PERFECTING PERFECT PERFECTION: PARSHAT EMOR

Shira Smiles shiur - April 21, 2013/Iyar 11, 5773

Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein

            The Torah readings for the holidays always center on the laws related to the holidays.. The reading for the first day of Succoth and for the first day of Chol Hamoed Pesach begins rather strangely in Parshat Emor not with the reference to the holiday itself but with the general guidelines of when an animal, a bull, a sheep, or a goat, is deemed acceptable to be brought as an offering to Hashem, specifically after it has lived a full seven days with its mother. 

            Perhaps the first lesson we can learn from this preface to the sacrifice itself is that the bull, the sheep and the goat are already in their perfect state from the moment they are born. They will always remain a bull, sheep or goat. While there will be physical growth, there will never be any change in their nature from infancy to adulthood. In contrast, says the Rabbi Chaim Yosef, in Shaarei Chaim, man has the ability to grow and change spiritually throughout his lifetime, and the moed experience, our holiday observance, is meant to be a continuous means to this end, a path of change that does not stop as night falls on the holiday. When we reexperience yetziat Mitzrayim, our redemption from Egypt, we should be freeing ourselves from our present day meitzorim, narrow spaces and straits; when we count up to the Sinai experience, we should again be purifying ourselves to be worthy of Hashem’s revelation.

            Each holiday contains within itself a certain inherent energy and sanctity, the students of Beit Medrash Nachalat Yaakov remind us in Sichot Hitchazkut. This energy should uplift me and inspire me to strive for purity and perfection even after the holiday itself has passed. Time itself possesses sanctification that can envelop us and from which we can grow, unlike an animal which time cannot change. When we count the days leading from Pesach to Shavuot, we should be trying to sanctify ourselves to reach the pure state required for the revelation at Sinai.

            Especially now, during the period of sefirah, Rav Pinchas Yehudah Lieberman writes in Tuv Hapninim, we must remember that sefirah is more than just counting. It is the root of sapphire, the gem that illuminates and thereby allows me to purify myself and break the influence of the yetzer horo. Unlike the animals, I have the capability for self improvement, and can shine in purity. This is the time when I can search for the spiritual treasures within myself, during the forty-nine days of counting, for, Rabbi Meislish cites and explains the verses in Proverbs, “If you seek it [as if it were] silver, if you search for it [as if it were] hidden treasures, chamat monin, then you will understand the fear of Hashem and discover the knowledge of God,” as meaning, “search for it during matmonim, when you count (monim) 49 ( m”t) days, the period between Pesach and Shavuot. This is the time to expand my spiritual horizons.

            But it is not enough to be concerned with perfecting only ourselves, for we must use our skills to also help others perfect themselves. The Shvilei Pinchas, Rabbi Pinchas Freedman, explains that Hashem “consulted” with Man himself when He created Man, “Let us make Man,” He said, “You and I together,” giving mankind the ability to continuously recreate and perfect himself. Man must work at it constantly, le'amel at it, lilmod al m’nas lelamed, to learn himself for the purpose of teaching others as well. (I am reminded of how a surgeon hones his technique – watch one, do one, teach one.) This is how our forefathers Avraham and Sarah perfected themselves; they reached out and created spiritual souls in Charan.  Perhaps this is the reason the laws of leket, leaving stalks in the field for the poor to gather, is included in the laws of the holidays is to remind us that our holidays cannot be complete if we refuse to share with those less fortunate than we are.

            Each of our festivals has unique customs that help develop particular attributes that define us as a holy nation. The cycle of the year renews and refreshes these attributes, explains Rabbi Zev Leff in The Festivals of Life and helps us sanctify our lives in the service of Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

            This idea helps explain why we may not bring an animal offering before its eighth day of life. As Rabbi Menachem Freeman explains in Shaarei Derech, each of the six days of creation was dedicated to introducing something new to the world. We do not want to appear to be paying homage to any of God’s creation by bringing an offering on the same day of the animal’s life as that creation itself came into existence. God rested on the seventh day. To achieve the shleimut, the completion and perfection of our offering and our service, we must allow our offering to complete that same cycle so that it is only for God and His perfection.

            But what is considered perfect for use in service to Hashem is not measured by size or quantity, teaches Rabbi Leff, but by completion or wholeness. A small complete roll is preferable for the Hamotzie to a larger, thick slice that is not a complete loaf. Similarly, a larger animal, although stronger, may be an unacceptable offering if it has an imperfection, and a kohain who has an imperfection is disqualified from service. Using the same criteria, how much we do in our service to Hashem is less significant than the wholeness and perfection of mind toward that service. Therefore, the Torah commands us to count seven whole, complete, perfect weeks toward Shavuot and the acceptance of the Torah, and these weeks become complete when we do Hashem’s will.

            When we first said, “Naaseh venishmah, we will do and we will listen” and accepted the Torah, our mindset was in this state of completion and perfection. We were ready to do whatever Hashem would require of us, no questions asked, writes Rabbi Yaakov Goldwicht in Asufat Maarachot. We are following the command to Avraham Avinu, “Hithalech lefonai veheyay tomim – walk before me and be perfect,” and we are emulating our matriarch Sarah whose 100 years and twenty years and seven years were all complete and perfect. During sefirah we are striving to achieve this level, and we pray to be restored to this level on each festival: We pray that the priests be restored to their service and that we may come and prostrate ourselves again before Him.

            Rabbi Akiva Tatz explains this concept more fully in his work World Mask. We are told that when Bnei Yisroel appeared before God in the courtyard of the Beit Hamikdosh during the festivals, they stood upright and felt crowded together. However, when they prostrated themselves before Him, there was ample room for everyone to bow down comfortably. How was this possible? Bnei Yisroel were standing as close to the nexus of the physical and spiritual worlds as possible, the point where physical laws and spiritual laws intersect and cross over. As the people stood upright, in an independent posture, the constraints of the physical world predominated, but when they prostrated themselves and annulled their egos before their Creator, the spiritual world without constraints of time and space took over, and there was plenty of room for everyone. This perfection of soul and spirit was first achieved at this very spot when Avraham and Yitzchak went up the mountain together, telling the youths who accompanied them that they would “go up, prostrate themselves and return” to them. For Avraham and Yitzchak, the only reality was God’s will.

            Now perhaps we can understand why we cannot bring an animal offering before it has completed seven days of life. The animal must also know its Creator and be raised to the higher spiritual level through the passing of a full cycle of the days of creation and the spiritual day of Shabbat that connects the two worlds, explains Rabbi Bernard Weinberger in Shemen Hatov. Just as we raise a Jewish child to a higher spiritual realm by his circumcision on the eighth day, so must we raise the animal to that same spiritual realm before we offer it to God. The animal too must bear witness that God created the world before it can be sanctified.

            But the sanctity of Shabbat can exist on any day of the week. Rabbi Avrohom Schor in Halekach Vehalebuv notes that when we count the days and weeks of sefirah, the week is complete, and thus Shabbat is achieved, every time we complete a seven day cycle regardless of the day of the week it is; the shechinah rests upon us on this symbolic Shabbat as well.

            The Kabbalist Rabbi Chaim Ezra Hachohen Fatchia, known for his occupation of chalban (milker), discusses the significance of the numbers six, seven, and eight. Six represents this world, symbolized by a cube that incorporates all the directions. Seven, although beyond this world, still maintains a connection to this world. It is the energy within the cube keeping everything in its place. It is the sanctity of Shabbat that gives energy and sanctity to the other six days of the week. Eight is beyond this world, a dimension above time and place. It is olam habo, the world of the future, a world of complete spirituality. Eight denotes the source, the very beginning. Seven represents the soul in our bodies; eight represents the highest level of our immortal soul.

            This world exists in a cycle of seven, from creation to shemita, the seven year cycle of working the land. Within this world, we have free choice to imbue it with the holiness of seven by choosing to perform the mitzvoth and living according to His will. But Hashem has also given us hints of the eight, when we have annulled our choice and are completely subject to His will. The mitzvah of circumcision is our first example. Although the parents choose to enter their son in the covenant of Avraham, the baby himself on whose body the brit will be performed has no choice in the matter. Then we have the example of yovel, the jubilee year that comes after seven cycles of the seven shemitah years. In this year, everything goes back to its source – land that was sold goes back to its tribal ancestors, loans are forgiven, and Jewish slaves are set free. These are the realms of the loftiest level of human experience, beyond choice itself.

            We are limited to the seven in this world, but the experience of the first Shavuot was God’s gift to us of experiencing the eight. We counted seven times seven, and God revealed Himself to us. We must strive for the seven times seven, but we are not in control of the eight. When we subjugate ourselves with the sevens, Hashem may bless us with eight. This is what we strive for each year as we count up from Pesach to Shavuot. We strive to reach that stage of perfection. When we bring an animal as an offering to the Beit Hamikdosh, says Rabbi Weinberg, we are bringing it to this higher dimension, and it must also have completed its seven. When we celebrate our holidays and festivals, we can celebrate them on the level of six or on the level of seven. Our hope is that we can reach the level of transcendence and connect to God our Source with the innermost essence of our souls on a level of eight.

            It is on with this concept that Rabbi Leff notes that our calendars contain seven holidays and festivals, including those rabbinically ordained. But when Moshiach comes we will celebrate an eighth holiday to represent that which is beyond the natural world. Then the cycle of holidays will be complete; then we will again be able to go up to Yerushalayim and prostrate ourselves fully in His presence. Hashem’s presence will be palpable around each of us as we have room to contemplate our unseverable bond with Him, may it be speedily in our day.