Emor 5759

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Emor (Leviticus 21-24 )

GOOD
MORNING!

I want to thank my friend Larry Rothenberg, creator of Dov Bears (kinda like beanie baby bears...) for making an Aish Bear to promote Aish and to help fill the coffers. Larry studied in Jerusalem at Aish and has always loved the organization. If you'd like your own Aish Bear for yourself, your child or a grandchild
... check out http://www.dovbears.com, write
dovbabies@aol.com or fax:
561-394-0571.

Q & A:  WHAT IS L'AG B'OMER AND HOW IS IT CELEBRATED?

According to Jewish cosmology, the day begins with
nightfall. That is why all holidays start at night after the stars can
be seen. Monday night, May 3rd, begins the holiday of L'ag B'Omer. You
may have seen advertisements for picnics from synagogues and JCC's.

L'ag B'Omer is the 33rd day of the Omer, the period
between Pesach and Shavuot. On this day the plague which was
killing Rabbi Akiva's disciples stopped. It is also the yarhtzeit of
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar, the Kabbalah, the
book of Jewish Mysticism. Tradition has it that the day of his demise
was filled with a great light of endless joy through the secret wisdom
which he revealed to his students in the Zohar.

In Israel there are huge bonfires across the country. From
Pesach onwards the children gather fallen branches and old tires
and build pyres often 20 and 30 feet high. Then as the sky grows
dark, they are lit and the sky is filled with flames -- and smoke. (I
have often wondered what the reaction is to the pictures from the US
and Russian Spy satellites.)

The fires are symbolic both of the light of wisdom Rabbi
Shimon Bar Yochai brought into the world and as a "yahrzeit
candle" to the memory of his passing. Haircuts and weddings take
place on this date and there is much festivity including dancing,
singing and music.

Why the name L'ag B'Omer? Every Hebrew letter has a
numerical value. An aleph = 1, a bet = 2 and so forth. The two
Hebrew letters lamed (30) and gimmel (3) = 33. So L'ag B'Omer
means the 33rd day of the Omer. [The word "Omer" literally means
"sheaf" and refers to the offering of the barley sheaf in the Temple on
the second day of Pesach marking the harvesting of the barley crop.
From that day until Shavuot (the anniversary of the giving of the Torah
and the Festival of the Harvest) is called the period of the Counting of
the Omer. It is a time for reflection upon how we view and treat our
fellow Jews and what we can learn from the tragedies that have befallen
us because of unfounded (self-justified) hatred for our fellow Jews.]


Torah
Portion of the Week
Emor

This week's portion sets forth the standards of purity and
perfection for a Cohen; specifies the physical requirements of
sacrifices and what is to be done with blemished offerings;
proclaims as holidays the Shabbat, Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh
Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

It reminds the Jewish people to provide pure olive oil for the
Menorah and designates the details of the Showbread (two stacks
of 6 loaves each which were placed on the table in the portable
sanctuary and later in the Temple once a week upon Shabbat).

The portion ends with the interesting story of a man who
blasphemed G-d's name with a curse. What should be the penalty
for this transgression? Curious? Lev. 24:14.

 

Dvar Torah
based on Growth Through Torah by
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin

The Torah states, "And you shall count from the day after
the day of rest, from the day that you brought the wave offering of the
Omer, seven complete weeks they shall be" (Leviticus 23:15) Why do we
have the emphasis on counting the days of the Omer until Shavuot?

The Torah gives us a mitzvah to count the days from the
second day of Pesach until the holiday of Shavuot ("Shavuos" in the
Ashkenazie pronunciation). The root of this commandment, wrote the
Chinuch (a book, now available in English, that gives an understanding
and details of each of the 613 mitzvot) is that the essence of the
Jewish people is the Torah, and for the Torah the entire world and
Israel were created. The Israelites were redeemed from Egypt in order
to accept the Torah at Sinai and to fulfill it. The counting of the
days from the exodus from Egypt until the day of the accepting of the
Torah is an expression of the importance of the Torah for the Jewish
People. Just as a person who is enslaved and knows that he will be
liberated on a certain day will count each day until he finally gets his
freedom, so too, we count the days until we receive the Torah. Counting
the days shows that our entire being has a strong desire to finally
reach the end of the time we are counting. (Sefer HaChinuch 306)

The greater your appreciation of the Torah, the more you
will study it. Realizing how important the Torah is for us as a nation
and for each of us individually, we will have great joy and pleasure
when we devote ourselves to studying and mastering it. Every year when
we count the days between Pesach and Shavuot, we once again repeat this
message daily for forty-nine days.

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