Parashat Emor and Faculty/Staff Appreciation Week
May 3, 2023
Rabbi Harry Pell, Associate Head of School
Parsashat Emor begins with two entire chapters of rules that Moshe is to share with Aharon and his offspring, who will become the Cohanim, Judaism’s priestly class, charged with overseeing the sacrificial process. The rules govern how they will serve at the altar, as well as whom they may marry, whose funerals they may attend, when and with whom they may share their consecrated food, and under what circumstances they actually may not offer sacrifices.
In the midst of all of this, there is one seemingly extra pasuk:
Vayikra 21:24 reads: וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽל־אַהֲרֹ֖ן וְאֶל־בָּנָ֑יו וְאֶֽל־כׇּל־בְּנֵ֖י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Moshe spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.
Moshe spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.
The difficulty with this verse is, what did Moshe say? As modern Torah commentator Rabbi Baruch Levine z”l pointed out, “We are not told what Moses said because the verb has no object.” Classical commentators are quick to suggest topics Moshe may have been emphasizing, but the wide variety of their different answers is a reflection of the reality that the Torah just isn’t telling us what Moshe said in this moment.
A teacher of mine recently shared a latter-day Chasidic story from Israel. A man was wandering around a supermarket, speaking on his phone via bluetooth as he placed items in his shopping cart, unintentionally enabling others to hear his conversations. “Hello, do you need someone to clean your floors? No? You’re happy with the person you already have? Okay. Thanks anyway.” The supermarket manager heard this half of the dialogue repeated several times over and decided he had to act. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help overhearing . . . are you looking for work cleaning floors? I bet we could use help in that area,” the manager offered, seeking to assist this man. “Thank you so much, but no,” the man on bluetooth responded. “I actually already have as many clients as I can handle, I just like to hear sometimes that they appreciate my work. I don’t usually hear it unless I call this way . . .”
The enterprise of midrash invites us to fill in the gaps left in pesukim, such as this one in Vayikra 21:24. It might be fanciful, but I’d like to think that what Moshe told Aharon, and the Cohanim, and all of the Israelites was something like: I know we are asking a lot of you as Cohanim and that your work will be challenging, but it is essential to our people and our future. Thank you, I appreciate you. Is that exactly what Moshe said? Maybe not, but I’d like to think so!
To all of my colleagues on the faculty and staff of The Leffell School, I know that we ask a lot of you and that our work is challenging, but it is essential to our school and our future. Thank you, I appreciate you.
Shabbat Shalom!