Making Way for the New

 B’Har - Bechukotai

Lev. 25:1 – 27:34

 

Précis: B’Har begins with a description of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee (Yovel) Year. In the 50th (Jubilee) Year, we are to “proclaim liberty throughout the land” and property is restored to its ancestral owners. The parasha continues with the prohibition against unlimited slavery, as well as the rules for the treatment of those who are slaves.

            Bechukotai, the final parasha in Vayikra, begins with a statement promising blessings if the People follow Adonai’s ways. The blessings are discussed in detail. But, if the People disobey, terrible punishments will be visited upon them, and these, too, are listed in agonizing detail. The Book of Leviticus then concludes (as it opened) with regulations regarding the upkeep of the Mishkan, from voluntary tithes, land gifts, firstborn redemption, and tithes of flocks.

 

Lev. 26:10 “You shall eat old grain stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make room for the new.”

Among the blessings found at the beginning of Bechukotai we find this phrase, telling us that we will need to eat the stored grain in order to make room for the new harvest. Rashi tells us that the threshing floors will be full, but the old storehouses will also be full, and we must eat the old grain for there to be sufficient space for the new harvest. In other words, we need to clear out the old to make way for the new.

Rabbi Esther L. Lederman has suggested (Reform Voices of Torah, 5/23/22) that the idea of eliminating the old to make room for the new also applies to our possessions, and perhaps more significantly, to changes we seek to make in the way we live our lives. We need to let go of the old (be they habits or doing things just because that’s the way we’ve always done them) and embrace the new. 

In a world which many of us live in today, we are seeking greater racial equality, diversity, and inclusion of those we previously called “the other.” What “old habits” need to be discarded to leave space for new ideas and new behaviors?

We have an ideal way of “making room” for the new: Shabbat. When we sing at the Shabbat table together, and we bless the angels who look to our safety and security, we can also ask “what am I open to? What possibilities await?” It is perhaps time to make space for the new grain.

The Challenge of Prohibitions

 

Emor

Lev. 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 oil and the bread on display on the altar. Finally, there is a brief narrative about a blasphemer who is condemned to death.

Lev. 21:16-21 “The Lord spoke further to Moses. Speak to Aaron and say: No man of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God. No one at all who has a physical defect shall be qualified: no man who is blind, or lame, or has a limb too short or too long; no man who has a broken leg or a broken arm, or is a hunchback or scurvy or crushed testes…. having a defect, he shall not be qualified to offer the food of his God.”

We are, as modern readers, rightfully troubled by the disqualifications because of physical handicap which prevent a Kohen from officiating. Etz Hayim suggests that “such disfigurements would distract the worshippers from concentrating on the ritual” (a rationale I find quite lacking). Rabbi Sacks discusses this matter at length (Covenant and Conversation, 5/10/12). He suggests that there is an underlying logic which requires us to first comprehend the concept of the holy. God is beyond space and time, but God also created space and time. The universe (in Hebrew “olam”) God created comes from a Hebrew root meaning “hidden.” If God was completely hidden, it would be as if God did not exist. So, God established “holy time” (Shabbat) and “holy space” (the Tabernacle). Things which “defile” holy time or space must be “cleansed,” as we learned in recent weeks dealing with metzorah or tzararat. While there is nothing evil about these conditions, they tend to focus our attention on the physical, and are not compatible with the “holy space” which is dedicated to the non-physical (and those suffering from those conditions were excluded from communal worship until cleansed).

            In other words, when one’s body is afflicted, it may be impossible to focus on spirituality. As Rambam reminds us, it is impossible to meditate on truth when one is hungry, thirsty, homeless or sick (Guide to the Perplexed, 3:27).

             Sacks reminds us that the Torah is God’s word interpreted by human hands. The authors of the Torah were influenced by the sensibilities of their time and place,​ which we may or may not share today.

             After all, it was only a few chapters earlier (Lev. 19:14) that we are enjoined from insulting the deaf or placing a stumbling block before the blind. We do not purposely place a stumbling block before the physically challenged, but by ignoring their needs we in fact inadvertently place a stumbling block before them.

            I view these prohibitions in Emor as a challenge: we must act with compassion, care and respect for those who face physical or mental challenges. We are all created in God’s image, and we all merit the respect of others, regardless of the differences we may have.