Building Walls

Emor

Leviticus 21:1 - 24:23

Précis: This parasha is divided into four sections. First, it reviews procedures for the Priests to use to remain ritually pure. Second, it outlines the festival and holiday calendar. Third, it explains the use of the olive oil and bread on display on the altar. Finally, there is a brief narrative about a blasphemer who is condemned to death.


This week’s parasha opens with detailed guidelines regarding the holiness of priests and sacrifices. We read specific ways to avoid desecrating the holy space of the Temple - essentially by making sure that all who enter its confines, especially the Priests and Levites, are ritually pure. Subsequent verses (e.g., see Lev. 23:4) change the perspective from sacred space to sacred time by designating festivals for their “appointed times.”

It is this shift from sacred space to sacred time that enabled the Jewish People to survive wherever they were dispersed across the world for more than two millennia. One can create a sacred space by simply building walls, as has also happened with frequency during our history. We can also metaphorically try to “wall ourselves off” from the influences of the outside world as some Jews have always done (and some do to this day).

On the other hand, we all have the opportunity to “wall off” a period of time and make it sacred. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s work, The Shabbat: Its Meaning for Modern Man, focuses on the importance of sanctifying time. Judaism, he teaches, sanctifies the concept of time, setting times apart from the routine, when we are free – in the truest sense – to contemplate the Ineffable and thank God for creation.

In a busy day or a busy week, particularly as we approach Shabbat, we can remember this week’s parasha and strive to create a distinct time for contemplation and renewal. It is a great challenge to “wall off time” and make it sacred. This is God’s gift to us, and the Jewish People’s gift to the rest of humanity.