Parshat Emor
Keep My commandments and carry them out; I am God. Do not profane My holy Name but let Me be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel, I, God make you holy.
22:31 – 2
Below are various commentators’ interpretations of the verse above:
Possibly, the meaning of this verse is as follows: “Do not desecrate My holy name, for in public, I expect to be sanctified. Not that My name could really be desecrated by whatever you do, since in the final analysis it is I Who make you totally holy, not the other way around. In case you were to argue that if I do not need you, why did I bother to take you out of Egypt and perform all these miracles, remember that I did not do so like a human king who has need for his subjects, but I did so to become your God, that is, for your benefit…
Moshe Alshich
The ideal expressed by the words, “Let Me be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel,” in the text of the Law, is to be kept alive symbolically by the nation’s daily offerings…and brought to the nation’s consciousness again and again as the supreme object of its mission. In a similar manner, by composing and arranging the order of the synagogue service to parallel the ritual of the offerings in the Temple…as the focus for our national assemblies at Divine services to find ever-recurring verbal expression in the Kaddish and the
Kedushah (Berakhot 21b)
Samson Raphael Hirsch
Now the question arises; how can man, an earthly creature, made of dust, profane or sanctify God, the source of holiness? … The answer may be found if we distinguish between the essential holiness of God which transcends time and place, unaffected and unchanged by them, and the holiness of His Name, that is, the propagation of human acknowledgement and recognition of His omnipotence and His holiness…this is the mission for which we have been created.
Nachama Leibovitz
Holiness as an accessible human goal is at the center of the book of Leviticus, or if you wish, of the entire Torah. All the rest is commentary: the details of how to prepare ourselves for it and implement it in our lives. Holiness is the Jewish answer to the problem of human existence. Mankind has always sought to ascribe some metaphysical meaning to physical life, feeling that if man is not somehow more than human, he is less than human…Judaism taught that it is holiness that can add this extra dimension to our lives, not by escaping from life, but rather by striving to “be holy” in this world and in this life.
Pinchas Peli
When a famous architect announced, “God is in the details,” Jews were not surprised. Over the centuries, we have developed a fascination for the “details of the details,” in our sacred texts. Our sidra this week exemplifies just such a detail…Rashi, provides the interpretation that has proved lasting,…the commentators…(are) directed at the adults…(and) refers to their responsibility to pass on their heritage to their children…
Lawrence Hoffman
