Emor 2015

Emor

 

The real question revolves around what we want to offer of ourselves. Can we ever be so great that we aren’t in some way imperfect? Can we ever be so low that we aren’t in some way beautiful?

But first I must comment: 

There is so much in this week’s parasha that can be taken literally and therefore become quite harmful.  I find I am often astonished by those who insist on that literal interpretation simply because what does it serve?  Really, if God has given us this one life with so much love and vivid color and wind and smells and exquisite  expanse…why would He want us to prevent the crippled from making an offering and kill a man who misunderstands, speaks out of anger, or kills another even with regret and mistake?

Yes, in Emor, there’s the piece that we all know…the eye for the eye. There’s the declaration that we are not to offer an animal with even a tiny blemish. And, forget animals, a priest can’t make an offering if he has any physical disability.

There’s a man stoned to death for saying the name of God in vein.

Ah, but let’s be real.  Can one of us alive today  claim perfect priesthood…back to the line of Aaron? Can we claim perfect skin…though we may spend money on the products? Can we claim perfect health without even a torn nail or a sore throat or allergies? Can we claim never to have sworn, to have (even mistakenly)  gossiped or have caused humiliation in a friend or a neighbor? I ask this because according to the Talmudic rabbis (Sanhedrin) when one man humiliates another in public it’s the same as murder. The blood drains from the face.

This is what I think: There isn’t one man so powerfully holy that he can approach  God with that perfect prayer nor one man so powerfully evil that he turns his back on God completely.

Then why is all of  this written in Torah? To help us to define ourselves within a place of moderation that belies mediocrity. You see, a definition is what we are not as well as what we are. And the only place we find evil is in our own mediocrity as we try to enforce the extremes...it is not in the extremes themselves (Hannah Arendt).

As we experience the extremes in the Hebrew words…and hopefully don’t get entangled in them…our  goal is therefore to find that crystalized ”white space”  moment of modesty and moderation. ...and to avoid blame, finger-pointing, humiliation, and revenge.

As for myself I was given a great opportunity for this just a few hours ago. I was at the store. I had forgotten my debit card.  In fact, for many reasons I had to cancel it that morning and I wasn’t thinking  as I searched through my purse. I finally remembered. And I was stuck. So, I decided not to get one of the products (yes…for women) and found a bill to pay for the other.  A woman in her twenties in line immediately offered a five. She was adamant. I had to think for a second. I was somewhat embarrassed. There were other people in line witnessing the whole event.  She really wanted to help. I accepted her offer and thanked her. Her gift was perfect for the moment. It was exactly what I needed…nothing more and nothing less. My acceptance of it raised her up and her offering raised me up as well. The whole transaction blessed the community. My rejection of it would have been an act of mediocrity, of fear, or doubt, of self- judgment. Most important,  I will certainly pass this on.
 
 None of us are power-perfect. None are power-evil.  Emor is about vision and a close intimate communion with God…one that moves beyond the usual word “dabar”.  It’s about breaking beyond the extremes… the “mind forged manacles” described by Blake. It’s about  acceptance and most important modesty and a solid definition of our purity as delineated by boundaries not so that we ignore the essence…but so that we can feel that essence in complete divine gratitude, willingness and awe.  And it's about recognizing the true evil in mediocrity and the true purity in moderation.  As I finish this I want to thank the happy woman who gave...not as a loan...but as a gift...this five dollar bill. I think it was an amazing lesson.