Emor
By Trisha Arlin
This week's
parsha is Emor, Speak, a command to Moses from God, Eh-mor el haCohanim, Speak
to the priests. What follows is a series
of rules that Moses must pass on. In chapter 21, God has Moses lay down the rules
for the priests, the cohanim, on how not to defile themselves, lo yee
tama, to remain ritually pure, tahor.
The idea of
ritual purity for priests or women usually has very negative connotations for
me, since I, like most people, tend to think of purity as good and impurity as
bad. Clean is good, and dirty is bad,
right? But often what the Torah calls
impure is to me the normal stuff of life, the normal goopy viscous liquids we
encounter, that every human being must engage in or with...I leave the specific
goop to your imagination...and I just can't see that as bad. But that's my modern English speaking
interpretation because that's not what Jewish ritual purity is about. I think it's about readiness, about
preparation, about being ready for holiness.
Remember that,
readiness and preparation.
For the cohanim,
the priests, that would have meant becoming ready to do the sacrifices and
rituals of the temple. For the High
Priest, that would have also meant readiness to enter the Holy of Holies, Kadosh HaKodashim, the small building that
only he entered and then only entered once a year, on Yom Kippur, to meet God
in the most sacred and separate place and beg forgiveness for himself, his
family, and his community. I say sacred
and separate place because though we often translate the word Kadosh to mean holy it actually means,
separate. We make something holy by
separating it from the everyday, the khol. Another name for God is HaMavdil, the One who seperates.
And that's how I
think of ritual purity, as a holy separation, a readiness for sacrifice in the
Torah and today, a readiness to prepare us for tefillah, prayer, gemilut
chasidim, acts of loving kindness and
tikkun olam, repair of the world.
In this parsha,
in chapter 21, there are a series of acts and rituals that a priest must
perform to maintain his, and it's always HIS, holy separation. How he relates to the dead, how he shaves,
what kind of women he can be with , what he wears on his body, what shape his
body is in....these are restrictions of their time and I don't feel a need to
list them, or obsess and be angry about how they are sexist and elitist. We can stipulate that about half the Torah if
not more. I'm interested in now.
One way we can
purify ourselves in modern times is with water, like washing your hands before
a meal. To really purify yourself
you to go to the mikveh. You do a full immersion in water, your
entire body, and say a prayer.
Traditionally observant men and women go to the mikveh for many reasons,
for women once a month, or after a birth, or for a wedding or for conversion,
but liberal Jews often go for other reasons , to ritually acknowledge life
changes and events like a B'nai Mitzvah,
a graduation, menopause, a divorce, a gender transition, all sorts of
things.
What else is
there to be ritually pure for? I'm a Kohen. Or, to traditionally observant Jews, a Bat
Cohen, a daughter of a Kohen. In the
Conservative synagogue I grew up in, that meant my father, certainly never me,
got called up to the Torah first, because a Kohen is supposed to always have
the first of the traditional seven aliyot.
My father also
would get called up to do the special blessing of the priests during the High
Holidays, something we have done and not done at Kolot. Perhaps it makes us a bit uncomfortable, to
think that somebody, simply because of his or her genes, might be able to somehow channel God and
holiness and facilitate redemption and teshuvah. It makes me uncomfortable, but I have to
admit, when I have done it it's been very cool,very mystical and special. You cover your face with your tallit, put
you hands up in a mystical sign, and it's like you become a conduit for
holiness. It's profound. Now I know, as a good leftie progressive,
that I'm not supposed to feel this or to like it, but i do. I feel the responsibility, I feel separate
and holy and somehow even a little tahor, ritually pure. It is good.
And why should I keep all that good feeling to myself? Especially in this time that calls for some
much action from us, wouldn't it be great if you each could imagine yourself as the Cohen Gadol in your
own Kadosh HaKodashim, the High Priest in your own Holy of Holies, immersing in
your own mikveh, to imagine yourself as a holy vessel, pure and ready for inspiration
and holy action.
(This next
paragraph is a short version of a guided meditation) So I invite you to cover yourself with your
tallit and imagine that everything outside your tallit is mundane and
everything inside it, especially you, is kadosh, holy and separate. Today we are all kohanim. Close your eyes, breathe regulary, imagine
that every breath is a prayer to and for life.
Think of yourself as stepping out the door of this room and finding
yourself in a meadow, where you see a small house in the distance, a house of
one room, with a door but no windows.
You walk towards it and realize, this is your Holy of Holies, where you
are the Kohen Gadol. You go inside,
there is a small pool of running water there, this is your mikvah. You are completely yourself here, and you
step into this mikveh and go under the water. Baruch atah adonai elohainu ruach ha olam, asher kidishanu bemitzvoav,
eetivanu al hatevvilah. Bless the
One-ness, God, Breath of the Universe, sanctifying us with God's commandments
and commanding us on immersion. Dunk
yourself again, and make up your own blessing, one for your family and
friends. Dunk yourself again, and make
up another blessing, one for your community and your world. Come out of the water. There's a lovely fluffy towel. Dry yourself off. Imagine that now you are ready for holiness,
for action, for change. When you are
ready, stand, come out of the Holy of Holies, walk out the door through the
meadow, back to yourself with the tallit covering your head.
Blessed One-ness
We give thanks for the cleansing water
That makes us ready and prepared for prayer and
action.
We are all holy vessels
Made in the image of God.
We give thanks for the ones who offer
prayers.
We give thanks for the ones who take
action.
We cannot heal the world without both,
Amen.
Shabbat Shalom
