Parashat Emor

8/1/2019 Parashat Emor

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Parashah Insights

byRabbi Yaakov HillelRosh Yeshivat Ahavat Shalom

Emor

Space, Time and Soul

The Juxtaposition of the Mitzvot of Shabbat and FestivalsYou shall keep My commandments and perform them. I am Hashem. Do

not desecrate My Holy Name, but I shall be sanctified amidst the children of

Israel. I am Hashem who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of

Egypt, to be your G-d. I am Hashem. (Vayikra 22:31-33)

These verses are a general admonition concerning all the Torahs mitzvot. You

shall keep [them] refers to the Torahs prohibitions, while and perform them refers

to the positive commandments. Do not desecrate My Holy Name lo tihalelu (

), implies that a sinner not only desecrates G-ds Name, but more so, he causes

the Divine Presence to recede from the world, leaving the world empty and void

(halal ) of G-ds holiness. By performing the mitzvot, however, we achieve the

opposite: I shall be sanctified among the children of Israel. That is, we sanctify G-

ds Name and draw His Presence upon us, filling the world with His Light and

Presence. This is the whole reason G-d redeemed us from Egypt, as the verses

conclude: to be your G-d meaning, to feel and experience our connection withHim.

Immediately after these verses in the Torah, we find the commandments of the

Festivals:

And Hashem spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel and say

to them: The L-rds appointed seasons that you shall designate as holy

occasions. These are my appointed days. Six days you shall do work, but the

seventh day is a day of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no form

of work. It is a Sabbath to the L-rd in all your dwellings. These are the festivals

of the L-rd, holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at their appointed

times. (Ibid. 23:1-4)


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There are several questions we can ask on these lines. First of all, how do they all

relate to one another? Within just a few short lines, the Torah speaks of sanctifying

Hashems Name by performing the mitzvot, and honoring the Shabbat and the

Festivals. What is the connection? Furthermore, we can ask (as Rashi does), why the

commandment of Shabbat is mentioned here beside that of the holidays? After all,

the holiness of Shabbat was established at the very beginning of creation. It does not

depend upon the date of the new moon, the cycle of the year, or any input from the

Jewish people. The dates of the Festivals, however, always follow the day upon

which the new moon occurs, or whether or not it is a leap year, and when the Bet

Din sanctified them (in the times of the Temple), along with the sanctification of the

month. We see this difference in the blessings made during the Shemona Esrei of

Shabbat as opposed to that of the Festivals. On Shabbat, we say: Blessed are You,

Hashem who sanctifies the Shabbat. The sanctity of Shabbat depends upon G-d,not us! However, on the festivals, we say: Blessed are You, Hashem who

sanctifies Yisrael and the Seasons, for the holiness of the latter depends upon the

holiness of the former. This distinction is particularly apparent in the blessing recited

when a festival occurs on the Shabbat. Then, we say: Blessed are You,

Hashemwho sanctifies the Shabbat, Yisrael and the Seasons, because that is the

order of sanctification, as one leads to other.

The Purpose of CreationI would like to answer these questions, as well as explain the juxtaposition of the

verses above, based upon the Torahs esoteric teachings.

The Sefer Yetzirah (authored by Avraham Avinu) speaks about three fundamental

components of creation: olam, shana, and nefesh; literally: world, year and soul

or, in other words: space, time, and power (since nefesh is the part of the soul

which empowers the body). These three categories within the created world are

singled out precisely because they stand in direct opposition to G-ds Infinite Being,

which transcends space and time, and is of unlimited power. However, it is preciselyby creating a world of limitation, bound by the forces of space and time, that human

beings can freely choose between good and evil, and through serving G-d with

Torah and mitzvot, bring about a revelation of His unity in the world.

G-d Himself is perfect, without flaw or limitation. However, in order to create an

imperfect world, where evil can exist and human deeds have value precisely

because the choice between good and evil is ever-present Hashem, during the

process of creation, held back some of His limitless power. Step-by-step, the

creation descended from above to below, so that the further the worlds receded

from their Divine source, the denser and darker they became, until they reached the


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level where G-ds Presence became completely concealed, and the possibility for evil

came into being, as an option and a test for us.

The obligation of the Jewish people, through Torah and mitzvot, is to draw G-dslight down into this dark and empty reality, to perfect and illuminate all levels of

creation, and to fill the earth with an awareness of G-d, as water covers the sea

(Isaiah 11:69). Then G-ds light will fill the world, and we will see that there is no

other reality beside Him.

Perfecting the World through the aspect of SoulSince the essence of G-ds creative act was to withhold His limitless power in order

for the world to come into existence, we can say that He acted from the aspect of

nefesh. This allowed for the creation of the worlds that are also limited in power,

space and time; worlds with a beginning and an end, commencing from the onset of

creation until its ultimate fulfillment.

Now, since Hashem used these three aspects of space, time, and soul to create

the world, so too, the Jewish people must elevate the world to its perfect and

complete state by using these very same aspects. When we perfect the world

through the power of Torah and mitzvot, and draw down G-ds light into the creation

in greater fullness, we also use the aspect ofnefesh. This is alluded to in the first part

of the verses cited above: You shall keep My commandments and perform them.

That is, when we fulfill the Torah, with its 613 commandments the 248 active

commandments and the 365 prohibitions we perfect our soul, which has 613

facets, corresponding to our 613 body parts: 248 limbs and 365 sinews. When all

the Jewish souls achieve perfection, reaching the exalted level they were at while still

included in Adams soul before he sinned, then G-ds own unlimited power will be

revealed on earth.

This explains the verses above: By observing and performing the

commandments both positive and negative we draw down a revelation of I am

Hashem; that is I am the one who revealed Myself in this limited world by the

Name Hashem Y-H-V-H. Thus, the verse continues: Do not desecrate My Holy

Name. For when we fail to fulfill the mitzvot, or even worse, sin, G-d forbid, we not

only desecrate G-ds Name, causing a hilul Hashem, we also limit the revelation of

His Divine light in the world, causing the world to be halal devoid of Hashems

Presence. Whereas when we observe the mitzvot, we bring about a fuller revelation

of G-ds Name of His light and His power. Thus the verse continues: I shall be

sanctified amidst the children of Israel. Meaning to say, not only do our actions

hallow G-ds Name in the eyes of the world, they draw down G-ds holiness amidst

our souls; that is, within us, and through us, to the rest of the world. And since theTetragrammaton, representing G-ds power over creation, was first revealed in the


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events of the exodus from Egypt, as Rabbenu Asher wrote in Orhot Hayyim, chap.

1:26,1 the verse concludes: who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your

G-d. Because it is for the sake of our keeping the mitzvot that G-d delivered us.

World the Holiness of Shabbat; Year the Holiness of the FestivalsThis takes us to the next verses; those that speak about the holiness of the

Shabbat, corresponding to the aspect of world or space. When Hashem

restrained His infinite power to allow for the creation of the worlds, He essentially

made a place for them to exist from the highest of the created worlds, down to

the darkest and densest world, in which we exist. And since the holiness of Shabbat

does not depend upon our actions, but was set from the very beginning of thecreation, it is an intrinsic part of the world that Hashem created. Therefore,

contemporaneous with the creation of the world was the creation of the holiness of

Shabbat. This explains the connection between Shabbat and the aspect of place

that is, the creation of the world. Thus, by carefully observing the Shabbat, we bring

Hashems infinite light into the aspect of world or space that He created.Finally, the yearly festivals Pesah, Shavuot, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and

Sukkot all relate to the aspect of year or time that Hashem created. By

observing them, we reveal Hashems light, which is itself above time, during the

Festivals and then beyond illuminating the entire year with holiness.

Kabbalistic teachings explain that since the creation of the world, there has been a

gradual process of spiritual rectification (tikkun) occurring on a daily basis. Every

day, with each mitzvah we do and prayer we recite, another aspect of creation is

rectified and uplifted. On a broad scale, there is the rectification of each day, of each

week, of months, years,shemittas (seven year periods) andyovels (50 year periods).

This process began even before man was created from the moment the sun and

moon were set in the sky on the fourth day of creation. Now, since the dating of

each Festival depends upon the sighting of the moon (before our calendar was

established), there is a connection between them and this process of rectification.

Thus we see that there are three categories of rectification. Through observing

Torah and mitzvot, we draw down Hashems light into the world, rectifying the

1 Rabbenu Asher explains that the Egyptians did not acknowledge G-ds power overnature, only

His workings through nature. They knew the Divine Name Elokim, which has the same

gematria as the word ha-teva, nature. However, they refused to recognize Hashems Name Y-

H-V-H, which transcends nature. Thus, it was precisely this Name that became revealed in the

miraculous events of the exodus. Thus the verse states: "...I will take out My host, My people, the

children of Yisrael, from the land of Egypt with great judgments. And the Egyptians will know that

I am Hashem" (Shemot 7:4-5).


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aspect of soul (power). Through observing Shabbat, we rectify the aspect of

world (space). And by observing the festivals, we rectify the aspect of year (time).

All this is alluded to in the verses from this weeks parasha, quoted above. Theydefine our task in this world; for by keeping Torah and mitzvot, we uplift and sanctify

ourselves together with the entire creation, a process that continues for the six

thousand years of the worlds existence, until the ultimate revelation of Hashem in

the future. On that day, Hashem will be One and His Name One (Zekharia 14:9).

Then, all creation will recognize that there is none else but Hashem alone.

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Parashat Emor