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Emor

by Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon

This week we read the Torah portion of Emor, which includes the passages that celebrate all the festivals of the Jewish year. Last week’s Torah portion of Acharei Mot-Kedoshim focused on the holiness of truly ethical conduct. In Emor we move to the ways that rituals create holiness in our lives, in particular by setting aside times and seasons for sacredness and then dedicating these to God.

In a Conservative or Orthodox congregation Emor is one of the most frequently read Torah portions of all, because it is chanted both when it falls in the normal reading cycle and again on each of the festivals in turn. That is, we read Emor this week, but also on each of the various festivals it describes, from Sukkot in the fall to Passover in the spring.

In most areas of our lives, those things that happen rarely are considered to be more important—graduation days, wedding days, and vacations, for example. But paradoxically, in Jewish tradition, those rituals which are observed more frequently are actually considered to be superior in holiness to those which occur less frequently. The more you do something—or read something ritually, by the way—the holier it is.

That is, the things you do the most are considered to be the most important—or should be. For your actions should reflect your values, and you ought to spend your time doing what matters most, and creates sacredness.

Which means that the process of remembering and celebrating the festivals, and particularly the most frequent festival of all, the Sabbath, is especially important. For when you connect to these emblems of our religious tradition, when you embrace the rituals and special celebrations, you come to own that which can be holy in your own lives.

And you learn that we can do so daily. Or at least weekly… through the Sabbath.

On this week of parshat Emor, may you find a way to embrace holiness in a way that becomes a habit of holiness.