TORAH SPARKS ניצוצות תורה

פרשת קדושים

PARASHAT KEDOSHIM BIRKAT HAHODESH

April 30, 2011 – 26 Nisan 5771 – כ"ו ניסן תשע"א

Annual: Leviticus 19:1 – 20:27 (Etz Hayim, p. 693; Hertz p. 497)

Triennial: Leviticus 19:1 – 19:37 (Etz Hayim, p. 693; Hertz p. 497)

Haftarah: Amos 9:7 – 15 (Etz Hayim, p. 706; Hertz p. 509)

 

Prepared by Rabbi Joseph Prouser

Baldwin, New York

 

Parashat Kedoshim opens with the global commandment that gives the Torah portion its name: “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Kedoshim has been described as “a brief Torah” (Levine, JPS Commentary) and as a reworking of the Decalogue, because many of the Torah’s basic teachings are to be found in these two chapters. It provides the way to achieve the goals of national and individual holiness.

Among the wide-ranging commandments in this parashah are reverence for parents, observance of the Sabbath, and the prohibitions against idolatry and false oaths. All are echoes of the Ten Commandments. Also included are laws about the well-being offering, and the requirement to leave gleanings and designated areas of fields unharvested for the hungry poor. Various forms of deception and fraud are prohibited, as well as withholding a worker’s wages. Exploiting the vulnerable is prohibited in the twin commandments against cursing the deaf and placing a stumbling block before the blind. Various aspects of justice are explored, including the requirement to favor neither the poor (out of sympathy) nor the rich (to curry favor), and the obligation to reproach wrongdoers is given. The parasha includes a number of agriculturally based commandments — the prohibition against crossbreeding livestock; sowing a field with diverse species; shaatnez, wearing a garment that combines wool and linen, and the law of orlah – the prohibition against consuming fruit produced by a tree less than 4 years old. Tattooing is prohibited, as is cutting gashes in flesh. The latter prohibition is understood by the rabbis to refer also to the creation of mutually exclusive and hostile sects or subdivisions within the Jewish community, which would be tantamount to unsightly and unhealthy wounds to the Jewish body politic.

Further commandments include the prohibition against necromancy (communication with or divination by means of “familiar spirits”), as well as the requirement to show

deference to the elderly by – notably but not exclusively – rising in their presence.

The fundamental Jewish value of relating to the stranger with love and fairness is prescribed and linked to the Jewish national experience of being strangers in Egypt.

The obligation for honest business practices, especially honest weights and measures, is also provided.

Leviticus 20 – opening with the prohibition against cursing parents –essentially is a code of proper sexual behavior, detailing the prohibition against adultery, the

punishment for the violation of this norm, and various other forbidden unions and illicit sexual acts.

The parashah concludes with a restatement of the principal that continued possession of the Promised Land is covenantally contingent upon maintenance of

these laws and, additionally, on maintaining the distinction between “clean” and

“unclean” animal species.

 

Theme #1: “That Old-Time Religion”

“You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:32

Derash: Study

“If you fulfill the commandments to ‘show deference to the old’ your reward will be

that you are endowed with the fear of the Lord.” Midrash Vayikra Rabbah

“When Rabbi Zeira would take a break from his studies, he would make it a practice to sit by the gate of the house of study, so that he might be able to rise to greet

passing scholars and be rewarded.” Talmud, Berachot 28

“The years of old age … are indeed formative years, rich in possibilities to unlearn the follies of a lifetime, to see through inbred self-deceptions, to deepen understanding and compassion, to widen the horizon of honesty, to refine the sense of fairness.” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

“The very fabric of Jewish teaching directs us to seek counsel from our elders. We must begin to revise the subtle and not-so-subtle prejudices against aging, to revive

the association of wisdom with maturity, and to see the elder members of our

community as a valuable though underutilized resource. They are treasure troves of experience and history, who can and should play important roles in our community and family life.” Rabbi Jonathan Lubliner

“Thanks for the standing ovation. I am at the point now where I get a standing ovation just for standing.” George Burns

“Before old age befalls you, rise up to refine your soul.” Quoted in Maayanah shel

Torah

Questions for Discussion

Why should this mitzvah in particular carry a reward? How is “fear of God” (sincere piety, spiritual devotion, reverence, moral discretion) an apt reward

for those who honor the aged?

The wisdom and experience of the elderly is an eternal truth, but what unique wisdom do the aged in today’s Jewish community have to offer us and our children?

Our society highly prizes youth. What steps can we take to respond to Rabbi Lubliner’s call for a new perspective? How can our congregations and our families foster more personal and productive relationships between our more youthful and our most aged members? What special efforts and services are our congregations properly to offer the elderly? How is this religious duty to be weighed against the interests, values, and perceived needs of the younger generation?

Heschel speaks of the opportunity “to unlearn the follies of a lifetime” that comes with advanced age, yet we often think of the elderly as “set in their

 

ways.” To what fresh perspectives and new insights might Heschel have been referring?

The phrase translated as “show deference to the old” (v’hadarta p’nei zakein) more literally demands that we “attribute beauty to the face of the elderly.” What are the spiritual and moral perils inherent in correlating

beauty exclusively with youth? What – beyond the superficial – defines

beauty in the aged? In the young?

Was George Burns right? Do people of advanced age deserve our admiration simply for persevering? Is a “standing ovation” at the heart of our verse (which, as anyone who has ridden on an Israeli bus – where signs bearing this verse are posted and enforced – knows should be applied both metaphorically and literally)?

 

Theme #2: “Stranger But True”

“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens;

you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I

the Lord am your God.” Leviticus 19:33-34

 

Derash: Study

“This inclusive commandment marks the pinnacle of biblical ethics, the critical extension of the Golden Rule. Both Israelites and non-Israelites are

to be classified as citizens of the state and treated with equal magnanimity,

because that is God’s will. It is precisely the difficulty of loving the other, the person least like us, which prompts the Torah to repeat this particular law more than any other. True justice has to include the most vulnerable member of society, the outsider.” Rabbi Ismar Schorsch

“‘In your land’ do not tell the stranger that the Land of Israel is only for Jews, as extremists say in every country, claiming that their country is exclusively for their people, and that a stranger has no place there. For the land was given to Abraham and he was ‘Father to a great many peoples’ and any gentile who believes in the God of Abraham and associates himself with Abraham’s descendants is not to be considered a ‘foreigner’ in the land God promised him.” Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin

“Just as Scripture admonished you to honor an elderly Israelite, though he has no power, so does it admonish you concerning the stranger, who also has little power compared to you.” Ibn Ezra

“The stranger was to be protected, although he was not a member of one’s family, clan, religion, community, or people; simply because he was a human being. In the stranger, therefore, man discovered the idea of humanity.” Hermann Cohen

“When we let God into ourselves we open our hearts to a world where we see others made like us in the common image of Divinity. The ancient Jews were told by their lawgiver Moses to remember the stranger; this was a challenge to them to build a future world where nobody would be a stranger.” Rabbi Charles Shulman

Questions for Discussion

Rabbi Sorotzkin draws a connection between the mitzvah to honor the aged and the duty to love the stranger. What beyond the relative powerlessness of

these groups do these two biblical commandments have in common?

The Hebrew term for stranger – ger – is also used to describe a convert. What special obligations reflected in these verses do we have toward Jews- by-choice?

Both Hermann Cohen and Chancellor Schorsch assert the fundamental nature of the loving treatment of the stranger. How can we incorporate this “pinnacle of biblical ethics” into our own patterns of behavior? Into our communal life? Into our congregational programs? How do we and our religious institutions fall short in our application of this value?

The command to treat the stranger with love, consideration, and fairness is linked to our ancient experience in Egypt. What other Jewish historical experiences might we link to this area of religious observance and ethical

conduct? Does the history of the Jewish people strengthen or undermine our

resolve in this area?

What is the significance of this verse to the State of Israel? How might the verse be related to issues of immigration and national security in the United States and elsewhere? Can a western democratic nation be expected literally to treat all its inhabitants – strangers included – as citizens? What is the meaning of our verse in contemporary statecraft?

 

Historic Note

Among the various ethical injunctions of parashat Kedoshim, read on April 30, 2011

are: “You shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another. You shall not swear falsely by My name” and “Do not deal basely with your countrymen.” On April 30,

1973, President Richard Nixon announced the resignations of aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman in the wake of the Watergate scandal. They each served prison

terms of 18 months for conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Ehrlichman also was convicted of perjury. On April 30, 1974, President Nixon released partial transcripts

of White House tape recordings related to the Watergate scandal. He resigned the presidency less than four months later.

 

Halachah L’Maaseh

Leviticus 19:28 provides an explicit prohibition against tattooing. Tattoos that are

applied to approximate variations in skin tone as part of reconstructive surgery, and ink applied to the skin before surgery to mark with precision where an incision should be made, have been ruled permissible, as has tattooing in the course of radiation therapy in the treatment of cancer. Nishmat Avraham 5:67-68; Mishpetei Uziel II Yoreh Deah 22; Siftei Kohen, Yoreh Deah 180:3