Parshiyot are named for the first significant word used. Our first sentence is, “And Hashem spoke to Moses, ‘Speak to the Kohanim, the sons of Aaron, saying to them, ‘Don’t defile yourself for any [dead] person of your kin / people.’” -
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר ה' אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֱמֹ֥ר אֶל־הַכֹּהֲנִ֖ים בְּנֵ֣י אַהֲרֹ֑ן וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ לֹֽא־יִטַּמָּ֖א בְּעַמָּֽיו
This refers to the rule that a Kohen (priest) cannot come into contact with a dead body because they will become ritually impure and cannot perform their duties.
I’m going to start talking about a commonly spoken aspect of this parsha and then veer into something a little more original, I promise!
So there’s a bit of redundancy here, just with different ways of communicating the word, “say.” Why is the text, “Speak to the Kohanim…saying to them…”? If you’ve written any important email ever, you know that there’s a world of nuances you have to navigate. “Speak” / “Emor” is aggressive, while “saying” / “amarta is a little more gentle.
Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, comments that the first, harsher command is for the “big” kohanim, and the second, gentler command is for the “small” kohanim. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson taught that there is a parallel of “big” vs “small” within us too. What is “big” within us is our power of intellect and emotional intelligence, while the “small” aspect is our ability to act.
Our intellect, our thoughts, then, are important in determining and instructing our actions.
But this feels counter to what we learn, specifically in Pirkey Avot, (the Ethics of the Fathers, a part of the Mishnah) Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa taught, “…anyone whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom is enduring, but anyone whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, his wisdom is not enduring.”
So only those who act on their wisdom endure? But didn’t we just learn that actions are the “small” “narrow-minded” aspect to us?
Even further, just a little later in Pirkey Avot, we hear from Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah who taught, “Anyone whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, to what is he compared? To a tree whose branches are many but whose roots are few; and the wind comes and uproots it and turns it upside down, etc. But one whose deeds exceed his wisdom, what is he like? Like a tree whose branches are few but whose roots are many; since even if all the winds of the world come and blow upon it, they do not move it from its place.”
To translate, we don’t want to be a top-heavy tree. We want to be a bottom-heavy tree, supported by our deeds. I really tried to trim that one down but you really need all parts of it to get it… lol
This feels counterintuitive!!! But our answer (maybe) is given just before that beautiful piece of imagery. We get a famous line — “If there is no flour [bread / sustenance], there is no Torah. And if there is no Torah, there is no flour.”
אִם אֵין קֶמַח, אֵין תּוֹרָה. אִם אֵין תּוֹרָה, אֵין קֶמַח
Flour representing the physical, tangible needs we have, and Torah (duh) representing our intangible wisdom. We cannot have one without the other, which communicates to me the value of moderation, of balance.
Sometimes our actions represent an impulsive side to us, but sometimes all the wisdom in the world can’t make up for actions.
Ugh I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about this situation in this podcast but I can’t not!!! Ok so I got a desk for my room in my apartment. (I’m writing this from that desk… the best investment…) I wanted one that had certain qualities that would make it the most efficient for when I work from home / do anything of substance.
Cont’d…
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