Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Parshat Emor

good morning we are learning parashat and more we are using the art scroll homash and we are on page 673. [Music] the book of the third book of Moshe is called in um oral Torah kohanim which means the instructions for kohanim because the book of vayikra has a lot of laws relating to the service of betamic Dash and the laws of kohanim and parashat and more specifically speaks about laws that relate to kohen had yacht a regular Cohen as well as kohen gadol the chief kohen the the the main kohen the Great kohen and the partial on page 673 chapter 21 starts with laws of kohen regular kohen and we speak about prohibitions that kohanim have in addition to prohibitions and Commandments that regular Jews have and then we will speak about prohibitions that kohen gadol has now the Torah says say to the kohanim each of you shall not contaminate himself to a dead person among his people kohanim have a commandment not to come into contact with a dead body kohanim serve Hashem in the temple kohanim represent us in front of Hashem and kohanim give a blessing and through their service they provide atonement for the Jewish people and therefore since they deal with the service of the king and since they deal with providing Jewish people with blessings and forgiveness and life it is improper that they should have contact with death death even though it's important to to remember that all of us will die but we have to serve Hashem and live a life with happiness we have to focus on life and not on death that is why in in Jewish religion we do not make cemeteries in the middle of a town we make cemeteries outside of the town and we separate the cemetery from the rest of the people with offense unlike non-jewish cemeteries that can be along the road that can be in the middle of a residential area and they don't put fences or if they put fences they see through the Jewish cemetery is supposed to be on the outskirts of the town and it's supposed to have a fence because we don't want to dwell on sadness we don't want to dwell on negativity we remind ourselves of our own day of death but we always say for life we always keep in mind that we are alive and therefore things are expected of us that only a living person can do and therefore we try not to dwell on death and just like Cohen a regular Jew who becomes impure by coming into contact with a dead body must count seven days and undergo purification process by sprinkling the ashes of a red cow mixed with water on the third and and the seventh days and immersing himself in the mic on Seventh day and and that's it our contact with death is finished just like a person who's a close relative passes away they do think about death for seven days they do remember and mourn and offer consolation to each other for seven days and that's it they get up from the Shiva on the seventh day and they continue with their life happily so kohanim being on a higher level being in constant service to Hashem they have to be on a higher level and on a happier level we know that a person should not pray unless he's in a good mood if you are depressed if you're in a sleepy state of mind you're not supposed to pray prayer is a Lively celebration of life and thanks to Hashem and so kohanim when they offer prayer and offerings to Hashem they must be in a happy mood and therefore a Cohen more than a regular person must stay away from any impurity but specifically they have a negative commandment not to come into contact with a dead body now verse 2 says what of what if he has a death in his immediate family so it says except for the relative who is closest to him if a close relative dies a Cohen he is allowed to participate in a burial he is allowed to visit the cemetery during the the burial and as I say just say what does it mean the relative who is closest to him that refers to a wife if a wife of a kohen passes away he must come and take care of her and he's allowed to touch her and be in the same uh house as she and then the Torah adds six more relatives his mother his father his son his daughter his brother and his sister who is still unmarried once a sister gets married she is joining the other family and then the other family is responsible to take care of her so there are seven relatives that a kohen is allowed to contaminate himself with now verse 5 we have a Prohibition of causing your self-injury because one is so broken because of death in his family we are not allowed to do that the Torah says you shall not make a bold spot on your heads which means the custom of some non-jews and Idol worshipers was that when they are mourning they would tear hair out of their head as a sign as a proof that they are so sad they would actually slap themselves they would tear hair from their head they would cut themselves we are not allowed to do that and they shall not shave the edge of their beard and in their flesh they shall not cut a gash foreign specifically says it for kohanim but this applies to any Jew any Jew is not allowed to injure himself as a proof that he is mourning for his um loved one and that is because of two reasons number one we realize that death is not the end of existence if we would know that there is nothing Beyond Death then yes if our loved one closes his eyes for the last time shalom that would be the end of his existence and end of our relationship to him and that would be a cause of deep mourning you cannot bring him back and we are crying that we will never see them again and we are mourning for their faith that they died young or not in their time but if we know the death just means separation of the shama of the soul and body the body is put to into the ground to decompose because it has served its purpose and now the soul is free to join Hashem or to come into another body and start its life again there is no deep Mourning we feel sad that the person did not accomplish everything they wanted to that a person does not have opportunity to do mitzvot anymore and grow but we are comforted that soon we will re rejoin them in team in in the resurrection of the Dead when mashiach comes and we also console that will come back in one of our children or in one of our grandchildren and the reason number two why we don't mourn and we don't injure ourselves is because our body does not belong to us Hashem is renting the body to us is leasing the body we are in the Shama and Hashem said would you like to come into the world would you like to be tested and have opportunity to earn Eternal reward then shama says yes please and Hashem says fine I will lease a body for you the body will be like a car you're leasing a car and you're allowed to use the car Once the lease is up you return the car to the dealership and you get a different car but if at the end of lease you bring the car back and it's all smashed and and cut then you'll have to pay for it it wasn't your car you were just leasing it so too our body is not ours then the shama is only using it temporarily and therefore we have to take care of our body that is why there is a Mitzvah in Torah to guard our health to take care of the body as we have an expression in Russian or translated into English in a healthy body you can have a healthy Soul because the body serves as a as a vehicle for the souls if the body is not able to perform properly then the Soul will not be able to accomplish what it needs to so if a person is negligent in taking care of his health and because of it he will be sick Shalom and because of it he will not be able to go to synagogue to do mitzvot to study Torah because he's sick the soul will be punished shalom for failing to take care of the vehicle and now because of it it cannot accomplish spiritual um Pursuits therefore taking care of your body is not a physical job it's a spiritual endeavor when you keep your body healthy not to become OCD not to spend hours and hours researching and preparing meals and exercising and then forgetting about the rest of life no you do the minimum effort and you stay away of anything harmful drinking alcohol drugs unhealthy Behavior you have to get enough sleep get a little bit exercise eat healthy just normal minimal effort and the rest of the time you put in to spiritual endeavors so that's the second reason why Jewish people are not supposed to cut themselves or maim themselves because of a death Castle shalom in the family now we'll continue to verse 7 that tells us marriage restrictions for regular kohanim they shall not marry a woman who is number one a harlot a prostitute what's a prostitute going to Jewish law any woman who is not loyal to one partner whether they're married or not or any woman who had relations with a non-jew she loses for the rest of her life um ability to marry a kohen number two kohanim cannot marry a woman that has become desecrated which means not by her own choice which means she is born from a father who is a kohen but he married a woman who he is not allowed to marry which means her father is a Cohen but her mother cannot marry a kohen so such marriage produces children who are not kohanim they are called kalalim desecrated so in Judaism we have a multiple levels of spiritual genealogy number one we have kohen and the under Cohen is Levi under Levi is Israel under Israel we have Halal and that is a kohen who is no longer Cohen he's considered lower spiritually blemished and therefore he is lower than Israel and then we have unfortunately even a lower level and that is and that is someone who is born from a union of that that is forbidden if Cohen marries someone who is forbidden to him with a negative Commandment that creates a Halal but if kohen or a Jew marry someone who is prohibited to them with a more severe prohibition not only negative commandment but it carries a punishment of cared spiritual excision or death penalty that Union produces cannot marry a Jew can marry another or they can marry a convert and their children stay momsrim forever whereas a Halal who came from a forbidden Union of kohen and a woman who is forbidden to him with a negative commandment where the punishment is lashes not spiritual Excision there he is allowed to marry a regular Jew he's just not allowed to marry a kohen which means if it's a girl she's not allowed to marry a kohen and if it's a boy he's not considered a coin he's considered halal and number three a third restriction for kohanim is a divorced woman that means that a kohen is allowed to marry a woman who has been previously married but her husband died a kohen is allowed to marry a widow a Cohen a regular Cohen does not need to marry a virgin there are only three restrictions a kohen is not allowed to marry a harlot and kohen is not allowed to marry a Halala and the Cohen is not allowed to marry a divorcee a garusha now we go to page 675 and here we have a positive commandment for all Jews to honor kohanim we must show honor to kohanim by giving them precedence whenever we do Meets World for example when we bless we give the honor to kohanim to lead us when we read the Torah we give the first Aliyah the first Torah reading to A kohen and so on and so forth we give kohanim honor we recognize their special status by giving them precedence in all matters of mitzvot and then the Torah says because of their higher status if a daughter of kohen commits adultery she receives a special death penalty unlike a regular girl that commits adultery a regular girl or regular boy that commit adultery or other forbidden sexual relations they also get death penalty but the daughter of kohen receives a higher death penalty whereas regular adultery is death by hennik's triangulation a daughter of kohen receives which is death by burning the innards with molten lead okay now we go to verse 10 on page 675 and these are laws of kohen gadol the great kohen the chief kohen the Torah says the kohen who is exalted above his brothers he verse 11 shall not come near any dead person even his relatives even his father and mother which means while regular kohen is allowed to attend the funeral of his parents his siblings and his children and his wife kohen gadol may not the only exception for coin gadol is if no one is able to take care of um the dead body which means if a Cohen sees on the road a dead body and no one is taking care of it then kohen gadol must contaminate himself he must attend to the um the body and buried otherwise even those his father and mother he may not contaminate himself with them now we continue with marital uh restrictions that kohen gadol has on top of regular kohanim and that is not allowed to marry even a widow regular Cohen cannot marry a divorced Woman by The Coin gadol cannot marry a widow as well must only marry a woman who has never been married or has never had any uh relations with anyone else in verse 17 and on the Torah speaks about um blemishes of kohanim the kohen the kohen must be wholesome not only in his soul like we said he has to come from a culture marriage of his parents but he also has to be wholesome in his body and the Torah lists 12 blemishes that Eva Cohen has he cannot serve in the temple and he can um and in our times such kohanim do not give the birkatuanim the blessings of kohanim for the congregation and some of them are if a kohen is blind or he's limping or if his nose has no Bridge which means it doesn't have this part and if you draw a line from one eye to another it can go straight without any um interference or if a kohen has a broken leg or a broken arm and it's an um didn't heal yet or it healed in a crooked way as well as if Cohen is a hunchback or he's a dwarf or he has um a skin disease that is visible okay now we turn to page 677 and uh verse 22 says that even though kohen who has a blemish cannot serve in a temple but he is allowed to eat offerings now verse 22 chapter 22 speaks about laws of kohanim who became contaminated verse 3 say to them throughout your Generations any man from among of your Offspring who shall come near the holies of that the Jewish people sanctify to Hashem with his contamination upon him that person shall be cut off from before me I am Hashem which means there is a severe prohibition that carries spiritual excision penalty for kohen who serves in the temple while being contaminated or kohen who eats offerings while being contaminated now we turn to page 679 and we have an additional prohibition for kohen who is contaminated and that is he is not allowed to eat teruma not only cannot eat offerings he cannot even eat donations that Jewish people give him from their produce which is called tiruma the two percent that the farmer gives kohen from his produce and verse 10 says no lay man shall eat tiruma which means no Jew or Levin anyone who is not a Cohen cannot eat Ruma anyone who is working for a kohen he is not considered part of of kohen's family they also cannot eat turuma even though they work for kohen however if kohen acquires as a non-jewish slave who becomes his property and part of his household the slaves of Kohan may it and a Cohen who is impure Canada and daughter of kohen who marries a Israel anyone who is not Cohen she can no longer eat turuman daughter of kohen who lives with her father eats truma but once she gets married she can no longer eat turuma even when she visits her father now in verse 17 on the same page we learn about blemishes that if animals have them they cannot be sacrificed and the verse 18 says any man of the House of Israel and of the proselytes among Israel who will bring his offering for any of their vows or their Free Will offerings that they will bring to Hashem for an elevation offering to be favorable to you it must be unblemished any in which there is a blemish you shall not offer for it will not be favorable to you now we turn to page 681 and we list these blemishes they're very similar to blemishes for kohanim and examples are if an animal is blind or it has a broken limb or uh split eyelid or split lip dry skin eruption one limb is longer than the other or if the the hooves fused together or who's uh child bearing organs were damaged you shall not offer to Hashem nor shall you do these in your land from here we learn that we are not allowed to castrate our animals because the Torah says you cannot sacrifice such animals to Hashem and in your land you may not do it therefore from here we learn that we are not allowed to cause our animals to become sterile whether they are dogs cats or um our cattle often farmers neuter or castrate their animals because they want them to gain weight if the the animals continue mating that makes them weaker and and um in order for animals to become more fatty they castrate them and that is a very severe prohibition for a Jew to do um what happens if a Jew has a a pet a dog or a cat and they don't want them to have children it's not a good idea to to have a pet in such a case because it is a very severe prohibition if they already have a pet and they must for some reason neuter him they cannot do it themselves they have to this is only in a as a last resort better not to do it better not to have a pet at all than to do it as the last resort a Jew has to give this animal as a gift or to sell this animal to a non-jew and then this non-jew should already take him to a veterinarian but again this is uh not recommended and it is not a good idea now we go to verse 27 and we learn that an animal can only be offered in a betamic dash when it lived already for seven days when an ox or a sheep or goat is born it shall remain under its mother for seven days and from The Eighth Day on it is acceptable for a fire offering to Hashem then we learn a negative commandment not to slaughter a mother animal and a baby animal on the same day an ox or a sheep or a goat you may not Slaughter it and its Offspring on the same day foreign 29 teaches us about the Thanksgiving offering that it must be eaten on that day and the night but it you cannot leave any of it till the morning even though the Thanksgiving offering is classified as shilamim peace offering and peace offerings are allowed to be eaten for the day that it slaughtered the following night and the following day but uh corbantoda Thanksgiving offering can only be eaten for one day and the night you have to finish it by Dawn now in verse 32 we have two great Commandments one positive one negative one is called Hashem desecrating God's name and one is called Hashem sanctifying God's name these are two most important um meets vote in the whole Torah we live our life in order to sanctify God's name and Shalom we must not do anything that would decrease God's honor in the world and the verse says you shall not desecrate my holy name rather I should be Sanctified among the children of Israel I am Hashem who sanctifies you so in everything we do have to think how will it reflect on God will people who see me doing it praise God and say how great are God's people How Great Is God whose servants behave in such a refined manner or will they Shalom say look at these Jews look at what they're doing what kind of religion they have shalom now we turn to page 683 and we learned about the holidays verse 2 of of chapter 23. speak to the children of Israel and say to them hashem's appointed festivals that you are to designate as holy convocations these are my appointed festivals first the Torah speaks about Shabbat for six days labor may be done but the seventh day is a day of complete rest a holy convocation the holy assembly you may not do any work verse 4 speaks about Passover these are the appointed festivals of Hashem verse 5. in the first month of Nisan on the 14th of the month in the afternoon is the time of the pesach offering to Hashem and from 15th day of the month for seven days is the Festival of matsod you shall eat much salt for a seven day period verse 9 speaks about the Omer offering speak to the children of Israel and say to them when you shall enter the land that I shall give you you shall reap its Harvest of barley you shall bring an armor from your first harvest to the kohen we're on page 685 verse 12 on the day you wave the Omer you shall perform the service of an unblemished lamb in its first year as an elevation offering verse 13 its meal offering shall be two tenths of Afar of fine flour mixed with oil verse 14 teaches us the law of yashan that we are not allowed to um eat flour or grain from fresh um Harvest until the Omer offering once we bring the Omer offering we are allowed to eat all the produce that was harvested or gave root before Passover and the the verse 14 says you shall not eat bread or roasted kernels or plump kernels until this very day until you bring the offering to your God so right now we already after that day and therefore right now all grain all flower that is found on the store shelves in shops in restaurants is permitted until the new Harvest which is going to be around July August so until July August this rule doesn't apply from August we already have to check is this produce from last year or from the grain that was planted before Passover or is this green that was planted after Passover in which case we cannot eat it we have to wait until the next PESA to eat it now verse 15 you shall count for yourselves from the day when you bring the Omer of the waving seven weeks they shall be complete until the moral of the seventh week you shall count 50 days and you shall offer a new meal offering to Hashem and that is the holiday of Shavuot that falls on the 50th day after the second day of Passover when we bring the Omer offering and on the surfboard the Torah says in verse 17 two loaves made of two tenths AFA they shall be fine flower on shavod we bring two loaves of bread from wheat whereas on the second day of Passover we bring the offering of barley on shavod we bring the offering of wheat and together with the bread we bring seven unblemished lambs and one young bull and two Rams and in verse 19 you shall make one he Goat as a sin offering and two Lambs as a shellamin peace offering now we turn to page 687. and we have laws of gifts to the poor that the farmer must give verse 22 when you Harvest your land you shall not remove completely the corners of your field and that is the Mitzvah of we have to leave the corners of our field second mitzvah you shall not gather the gleanings of your Harvest which means if a stock or two stocks fall down during Harvest we have to leave them for the poor people three stocks fall down at the same time we are allowed to pick them up for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them I am Hashem your God that is the Mitzvah of liquid now we learned about Rosh Hashanah verse 24. in the seventh month on the first of the month there shall be a rest day for you A Remembrance with shofar blessed you shall not do any laborious work and you shall offer a fire offering to Hashem then in verse 27 we learn about Yom Kippur on the 10th day of this month this seventh month of tishri it is a day of atonement you shall afflict yourselves and shall offering a fire offering to Hashem afflict yourselves means we cannot eat and drink as well as not anoint us ourselves not take a shower no marital relations and not wearing leather shoes verse 28 you shall not do any work on this very day for it is a day of atonement to provide new atonement before Hashem your God any person who will not fast on that day will be cut off from its people and any person who does work on Yom Kippur will be cut off from his people in verse 33 we learn about the holiday of Sukkot Hashem spoke to Moshe saying speak to the children as the same on the 15th day of this seventh month of tishre is the Festival of Sukkot seven day period for Hashem Sukkot means Huts booths on the first day is a holy convocation you shall not do any laborious work for a seven day period you shall offer a fire offering to Hashem and on the eighth day there shall be a holy convocation for you the eighth day is called shimini at that's a separate holiday we counted as the Eighth Day of Sukkot but it is considered a separate holiday now we have a summary of all festivals on page 689 in verse 37. These are their pointed festivals of Hashem that you shall Proclaim as holy convocations to offer a fire offering to Hashem and elevation offering and its meal offering a feast shalamim offering and its libation wine pouring each day's requirement on its day aside from hashem's shabbats and aside from your gifts aside of from all your vows and aside from all your free will offerings which you will present to Hashem and now we have uh some more details about laws of Sukkot but on the 15th day of the seventh month when you guard The Gather in the crop of the land you shall celebrate hashem's festival for seven day period with the first day being a day of rest and the Eighth Day being the day of rest you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a Citron tree which is a trog the branches of date palms which is a lulav Twigs of a plated tree which are hadassim and Brook Willows which are aravot and you shall rejoice before Hashem your God for a seven day period you shall celebrate it as a festival for Hashem a seven day period in the year an eternal decree for your Generations in the seventh month shall you celebrate it and now we have a Mitzvah of building and living in Sukkot you shall dwell in booths for a seven day period every native in Israel shall dwell in booths now when page 691 so that your Generations will know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in Boots when I took them from the land of Egypt I am Hashem your God this refers to two events number one that when the Jewish people left Egypt they dwelled in actual booths that they built Huts that they built for protection from Sun and that's what we commemorate that for 40 years we didn't build houses rather we lived in huts and it also refers to the Clouds Of Glory that Hashem surrounded the Jewish people on all four sides Plus or over us and under us so that as we walked it was like a carpet now we go to chapter 24 we speak about menorah verse 2 command the children of Israel that they take to you clear olive oil pressed for lighting specifically to Kindle a continual lamp as opposed to oil for flower offering we mix flour with oil there oil can be crushed completely the the olive is crushed completely over here it says it should be crushed only a little bit not crushed but pressed for lighting oil for Menorah has to be extra pure we squeeze the olive until the first drop of oil comes out after that when um we have to already crush the olive to extract the oil such oil is not good for Menorah but it is okay for minha aharon shall arrange the candles from evening to morning before Hashem continually an eternal decree for your Generations on the pure golden Menorah shall he arrange the lamps before Hashem continually in verse 5 we have Mitzvah of panim to bring loaves of bread and set them on a golden table in the Holy Sanctuary you shall take fine flower and bake it into 12 loaves each loaf shall be 2 10 A5 you shall place them in two stacks six in each stack upon the pure golden table and you shall put pure frankincense on each stack in a bowl so on top of six loaves of bread each one was supported by special um tubes on the top bread there was a bowl of incense so they would they would bake the bread on Friday and verse 8 continues and says each and every Shabbat he shall arrange them before Hashem continually so the bread would stay on the table throughout the week from Shabbat until the next Shabbat and then the following Shabbat they would remove the old bread put in the new bread and that seven day old bread the kohani would eat and a miracle would happen every week that bread seven day old bread would stay fresh and warm for kohanim to enjoy now we turn to page and here we have an unfortunate case where there was a fight between two Jews um and one of them proclaimed a curse against Hashem verse 10 on page 693 the son of an Israelite woman went out and he was the son of an Egyptian man he was a Jew but his father was Egyptian this was a single case where a an Egyptian raped a Jewish woman and she gave birth to this child and there was an argument between him and other Jewish people as to where should he pitch his tent where does he belong since he he doesn't have a Jewish father and the area where you Camp in Camp depends on your father he went to his mother's um area the tribe that his mother came from and people there were upset at him and of course that is improper they shouldn't have uh taken the matter into their own hands they should have asked motion who would ask Hashem what to do in such a case they took the matter into their own hands and they told him you don't belong here your father is not from our tribe why should we share with you then we're gonna have less space they fought in the camp and the son of the Israelite woman and Israelite man so a man who had an Egyptian father fought with a man who had both parents Jewish verse 11 the son of the Israelite woman an Egyptian father pronounced the name of Hashem and blasphemed foreign heard and they brought him to motion and they placed him on the guard to clarify for them to clarify for themselves through Hashem what to do with him Hashem spoke to Moshe and saying remove the blasphemer to the outside of the camp and all who heard shall lean their hands upon his head the entire assembly shall Stone him and tell the Jewish people any man who will blaspheme his God shall bear his sin and the one who pronounces blasphemously the name of Hashem shall be put to death now verse 17 continues with laws which we call midaki negative measure for measure and the man if he strikes mortally any human life he shall be put to death which means penalty for murder is death and a man who strikes mortally an animal life shall make restitution Life For Life which means he has to pay the value of the animal and if a man inflicts a wound on his fellow as he did so shall be done to him our sages interpret this through oral Torah to mean that he must make a monetary payment uh break for a break an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth just as he will have inflicted a wound on a person so shall be inflicted upon him and logically it makes sense that it can only mean monetary payment because anything else will not fulfill the verse the verse says as he did so shall be inflicted upon him and that it would be impossible if we're talking about a physical um infliction which means if someone hit his friend how can we ever hit him in the same place with the same force and cause the exact same damage how's that ever possible to cause him the exact same pain no two people are the same and we cannot estimate exactly how many newtons of force he applied and how sensitive that person was to pain that is impossible and therefore we estimate how much a person would be willing to get paid to suffer such pain and this man has to pay for the damage he has to pay for the pain and he has to pay for embarrassment and if there are doctor bills as well as time lost from work verse 21 one who strikes an animal shall make restitution and one who strikes a person shall be put to death now on page we have equality in verse 22 there shall be one law for you it shall be for proselyte a convert and a native alike for I Hashem am your God just like I am God off Jewish people who are born Jewish so too I am the same God I created all of you of Converse verse 23 finishes up the story of the blasphemer Moshe spoke to the children of Israel and they took the blasphemer to the outside of the camp and they stoned him to death and the children of Israel did as Hashem had commanded motion and we finished the parship with these words and unfortunately we actually lived through such a sad event that so many Jewish people died last night they were actually they actually underwent this exact death penalty and it was not a penalty but unfortunately this death that they fell and they were trampled which talmud says is equivalent to death penalty of stoning and anyone who undergoes that his sins are atoned for he's purified and he goes to heaven just like anyone who deserves death penalty he does the shuva and the the court uh Stone him for a reason to provide atonement and when he dies he becomes a complete Sadiq and he goes straight to gun Eden and these people yesterday they were involved in the Mitzvah in a celebration and they were happy and when people are happy they do teshuva from happiness from singing and rejoicing and at that moment when their nishama leaves you can be sure that they go straight to Canada they are pure they give their life in happiness at the moment of rejoicing and celebrating and foreign [Music] and rise up higher and higher through our prayers and through our Meets World and our tourist study thank you for listening may we only hear good news May we never experience trouble anymore and um me the families of these people find comfort May Hashem send them quick comfort and may mashiach come quickly in our days amen shabbat shalom all the best