Shabbat Shalom, beloved.
Today we're learning from Parashat Emor. In the Book of Vayikra.
Before we enter the words of the text, there is much we can learn from the context.
Vayikra — A Call to Holiness
I've found value in studying Torah through chiastic structures. One thing that surprised me was the chiastic pairing of the death of Nadab and Abihu with the blasphemer in this week's portion. Another thing I found interesting was the pattern in the names of the portions of Leviticus themselves.
Vayikra—"And He called"
Tzav—"Command"
Shemini—"Eight" — seven is completion, eight is entering into a new thing
Tazriarightconceives — brings forth life into the camp
Metzoraleftdiseased, sent out — the same letters can be read as motzi ra, "bringing forth evil"
Acharei Motleft"after the death of"
Kedoshimright"holy ones" — holiness
Emoraloneand something happens in this portion
Behar + Bechukotaitogether"on Mount Sinai" + "in My statutes" — no longer a contrast, but a unity
Through Emor we arrive at Sinai, where we have the opportunity to walk in G-d's statutes. On the mountain, we are finally free — and true freedom is having a purpose. We have the choice to create life or evil, to cause death or holiness.
Leviticus is a call to holiness. The word we translate as "sacrifice" — korban — means "to draw near." The priests are to be G-d's example to Israel. The haftarah of Emor makes this explicit:
And My people shall they teach the difference between holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the impure and the pure.
Ezekiel 44:23
Leviticus 21:6 says of the priests: "They shall be holy unto their Elohim, and not profane the name of their Elohim." That is the priestly standard. They are not only responsible for correct service — they are responsible for how G-d's name is carried before the people.
The Kohen is to be an example to Israel. And in turn, Israel is to be an example to the nations.
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Emor — Say
Emor means "say." The question has often been asked: why is a Torah portion named after one of the most common verbs in the Tanakh? And why is it repeated three times in the opening verse?
And Adonai said to Moses, emor unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them: There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people.
Leviticus 21:1
Hebrew has three main words used for communication. The distinction matters.
TzivvahTo command. Used for binding mitzvahs: "Command Israel to…" Binding, authoritative, non-negotiable.
DiberTo speak with authority, formally. The weight of an official declaration.
AmarTo say — just make the matter known. The gentlest of the instruction verbs.
G-d tells Moses to speak gently with the priests, to guide them. Death, disqualification from priestly duties, marriage restrictions — these are sensitive things and should be handled with care.
The repetition also teaches us something about education. Most commentators note a pattern: G-d tells Moses, Moses tells the priests, the priests tell their children. It is a cyclical, generational system — speak softly, again and again.
G-d designed a system of holiness where we revisit the festivals and the Torah in a repetitive educational pattern every year. Torah doesn't end. During Sukkot we read the end of Devarim and continue right into Bereishit. It is not something you read through once, know everything, and move on. If you actually put in the effort, every year it is new, deeper, and more profound — a never-ending well that never runs dry.
We see this especially during the Omer. We do not merely calculate the days and show up at Shavuot. We count them. Day after day, blessing after blessing, Psalm after Psalm, Torah portion after Torah portion. The repetition trains us. It prepares us. It teaches our children that holiness is not rushed into. It is practiced into.
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Two Tzitzit Stories
Emor teaches us that holiness is not formed by one harsh correction. It is formed by speaking softly, again and again, and then living what we say. That is where tzitzit became so important in my own life.
Story One — My Father
As I grew up I got to watch my father go through the process of learning to keep Torah. When I was about four, my grandmother passed and we learned of our family's Jewish heritage. He believed in Torah, but we didn't keep much of it at first. He would learn about something — like Sabbath — study it out fully, and then slowly implement it.
My father is a proud man, and back then he didn't want to do things "the Jewish way." He wanted to study it himself and do it based on his own interpretation. I was about ten when he began to study tzitzit and took up the mitzvah. The Torah said to put a fringe with blue on the corner of your garment — so that's what he did. He went out, bought curtain fringes, and sewed them onto his shirts.
Soon after, others joined his study of tzitzit. They began studying the Jewish teachings on the knots and wraps — the wrappings that spell out YHVH, the name itself. My father softened toward the Jewish sources and began to study them. We quickly learned that garments and trousers are different things. We learned about wearing tzitzit on your upper body, covering the heart, rather than the lower body. We learned about wool. We learned about Techelet.
Once my father began studying the Jewish sources, our spiritual walk went from a slow trudge through mud to a sprint down a hill. We grew spiritually extremely fast.
In this journey I got to see the example of someone seeking truth wholeheartedly — from humble beginnings of just trying to do what the book says and doing it poorly, all the way to walking it out excellently and glorifying the Creator. That is the expectation established for the priests. Walk it out excellently, while glorifying the Creator.
Story Two — The Factory
About a decade ago, when I had first started coming here on Shabbat, I had gotten myself into a few bad spots spiritually. I was off the derekh. I didn't wear tzitzit or kippah out anymore. But I didn't work on Shabbat, and I ate clean.
I was working at the factory in Ava. It's a rough place, and they noticed quickly that I didn't curse, didn't work Saturdays, and didn't eat the pork meals they provided. A few people asked me questions. One in particular — a good ol' boy — was really interested and asked a lot of questions.
One day, after coming here for a while and getting myself more in order, I decided to take on the mitzvah of tzitzit again. Working in a factory, everything gets dirty and there's risk of things catching in machinery. So I bought some string and made little fringes for my belt loops that I could easily replace. I went in wearing those and felt pretty good about myself. Doing mitzvahs. Being a light.
Later that shift the good ol' boy found me.
"Whatcha got going on there."
I explained: "These are called tzitzit. The book of Numbers tells us to attach fringes to the corners of our garments so we can look at them and remember all of G-d's commandments." I thought it was a pretty good explanation. Simple. Easy to understand.
He looked me up and down and thought about it.
"Them belt loops ain't corners, and they ain't even attached — just looped on there."
I managed to spit out "uh, it's symbolic."
"And they're kinda small to be much use reminding you of anything if ya can't see 'em."
He just said "huh" and walked away.
I felt so small. I had enough spiritual discernment to recognize I had just disgraced YHVH. This is called Chillul Hashem — a desecration of G-d's name. I took those strings off and buried them. Stopped wearing tzitzit in public for years.
Until Vayikra. He called me to wear them again.
I did eventually get a redemption. One day someone on the edge of the Torah community called me. He said he wanted to thank me — that he had done a lot of business with people wearing fringes, and that I was the only one who had treated him kindly and done business in an upright and edifying manner.
This isn't a brag. In that moment I didn't feel proud. I was heartbroken.
We boast in our belief of Torah but barely bother to keep it. We have profaned His holy name.
We are prideful. Stiffnecked. Self-righteous. Judgmental. We don't have reverence for the holy things. They've become ornaments. We have destroyed our reputation in this community.
Please don't sit there and think this doesn't pertain to you. We are a community — my guilt is upon your head and your guilt is upon mine. And the person across the county who wears fringes but doesn't love his brother — his guilt is upon our heads too.
This word isn't just for those in this room. It's for all of Israel scattered abroad. It's a call to holiness.
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The Third Commandment
You shall not take the name of the L-rd your G-d in vain, for the L-rd will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Exodus 20:7
That word "vain" — shav — means emptiness, falsehood, worthlessness. And the word "take" — nasa — means to lift, carry, bear.
"You shall not carry the name of Adonai your Elohim to worthlessness, for Adonai will not hold him guiltless who bears His name in falsehood."
When you wear tzitzit, you are bearing His name. Where and how you bear His name matters.
This is why the blasphemer in Emor is treated so severely. The issue is not merely speech. It is the public desecration of the Name — which unravels the very witness Israel is called to carry.
Neither shall you profane My holy name; but I will be sanctified among the children of Israel: I am Adonai who sanctifies you, the one bringing you out of the land of Egypt, to be your Elohim: I am YHVH.
Leviticus 22:32–33
Hosea 4:6 — "My people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge." But the verse continues: "because you have rejected knowledge." An active choice was made. The people rejected Adonai, which led to rejecting the knowledge of who He is. If we don't know G-d, we can't be in relationship with Him.
The Kohen is to be an example to Israel. Israel is to be an example to the nations. This chain runs from the altar all the way to the ends of the earth. Every link in that chain is responsible for how the name is carried.
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Isaiah 58
Today and every day, you have a choice. Life or death. Choose life.
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their Elohim…
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to give your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out into your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him…
Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Adonai shall be your rear guard. Then you will call, and Adonai will answer; you will cry, and he shall say, Here I am.
If you take away from your midst the yoke, the finger pointing, and speaking worthlessness; and if you extend your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then your light will dawn in the darkness, and your darkness will be as the noonday. And Adonai shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
And those from among you shall build the old waste places: you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you will be called, The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.
If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of Adonai, honourable; and shall honour him, not doing your own ways, or finding your own pleasure, or speaking your own words: then shall you delight yourself in Adonai; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of Adonai has spoken it.
Isaiah 58:1–14
You will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.
That is the calling. Not ornament-wearing. Not boasting in knowledge. Not performance. Repairing the breach — between man and G-d, between Judah and Ephraim, between Israel and the nations.
Speak softly, again and again, about the holy things. And live what you say.
Shabbat Shalom. Kol Tuv — Matti Kahana