Double Parashiot are often thought of as an expedient. There are only so many weeks in a non-leap year, so we have to double up. But is there something more involved beyond expedience? In Vayikra, we have several weeks of double Parshiot but we also have four Parashiot which are always singletons. The first three are always alone, and so is Emor.
The decision about which are doubled and which are single is not just made out of expedience. The paired-up Parashiot share themes. Last week, Tazria devoted long sections to the ailment of Tzaraat and then Metzora spoke about the journey back to normal life for the person with that ailment. Overall, those two Parashiot covered the experience of ritual impurity in humans (rather than animals). In two more weeks, when we double up Behar and Bechukotai, we will again see a connection as the punishments in the latter Parasha are aimed largely at failure to keep the Mitzvot listed in the first Parasha.
How do our Parshiot fit together? They lay out nothing less than the national purpose, the goal toward which every Parasha up until now was aimed. This is why Parashat Kedoshim is aimed at what is called "Kol Adat Bnei Yisrael," the entire congregation of Israel. It announces the steps toward the national purpose.
Yom Kippur will be mentioned next week among the other Yomim Tovim in Parashat Emor. There the Torah will emphasize what the day expects from -- and accomplishes for -- every Jew in fasting and atonement. This week, Acharei Mot focuses on the Chag to lay out the divine service, particularly by the Kohanim, that achieves that atonement.
This fits well into the Parashiot before this week, which describe the damage in terms of ritual impurity that results from all kinds of behavior, including sin, and -- crucially -- the way to purify oneself to allow for a return to community life. Our Parasha deals with the role the Kohanim play on Yom Kippur to atone for not just certain sins but for all of the sins which afflict the nation. That atonement is described as a “purification” from all sins (“L’taher etchem mikol Chatotechem”); we can now stand purified before Hashem.
As we emphasize every year before Yom Kippur, the day cannot accomplish this without prior work. Just as the day cannot help purify the Metzora until the steps laid out in last week’s Parasha have been followed, so also a person with outstanding interpersonal conflicts must deal with those before Yom Kippur will help.
Nevertheless, with that prior work done, Yom Kippur accomplishes an individual and national cleansing. It is as though we stand like new before Hashem. For this reason, there is an emphasis on the “new” on Yom Kippur. Rashi points out that the extra clothes the Kohen Gadol wears on Yom Kippur are discarded from year to year. A new Yom Kippur demands new garments. The laws of the previous Parashiot have shown that impurity is associated with a disconnect between body and soul that is associated with death. Purification requires new clothes because it is a restoration of new life.
R’ Shlomo Eldar, an Israeli Talmid Chacham who lived in Palo Alto and has taught at EB, points out that someone doing Teshuva is considered as though they have brought a voluntary offering (Gemora Yoma, 86b). One who has sinned usually brings an obligatory offering. The Maharal explains that there can be no concept of obligation for someone who has left the framework of Mitzvot. Rejoining that framework can only be seen as a voluntary act. It is a renewal, another sign that the purity of Yom Kippur means a new life.
Nothing can be accomplished until one comes back cleansed. But after one has reached the level of the new, the next step is critical. What does one choose? That is the second Parasha: Kedoshim. The goal of the Torah is for the Jewish people to act, as Hashem said at Har Sinai, like a Memlechet Kohanim V’Goy Kadosh, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These Parashiot form the pivot of the book of Vayikra: The completion of the renewal of the nation and then the steps toward the holiness which has been the goal since Har SInai. Kedusha comes from the many foundational Mitzvot, both between people and between us and Hashem, that the Parasha rapidly lists. It is no surprise that there are commentators who identify at least the beginning of the Parasha as a parallel of the 10 statements at Har SInai.
It has been a year now of trying to hold things together. The huge crowd at Shul last week, and the Kiddush afterward for the Bar Mitzva, felt like a real turning of the corner. Everyone there could feel the burst of Simcha in being together. Renewal is coming. It’s our job to take the renewal into holiness, including a re-embrace of our holy space.
Shabbat Shalom
Congregation Emek Beracha 4102 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306
