Parasha: Emor · Aliyah: Fourth (Netzach)

מועדי ה׳ אשר תקראו אותם, "appointed seasons (festivals) of G'd which you shall proclaim, etc." G'd decreed that these festivals will come into force as a result of the court declaring them to be in force (Torat Kohanim). We need to understand why the Torah repeated the words אלה הם מועדי, "these are My festivals." We must also try and understand how the Sabbath (verse 3) fits into this chapter seeing it is most certainly not subject to the manipulations of the Jewish High Court! Moreover, why did the Torah have to write the words: "these are the festivals of the Lord" a third time in verse 4?

I believe we must understand this verse in the following manner. In the first instance G'd informed the Jewish people that in principle the exact time (though not the calendar date) of these "appointed seasons" are subject to input by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court. In view of this principle, the Torah feared that we might err and believe that even the Sabbath itself was subject to such input by the Sanhedrin, i.e. to postponement if it suited the court. The Torah therefore wrote: "these are My appointed seasons, you are to have work performed for six consecutive days and only the seventh day is the Sabbath on which you may not perform all manner of work." The Torah had to write once more: "these are the appointed seasons of the Lord which you are to proclaim," to inform us that we are entitled to adjust the part of the calendar dealing with those days to suit our needs. This is followed by the respective dates in the first month, the third month and the seventh month which are liable to be affected by adjustments made by the Sanhedrin.

There may be yet another reason why the Torah repeated the formula אשר תקראו אותם, "which you are to proclaim (or may) proclaim." Maimonides writes as follows in chapter 4 of his treatise on the sanctification of the new month: "There are three considerations which justify lengthening the year by means of the insertion of an extra month. 1) Bringing it in line with the solar seasons of the year. 2) Ensuring that Passover occcurs in the spring as demanded by the Torah. 3) Enabling the period when the fruit of the trees ripen to occur in summer. Maimonides mentions some other reasons which may prompt the Sanhedrin to adjust the calendar, such as to enable travellers to make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem at a time when the roads are passable, etc., or at a time when the bridges are safe from flooding, etc. The secondary reasons are mostly connected to the fact that many Israelites lived in the diaspora. In other words, the two principal considerations for adjusting the calendar are A) climate-related reasons. B) people-related reasons. Seeing that the Torah described the Passover festival as occurring in the season of the spring, the religious authorities made the necessary adjustments to conform with this requirement. The Torah repeats the right of the Sanhedrin to proclaim when these dates should occur in order for us to know that both climate-related considerations and people-related considerations are valid reasons for the Sanhedrin to make use of its authority in this regard.

בין הערבים פסח לשם, "at dusk it is the Lord's passover." This means that the part of the passover offering which belongs to G'd, i.e. the sprinkling of the blood and the burning of the fat parts of the lamb must occur on the eve of the 14th of Nissan. However, the part of that sacrifice which is to be consumed by every Jew has to occur after nightfall in conjunction with the eating of unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Furthermore, the expression "a passover to G'd" is a reminder of the very first passover sacrifice, the one the Jews slaughtered in Egypt. That Passover was of immediate benefit to the Jewish people so that the sacrifice could hardly be called "a passover for G'd." It included elements which were never repeated. In Shemot Rabbah 19 we are told concerning the Passover of Moses (not he personally but the one he commanded at the time) that it contained the fragrance carrried by the winds from Paradise. Compare what I have written in my commentary on Exodus 12,43 in this connection. In addition to that, the first Passover was responsible for G'd killing the firstborn of the Egyptians. Now that the Passover was merely a commemoration of what had occurred as part of the first Passover the people offering it could truly claim that they did so for G'd i.e. that it is a "passover for G'd."

וספרתם לכם, "and you shall count for yourselves, etc." The reason the Torah adds the word "for yourselves" is that G'd commanded to count for seven weeks consecutively. We are told in the Zohar volume 3 page 97 that seeing the Jewish people were in a state of impurity and G'd wanted to betroth them to Himself He applied the legislation pertaining to a menstruant woman who is required to purify herself for seven days. He therefore commanded them to "purify" themselves for seven weeks by counting those days much as a menstruant counts the seven days. The count then was for the benefit of the Israelites in order that they would become G'd's "bride" as it were and would be able to step under the wedding canopy at Mount Sinai. The reason that the period of counting was seven weeks instead of seven days was the extraordinary amount of impurity the Jewish people had accumulated during their extended stay in Egypt. Another reason is that in this instance we speak about an entire people having to shed their accumulated impurities. I have explained on Exodus 19,1 that the word בצאתם was to be understood as a cause for G'd having delayed the giving of the Torah, i.e. the presence of the Israelites in Egypt for a long time necessitated the period of seven weeks during which the Jews prepared themselves for this event. The sentiment that the reason the Torah was not given immediately after the Exodus is supported by the words ממחרת השבת, that the Torah would not be given immediately after the Sabbath, i.e. Passover, but after a period described as the morrow of that day. The nature of this count is that the days have to be whole days, as opposed to parts of days. Seeing the 15th of Nissan at that time was a Sabbath and that on part of that day the Israelites were still in Egypt, the count of the seven weeks could not commence until the following day, i.e. ממחרת. While it is true that this consideration applied only to the generation of Israelites who left Egypt at that time, the Torah legislated that the same procedure be followed year after year starting with the year of the Exodus. Kabbalists understand why we have to re-enact history in this fashion. According to the plain meaning of the text the reason the Torah refers to "the day following the Sabbath" is a reminder of the fact that while in Egypt the Jews had to perform slave labour also on the Sabbath. You may do well to read what I have written on Genesis 2,2 in connection with the words ויכל אלוקים ביום השביעי.

A moral-ethical approach to our verse may be derived if we see in the word וספרתם the root ספיר, sapphire, the material the second tablets were made of (compare Vayikra Rabbah 32,2). The souls of the Jewish people are compared to the nature of sapphires which lose their lustre when they become dirty. As a result of sins committed by their owners (bodies inhabited by these souls) something similar happens to their souls. The message of the word וספרתם is that by means of the count the Jewish people would "polish up" their souls so that they would be unblemished by the time they would experience the revelation at Mount Sinai.

ממחרת השבת מיום הביאכם, "on the morrow of the Sabbath from the day you offer the Omer, etc." The meaning is that the count commences now before you come to the Holy Land. As far as what is to happen after the people will come to the land of Canaan the Torah writes: "from the day you offer the Omer sacrifice." The reason the Torah first mentioned the words ממחרת השבת, is that the commandment of counting commenced already at the time of the Exodus.

ובקצרכם את קציר ארצכם, "And when you reap the harvest of your land, etc." Why does the Torah introduce this kind of legislation at this juncture when it is totally out of context with the subject matter being legislated in this chapter? Perhaps the Torah wanted to inform us that the owner of a field from which the barley for the Omer sacrifice has already been taken is still subject to the variety of tithes the farmer is commanded to leave for the poor when he harvests his field. Had the Torah not written this I might have thought that inasmuch as this field had already become a sacrifice to G'd in that the Omer of barley had been offered from it on the altar it would no longer be subject to the legislation of the various donations which have to be separated from the harvest. Perhaps this is why only two of those gifts to the poor are mentioned here, i.e. פאה ולקט, the corner and the gleanings, both of which are duties which devolve on the actual field itself. This is different from the legislation of שכחה, already harvested sheaves, which the owner has forgotten to pick up. Our sages in Torat Kohanim say that the Torah alludes to the moral-ethical message that anyone who gives פאה, לקט, and שכחה is considered as if he had assured the continued existence of the Holy Temple and had offered sacrifices therein; thus far Torat Kohanim. The reason they mention the word שכחה although it does not even appear in our verse is because it is also a commandment similar to לקט ופאה. In this way they have hinted at what we have written above.