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Orchard of Delights # Kedoshim
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descended into despair, or cursed the Jews and the God of Israel for
his fate; this approach to life may have been one of the reasons God
chose him to lead Israel from slavery to freedom.
Throughout Jewish history, the Jewish people have been repeatedly
forced to adopt Moses’ outlook on life, in the face of an altogether grim
reality. During two thousand years of bitter humiliation, oppression,
exile, and slaughter, the Jewish people as a whole has never given
up its faith in God’s ultimate goodness or its belief in Israel’s unique
mission in the world. Although we cannot control all that happens
to us in our lives, we can control our reactions. This is the secret and
power of free will. We will all be tested and we all have blemishes –
this is an existential reality no human being can avoid – yet we all
have the power to determine how we choose to react to events and
forces beyond our control. We have the power to determine how we
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experience life.
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This understanding of Emor’s narrative framework – the theme of
physical and psychological blemishes and how we might deal with
them – leads us to another insight regarding the structure of this
portion. In the middle of Emor, the Torah repeats the entire holiday
cycle including Shabbat. While this review provides much new and
important information, many commentators have wondered how
the holidays are connected to the rest of the portion. In light of our
insight, perhaps we can suggest that Shabbat and the holidays bring
a welcome relief from the constant grind of personal, financial, and
professional concerns that occupy so much for our time during the
week. Overwhelmed by these problems, it is often hard for us to see
the forest for the trees. We are so often lost in the maze of the world’s
blemishes. Shabbat and the holidays provide us with the opportunity
to take a step back and see the true context of our lives. The joy
and spiritual delight of these holy days allow us to see beyond the
superficial and remember life’s true purpose. During these moments
of experiential clarity, we free ourselves from the imperfections of
the world and all our own blemishes disappear; only inner peace and
acceptance reign. On Shabbat and the holidays, the soul can truly
sense its ultimate wholeness and purity, recognizing that deep within
there is no blemish whatsoever on the Divine soul level.
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cycles. Indeed, we mark time’s continual flow by the basic division of
our days, weeks, months, years, and millennia into seven.
Shabbat has become the central axis around which all Jewish
life revolves – like the seven-branched candelabrum, whose central
column is the main pillar balancing the three branches on each side
of it. By continually observing Shabbat, we plug ourselves into a
Divine energy source and learn to live in a temporal pattern that
recreates the very process of creation every week.
God’s choice of the Jewish people began with his selection of
Abraham. Although Abraham certainly exercised his own intellect
to “discover” that only one God exists, we might ask what thoughts
caused Abraham to embark on such a unique spiritual quest. The
Ishbitzer Rebbe, in his classic work entitled Mei Hashiloach, poses
this question and provides his own answer: It was actually God who
“planted” these inquisitive thoughts in Abraham’s head, for He had
already realized Abraham’s potential and chosen him from among
all the peoples to reveal His oneness to the world. Paradoxically,
God chose Abraham and Abraham chose God.
The inherent holiness of the Land of Israel is apparent from the first
instruction God gave Abraham: “go … to the land that I will show
you” (Genesis 12:1). Clearly, Abraham was not being instructed to
wander until he happened to find a place he liked. Rather, Abraham
was being led to a specific land that God had already chosen. The
fact that God brought him to a particular place implies that the land
possessed particular spiritual qualities and energies that God wanted
available for Abraham and his descendants’ use.
In Re’eh, in the book of Deuteronomy, we will revisit some of these
matters, especially those relating to God’s choice of the Temple’s
site in Jerusalem. For now, we will suffice with the following verse,
which stresses God’s choice of the site for the Temple: “Rather, only
at the place that God, your God, will choose from among all your
tribes to place His name, there shall you seek out His Presence and
come there” (Deuteronomy 12:5).
Notably, we are taught that God had already chosen this spot long
ago when he told Abraham to take Isaac there:
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