Holy Frustration
May 1, 2026 By Yitz Landes | Commentary | Emor
Like much of Leviticus, Parashat Emor opens with yet more of these rules. But now the Torah needs to acknowledge that even when everything is in the right place, there is still death. What鈥檚 a priest to do when tragedy strikes? 鈥淪peak [Emor] to the priests, the sons of Aaron,鈥� God tells Moses, 鈥渁nd say to them: None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin, except for the relatives that are closest to him鈥� (Lev. 21:1). In order to stay pure, priests are limited in terms of when they can come near a dead body; even though they may mourn the death of another, the Torah says that they can only be near the corpse of a close relative. After a few terse verses about mourning practices, the Torah enumerates further rules that are meant to keep the priests and High Priest pure, with the upshot being that a priest is 鈥渉oly to their God鈥� (21:7).
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Who Belongs?
May 16, 2025 By Rachel Rosenthal | Commentary | Emor
Who is the Other? This question, which is asked more and more often in our world, is not often easy to answer. Can one choose to be part of a community? Are people who were once outsiders ever fully welcomed as insiders? In Judaism, these questions are especially important. While Judaism has categories to define and even praise non-Jews, opting into the Jewish community is not simple. However, the Talmud tells us that once someone converts to Judaism, we are supposed to treat them as any other Jew. Unfortunately, this is a mission in which many communities fail. This failure can have significant consequences, as we see in this week鈥檚 parashah, Emor.
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Are We Just Speaking, or Truly Communicating?
May 17, 2024 By Loraine Enlow | Commentary | Emor
Perhaps the breaking of the formula for our parashah鈥檚 irregular emor is about more than just words. Using its characteristic wordplay, the Midrash connects the parashah鈥檚 emor here to omer in Psalm 19:3 (spelled the same way, but as a poetic noun): 鈥渄ay to day utters speech (omer), and night to night reveals knowledge.鈥� It explains that the day and the night are negotiating the giving and borrowing of time from each other to create the cycles of the year between the equinoxes. Reading the next verse in the psalm, we see 鈥渢here is no speech (omer) . . .鈥� Or as the Midrash puts it, 鈥渢hey pay each other back harmoniously, without a contract.鈥�
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The Problem of Embodied Perfection
May 4, 2023 By Lauren Tuchman | Commentary | Emor
Parashat Emor (Leviticus 21鈥�24) opens with a passage describing limitations placed on individuals whom a kohen (priest) may mourn or marry, as well as limiting sacrificial service in the Mishkan to those who are able-bodied. We learn in Leviticus 21:17 that any kohen who has a mum鈥攂lemish or defect鈥攊s explicitly forbidden from 鈥渙ffering the food of his God鈥� (21:17). Kohanim thus disqualified include those who are blind, lame, have a limb length discrepancy, are hunchbacked, have a broken limb, and many others. They are forbidden from ritual leadership throughout the ages; though not stripped of their priestly status and are permitted to eat sacrificial meat. They are not permitted to come behind the curtain or approach the altar. They mustn鈥檛 profane these places which God has sanctified (21:22鈥�23).
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For What Should I Compromise on Religious Observance?
May 13, 2022 By Alan Imar | Commentary | Emor
To what extent should we be flexible in our adherence to religious precepts, and to what extent can we remain steadfast in our commitment to certain principles, even if they exclude others? With this dilemma in mind, I want to consider the opening lines of this week鈥檚 parashah, which discuss cases where a priest may allow himself to receive tumat met (impurity from a corpse), something he is not usually permitted to do
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Struggling to Celebrate
Apr 30, 2021 By Naomi Kalish | Commentary | Emor
While Parashat Emor contains one of the Torah鈥檚 discussions of holidays and instructions for their observances, rabbinic literature provides guidance for their observance in the context of the complexities of the participants鈥� lives, even those who might be struggling to celebrate.
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Opportunities in Jewish Time
May 8, 2020 By Abigail Uhrman | Commentary | Emor
I had to think twice about what day it was today. In fact, since we鈥檝e been sheltering at home, there have been many days when I have had to think twice. Like most families with children, I have our daily schedule posted prominently in our kitchen to add some much-needed structure to this time, but still, the days seem to stretch on. When Friday rolls around, though, there is a welcome interruption to our normal rhythm as we begin our Shabbat preparations. Despite the benefits of our carefully orchestrated routine, and there are many, Shabbat offers us a 25-hour window to think, do, and be differently than the rest of the week.
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Counting Whole Jews
May 17, 2019 By Arielle Levites | Commentary | Emor
We are in a season of counting. Beginning on the second night of Passover, Jews around the world began a collective counting project, marking the days from the Exodus from Egypt to the holiday of Shavuot, which celebrates the Israelites鈥� receiving of the 10 Commandments at Sinai.
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