'Aharei Mot (Leviticus 16:1-18:30) and Haftarah (Ezekiel 22:1-19): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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'Aharei Mot (Leviticus 16:1-18:30) and Haftarah (Ezekiel 22:1-19): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Overview
The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin’s book The JPS B’nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827616288 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 12/01/2018 |
| Series: | JPS Study Bible |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 24 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Torah
'Aharei Mot: Leviticus 16:1–18:30
Nowadays, when you go to synagogue for Yom Kippur, you sit in services, pray, sing, think of your sins, and fast. That's not how it was back in ancient times, though. 'Aharei Mot deals with the rituals that were part of the ancient observance of Yom Kippur. It specifies that the High Priest should choose two goats, sacrifice one of them, and send the other one, carrying the sins of the people, into the wilderness.
It also deals with various kinds of sexual acts, which ancient Israelites considered to be unholy.
Summary
• The Torah describes the ancient rituals of Yom Kippur. The High Priest symbolically transfers the people's sins to a goat and sends that goat (the scapegoat) into the wilderness. He also purges the ancient sanctuary itself of the people's sins. (16:1–34)
• The Israelites are commanded regarding sacrifices, with the explicit instruction not to consume blood when they eat the sacrificial animals. (17:1–16)
• Don't be an Egyptian (or a Canaanite)! The Israelites are commanded regarding various ancient Canaanite practices, including child sacrifice. They also learn the laws of sexual behavior. (18:1–30)
The Big Ideas
• The ancient Israelites believed that sins had a physical reality. The sins were not just something that was spiritual. And the Israelites believed that the scapegoat actually carried real sins away. And the sins of the people actually stained the sanctuary itself.
• To the ancient Israelites, blood was not just blood. It was symbolic of life itself. The ancient commandment regarding the blood of sacrificial animals went on to become a major aspect of the kashrut rules. Animals that have been ritually slaughtered must have all blood drained from them before they are acceptable for eating.
• The personal affects the public, and all of society. The ancient laws of sexuality were not only important for their own sake; they helped maintain the proper boundaries of intimacy within families. They still do. And back then these laws were another means of keeping the Israelites separate from their neighbors. Apparently the Egyptians and the Canaanites engaged in these sexual practices, and one of the most important lessons of the Torah is that the Israelites remain distinct from the surrounding peoples. Such separation is one of the most essential elements of being holy (kadosh), and is a major theme of the book of Leviticus.
Divrei Torah
It's All Your Fault!
Ryan is in the middle-school musical, and, in his big number, his voice cracks. Right after the play, his fellow actors accost him: "You screwed up the whole show for us!" Of course one of them missed his cue, and another one forgot one of his lines. It doesn't matter. They blame Ryan for the play's failure.
It's called "scapegoating" — putting all the blame on someone or something. The concept of the scapegoat comes from this Torah portion. The High Priest would take two goats and cast lots (like throwing dice). According to the way that the dice fell, he would know which goat to sacrifice to God and which he would send into the wilderness after placing the sins of the people on it. That goat "escaped," and that's how we get the word "scapegoat."
Scapegoating happens all the time. It happens in school plays and on sports teams (let's blame the manager for our losses!). It happens in families ("Grandma is the problem!"), and in businesses ("We are not doing as well as we should because of the marketing people!"), and in religious organizations ("No one comes to services because the music stinks!").
Sadly, as we know, all too often in history the Jew has been the scapegoat. The early Christians blamed the death of Jesus of Nazareth on the Jewish people, even though he died at the hands of the Romans. Throughout history, Jews have been the scapegoats for plagues, economic distress, capitalism, atheism, the theory of evolution (even though it was formulated by Darwin, a non-Jew), the media, bad movies, problems in the Middle East — even, at times in history, bad weather!
In some ways we have misinterpreted the ancient scapegoat ritual. It's not that we are blaming the goat for our sins. Hardly. The medieval commentator Nachmanides reminds us: "The goat simply bears away the transgressions of the Israelites" — transgressions that everyone in the community had to own up to. In the words of Rabbi Brad Hirschfield: "The success of the scapegoating ritual hinges on individuals' willingness to take responsibility for the wrongs they have done — just the opposite of the way we usually think about making a scapegoat of someone."
What's the lesson? Take responsibility for your own failings. Don't blame others. And don't even bother looking for a goat to carry your sins away.
You Call That Religion?
We think that religion should be a source of comfort and peace, don't we? That it's about affirming life and feeling good about ourselves and about the community, right?
The ancient Canaanites apparently had other ideas
Leviticus 18:21 instructs the Israelites not to offer any children to Molech, and thus to avoid profaning the name of God. Who was Molech? It was the name of a Canaanite god. The name sounds like melech, the Hebrew word for "king," and it was probably based on the fact that "king" was a common name for ancient gods.
Did child sacrifice really happen? Sadly, probably so. The Bible mentions this horrible practice many times. It even occurred in Jerusalem, in the valley of Gehinnom, at a place called Tofet — and the name of that place became Geihinnom, the closest Hebrew equivalent for "hell." Archeologists, digging in the Middle East and in North Africa (especially in places that had been settled by the Canaanites or by people who lived in Canaanite colonies), have found remains of child sacrifice.
And why did they do this? We are not sure. Perhaps to guarantee fertility, or to ward off danger. There can be no doubt: The ancient Canaanite cult of Molech was a horrible, devastating way of doing religion. And, sadly, the Canaanites were not the only ancient culture to do this.
The Torah has only one response to this awful practice: NO! The Israelites had to keep themselves as a separate and holy people, and not imitate the ways of the nations that surrounded them — Canaan (the land that they would inherit) and Egypt (the land that they had just left).
To quote Rabbi David Polish: "Those gods stood for the insatiable demands of human blood made upon their worshippers. Men must offer up their children to please the gods. To this, beginning with Abraham, the Jew responded with a mocking question, 'This is religion?' and for this question he has paid a heavy price down through the ages."
Remember that it is Abraham who is dramatically taught the lesson not to sacrifice his son Isaac. At the decisive moment the angel of the Lord says, "Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him" (Gen. 22:12). This story and the laws of Leviticus reinforce the fundamental notion that Judaism is about life, not death. "Choose life" says the Torah, and when Jews lift a glass to offer a toast, what do they say? "L'chayyim! To life!"
It has not always been easy for Jews to be different. In fact, many Jews have rebelled against the idea of being different. But it is essential, especially when it means the difference between life and death.
Connections
• Have you ever scapegoated someone? Have you ever been scapegoated? What was it like?
• Are Jews still scapegoated today? Do you think Israel is scapegoated?
• How have you taken responsibility for your own weaknesses? How have you learned to overcome them?
• Does child sacrifice still exist anywhere in the world? Is terrorism through suicide bombing, for example, a form of child sacrifice?
• In what ways are Jews different from other people and from other religious cultures? Are those differences important?
CHAPTER 2The Haftarah
'Aharei Mot: Ezekiel 22:1–19
Have you ever wondered why the ancient prophets were not exactly the most popular people? If they had something to say, they didn't hold back — and this haftarah is perhaps the most blatant example of that. Ezekiel, who prophesied as the Southern Kingdom of Judah was being destroyed (and who went into exile in Babylonia with his people), comes up with a list of all the sins the Judeans had committed that would result in their being sent into exile. The corresponding Torah portion contains a list of various sexual sins that Jews should not commit — and this haftarah contains them all, and then some.
But it wasn't just sexual sins that upset Ezekiel; there were other sins as well that would send the Judeans into exile, including total failures of social justice. The lesson: total moral failure can destroy a society just as easily as a military defeat.
That Bad? Really?
There are many jokes about Jewish guilt — the notion that Jews tend to feel guilty over things that they have done. Jews seem to have an uncanny ability to blame themselves — as a people — for things that have gone wrong in Jewish history.
If you don't believe this, go no further than this week's haftarah portion. Take a look at the catalog of sins that the prophet Ezekiel enumerates: bloodshed (22:2); idolatry (22:3 — "fetishes" are idols); abuse of power (22:6); dishonoring parents, abusing strangers, wronging orphans and widows (22:7); dishonoring holy things and the Sabbath (22:8); committing incest with one's father and raping menstruating women (22:10); committing adultery and incest with family members (22:11). ... Yes, the traditional liturgy says: "Because of our sins, we were expelled from our land. ... But, please, enough is enough.
This list caused Bible scholar Harry Orlinsky to write: "If one reads the book of Ezekiel, one gathers that the government and the people of Judah were on the greatest sinning binge in the history of Judah and Israel, if not in all of history."
Really? Were the ancient Judeans really that bad? That's hard to believe, considering the other people that surrounded the ancient Judeans. Or, perhaps Ezekiel was laying it on a little thick (prophets had a way of doing that, to get people's attention).
Let's make it relevant to today. Many supporters of Israel get upset when Israel's critics point out Israel's flaws. They ask: Why don't people look at what is happening in, say, Rwanda or Somalia? And they are not wrong. For many complex reasons, it often looks like the world magnifies things that Israel seems to do wrong. And yes, the world doesn't criticize other countries nearly as much as it criticizes Israel. For instance, many of the United Nations resolutions are anti-Israel.
From a strictly biblical point of view, there is a reason why Jews are so self-critical — especially about the Jewish state. God has a covenant with the Jews — and Jews therefore need to set high standards for their actions.
That's why Ezekiel is piling it on. He holds a microscope up to the people, and he wants them to repent.
Did you notice something in that list of sins? There are only three "religious" sins in there: idolatry, profaning holy things, and violating the Sabbath. All the rest are ethical sins that go to the very heart of family life, like honoring parents, adultery, and incest. And what are the last of those sins on the list? Taking bribes, charging exorbitant interest on loans, and committing fraud (22:12). As bad as all the other sins are (and they are bad), the prophet saves the worst for last — economic sins, failures to treat the poor with dignity. They are the worst because they represent real abuses of power. They perpetuate societal injustice.
But there is always hope. Ezekiel compares the people to dross — metal with impurities. When the people repent, they will become like pure metal again, and God will bring them back to their land.
Yes, we hold ourselves to the highest standards. Yes, we fall short repeatedly. But yes, we have the power make good choices and turn ourselves around. Ultimately we can go forward in the right way, and that will make all the difference.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "'Aharei Mot (Leviticus 16:1–18:30) and Haftarah (Ezekiel 22:1–19)"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Introduction,
The Torah: 'Aharei Mot: Leviticus 16:1–18:30,
The Haftarah: 'Aharei Mot: Ezekiel 22:1–19,