Parashat Emor
01st May 2026
Torah portion : Lev.21 :1-24 :23 Haftarah Ezekiel 44 :15-31
Theme: “I will give you as a light to the nations” Isaiah 49:6
Avery distinct and challenging message is voiced in this parashah, Emor (speak). It is the most profound invitation that a person or community could hear – “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Lev. 19:2). When we reflect on God and the ways that God relates to humanity, I believe that we are awe-struck with the absolute mystery and wonder of a God who is so caring, so generous, and so loving of humanity. We are the subject of God’s interest and desire! God has prepared the world for all God’s creatures to live in. We, who have no merit of our own have now been freely given everything! Can we fathom such goodness, such total giving?
The Israelites were the first people to receive a revelation from God. That revelation was that God has created every human being in God’s image and likeness and has endowed each person with a soul, intellect, free will and unique qualities. All was done for their well-being and happiness. This is the God the Israelites believed in, placed their trust without limit and desired to walk with God.
Holiness is indeed the central theme of Judaism and God saw fit to extend the invitation to the Israelites to be a holy people and to be a light for the nations, (Is. 49:6) They, having been set apart from other nations were called to attain holiness through distinctive rituals, festivals and lifestyle.
Within the community, the priests (kohanim) served as teachers, public leaders, and role models of holiness. This parashahoutlines the higher standards for the priests, including regulations about marriage, contact with the dead as well as rules for sacrifices and access to sacred space. “As the Israelites are to represent the God-oriented life to the nations of the world, the kohanim are to represent a maximal level of devotion to God for their fellow Israelites.” (Hayim 717)
Each of the four chapters deals with laws and regulations that indicate the proper behavior in all aspects of life. In chapter 21 the emphasis is on the call to holiness of the people, the priests, the High Priest and the priest’s specific regulations regarding marriage. The focus of chapter 22 was on similar laws relating to the ordinary people as to the entrance into the sanctuary and the offering of animal sacrifice. Essential to Judaism was the sacredness of time and this was highlighted in chapter 23 whereas the significance of the Menorah and the Showbread were introduced in chapter 24 since they represent the Tamid, the presence of God among the people.
We see that the very first command, (mitzvah) was to sanctify time for at the conclusion of creation God declared the day ‘holy.’ “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” (Gn.2:1-3) The festivals were sanctified by God, specifically the three pilgrimage festivals which portray the key historical moments, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot. The remaining festivals are determined by the number seven and the concept of holiness. These are Shabbat and the three feasts in the seventh month of Tishri – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
The Hebrew the word for holiness, kodesh literally means ‘separate from.’ “I often think of this as a mandate for Jews to be countercultural in the deepest sense – in a culture of materialism, to be animated by the life of the spirit; in a culture of greed, to embody generosity; in a culture of selfishness, to decenter the ego, in a culture permeated by oppression, to pursue justice; in a culture overrun by inhumanity, to strive for righteousness; in a culture obsessed with self-promotion and ‘branding’ to orient our lives around service of God and one another.” (Held, 319)
The central pillars of holiness are sacred time and sacred space. Sacred time includes Shabbat and the festivals, which blend natural cycles with the historical memory and sacred space includes the sanctuary which represents God’s presence among the people, the meeting of the human with the divine. The Hebrew word, sekhina is not found in the Torah. It comes from the Mishna (Sanhedrin 6.5, Avot 3.2,6) and refers to God’s presence found in the sanctuary which represented the permanent holiness of sacred space. Holiness of both time and place were central in the festival celebrations. Since we are physical beings as well as spiritual, we therefore live in both the holy and secular time. “God has given us a material world with which we engage but on the seventh day of the week…God gives us dedicated time in which we feel the closeness of the Shekhina and are bathed in the radiance of God’s love.” (Sacks 160)
For Reflection and Discussion:
1.) Have you met a person whom you could sense is holy?
2.) How do we identify holiness in our daily lives?
3.) Do we set apart a day of the week and keep it holy? Is there a value in doing this?
Bibliography: Held, Shai, Judaism is About Love, Picardor, New York, 2024, Lieber, David L., Etz Hayim, Torah and Commentary, The Jewish Publication Society, 2021, Estate of Jonathan Sacks Koren Publishers Jerusalem, Ltd. 2021
This week’s Parasha Liturgy Commentary was prepared by
Rita Kammermayer, NDS, Jerusalem-Israel, Bat Kol Alumna 2001
[Copyright © 2026]
Comments are closed