is to polish/shine and purify the seven emotional attributes of the animal soul with the light of holiness. This being the case, first comes the night, which are our emotional attributes before they have been shined and purified.

The Omer is a barley offering, an animal food, hinting to our base emotions that we must infuse with the light of holiness. The service and effort of polishing and rectifying the emotions by counting the Omer is synonymous with the advent of morning.
[Likrat Shabbat 5781]

Shabbat Shaliom, Shaul

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For last year's essay by Rabbi Leiter on this week's Reading, see the archive.


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Mystical Classics

Nation of Compassion

From Shenei Luchot HaBrit by Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz

Every person must make himself a servant of G-d and must sanctify himself so as to come as close to the sanctity of the High Priest as is possible. He should practice some solitude and avoid emerging from this communion with G-d to the extent his circumstances allow. He must be concerned that no blemish, physical or spiritual, should attach to him. His striving must be that he himself should qualify as an offering to G-d.

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