Bulletin05.07.2011 - Emor

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reward." The Torah commands us to obey G-d's will; the Ethics
wants us to "make that your will should be as His will."
In other words, while the other sixty-two tractates of the Talmud
concern themselves primarily with the "law"--the do's and don'ts of
the Torah's commandments--the Ethics is wholly devoted to the
conduct of the one whom the Talmud calls a chassid: one who takes
these laws to the next level, going beyond what is mandated as his
or her moral duty. The chassid is not content with fulfilling the
"body" of the law; he desires its "soul," its inner spiritual truth, even
if, technically, he's not "obligated" to go that far.
The "body" of Torah is a set of actions. The "soul" of Torah is the
deeper significance of those actions-- the inner purpose they
achieve.
The connection between the Torah's "body" and it's "soul" is
emphasized in the opening lines of the Ethics' first chapter, which
reads:
Moses received the Torah at Sinai and gave it over to Joshua; Joshua
[gave it over] to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the
Prophets gave it over to the Men of the Great Assembly....
Why does the Ethics begin by describing the Torah's "chain of
tradition"? The commentaries explain: The rules, laws and
regulations contained in the rest of the Talmud were obviously
commanded by G-d at Sinai. But when it comes to the pietistic
sayings of the Ethics, one might think that these are "personal"
teachings of the sages in whose names they are quoted. Thus the
Ethics emphasizes that these, too, form an integral part of the
Sinaic tradition. Indeed, they are the soul of the laws--their inner
expression, their ultimate fulfillment.
When creating the first man and woman (as described in Genesis
2:7) G-d first formed a body out of the "dust of the earth" and then
"blew into its nostrils the soul of life." Similarly, the Talmud
describes all subsequent creations of human life: a body is formed
in the mother's womb, into which a soul is infused from on high.
The same is true of the body and soul of Torah. First comes the
grounding of a moral life--an existence governed by the rules, laws
and regulations of the right path. Then, the chassid breathes life
and spirit into this body, uncovering the "beyond" that lies within.
But first must come the body; for a soul without a body is but a
ghost, a disembodied spirit with neither grasp of, nor effect upon,
the terrain of reality.
In this context, we can understand Rabbi Judah HaNassi's saying:
"Which is the right path for man to choose for himself? Whatever is
harmonious for the one who does it, and harmonious for other
people."
The "right path," obviously, is the path of Torah. But there are two
ways a person can tread this path: he can walk it as a stranger, or he
can chose it as his own.
The body of the law is fulfilled by simply walking the path. It may be
difficult and uncomfortable. It may be a lonely path, scorned by
society and a burden even to those who walk it. But as long as they
obey its signposts and remain true to its trajectory, they have
fulfilled their duty to G-d and man.
But the chassid wants more. He wants the soul. He says to himself:
if this is the right path, why don't I desire it with every fiber of my
being? If this is the right path, why doesn't all the world recognize it
Parsha Messages
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as such? Obviously, there is much about myself that requires
improvement and development. Obviously, there is much about my
world that requires improvement and development.
But the chassid also knows that to attain the soul, he must first
attain the body. To chose the path, he must first walk the path. To
make that the path should be in harmony with his wiles and desires,
he must first subordinate his wiles and desires to its law. To make
that the path should ultimately be in harmony with all inhabitants
of earth, he must first commit to it despite its unpopularity.
The chassid knows that life's journey has two chapters. In Chapter
One, Moses receives the Torah at Sinai and hands it over to Joshua,
and to all subsequent generations, as the divinely ordained path of
life. In Chapter Two, this right path is chosen as harmonious for the
one who does it, and harmonious for all mankind.
Six Days Shall Work Be Done
By Yitschak Meir Kagan
T
his week's Torah reading, Emor, contains the following
command pertaining to the Shabbat: "Six days shall work be
done, but the seventh day is a Shabbat of rest... you shall do
no manner of work" (Leviticus 23:3.)
How meaningful are even the most simply worded of G-d's
commands! In fact, there is significance even in the sequence and
order of the Torah's words concerning the Shabbat day. First the
Torah commands us to work for six days and then we are
commanded to rest on the seventh.
The calendar week begins on Sunday. Prevalent custom has
designated this first day as a day of rest with the working week
following. The Torah, however, sets the working week first, to be
followed by the day of rest, the holy Shabbat. "Six days shall work be
done" and only then "the seventh day is a Shabbat of solemn rest" --
the exact reverse of general practice. The precedence of labor before
rest indicates that the purpose of man on earth is not to while away
his time indolently, but to work for his spiritual as well as his own
material welfare and for that of his community.
Immediately following the creation of Adam, the Torah states: "And
the L-rd G-d took Adam, and placed him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and guard it" (Genesis 2:15). The meaning of the verse is as
follows: it is G-d's will that man work to develop within himself the
spiritual qualities with which he had been endowed by G-d. In this
way man can become an active partner with G-d in the development
and revelation of his own and the world's innate good qualities.
Having informed us that our purpose in the world is to "work it and
guard it," G-d gave us the Torah (derived from the Hebrew word
hora'a --"teaching") to teach us how we are to "work" and "guard"
the world.
With the Torah as our guide we are able to fulfill our task and bring
fulfillment to ourselves and to the world around us.