Parshas Emor and its first Rashi: Parental imperatives

“And God spoke to Moshe: Speak (Emor) to the Kohanim [priests], the sons of Aharon, and you shall say (VeAmarta) to them, that they shall not defile themselves by coming into contact with a dead person among the people.”

- VaYikra 21:1

Speak to the Kohanim. Speak? And you shall say? The Torah uses this language to warn the adults regarding the minors.

~ Rashi on Vayikra 21:1

 

Rabbi Avrohom Davis, a commentator on Rashi, explains that Rashi’s initial question on this verse is on the repeated use of the verb form ‘to say,’ which is used in other places to indicate details of a general command. Rabbi Davis goes on to state that, in answer to the dilemma he raised, Rashi points to a discussion on this verse in Gemara Yevamos [114a], that concerns a dispute on the level of a parent’s responsibility to keep a child away from impurity. Some say a parent must do whatever they can to keep a child away from impurity while others say a parent is merely obligated to not directly cause the child to become impure. Rashi appears to agree with the latter, less stringent view.

This line of discussion raises, for all Jewishly observant parents in our era, a question of great importance – to what extent are we responsible to steer our children away from actions, attitudes, and ideas that are detrimental to a healthy commitment to a Torah lifestyle?  For Jews living in insular homogeneous communities like Boro Park, Monsey, and Lakewood, the answer may be easier to define and implement – they could say that a parent should shut out all possible sources of negative influence. And thus many people in those communities will severely limit or forbid contact with non-Jewish neighbors and coworkers, use of the Internet, viewing of television, and other forms of contact with the outside world.

For those of us who ascribe to the Modern Orthodox worldview, who see it as not merely an allowance but an obligation to thoughtfully synthesize the best aspects of the broader world with the highest ideals of our Mesorah (heritage), our challenge as parents is arguably much greater and, at the same time, much murkier. How do we teach our children to use the Internet but not become preoccupied with or inured to pornography, immodesty, useless gossip, violence, and other pitfalls of the medium? How do we guide them to form respectful and constructive relationships with college classmates and coworkers, and to even learn from them (when appropriate), while also fully maintaining their fealty to Torah values? What movies and TV shows are, so to speak, kosher and which are certainly treif? And how do we navigate these vexing questions with our children while also building their hashkafic problem-solving skills and their self-esteem?

The questions of how best to interact with the outside world are not easily answered in our own adult lives; applying them as parents is doubly challenging. And yet it is a challenge we must engage in consistently and mindfully.    

Parshas Achrei-Mot Kedoshim: Rashi’s thoughts on being holy

Parshas Kedoshim begins with an exhortation from God to the people:

“God spoke to Moshe saying: Speak to the entire congregation of the Children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy because I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” (Vayikra 19:1-2). We logically ask – OK, how do we go about acting in a holy manner? The passages that follow the two opening verses appear to offer a game plan to get to holiness – these verses instruct us to honor our parents, keep the Sabbath, forsake idol worship, be careful with animal sacrifices to follow the rules, set aside areas of your field for the poor to glean, and a number of other commandments.

Rashi disregards the juxtaposition of commands that immediately follow the opening two verses about being holy and, instead, understands the opening verses as a follow up to the previous chapter [Vayikra 18] that contains the prohibitions against forbidden sexual unions.

You shall be holy. Separate yourself from sexual crimes and from sin, for wherever you find a fence against sexual crime you find holiness mentioned. [For example] “A prostitute or a profaned woman they (the Priests) shall not marry, for the Lord am holy, the One who makes you holy [Vayikra 21:7-8.] [Rashi also offers two other examples, both from the same chapter].

~ Rashi on Vayikra 19:2.

I might think that how someone treats his parents, or the Sabbath, are surefire indicators of holiness – both reflect a sense of obligation (to parents, for raising the person, and to God who created the Earth) and carry a public component wherein someone acts in a manner that creates a Kiddush HaShem or conversely a Chillul HaShem. Taking Rashi’s perspective, however, we see the Torah selects a private behavior, between two people, as the arbiter of whether or not someone is holy. And on reflection, this association seems quite apt. For it is what we do when few are looking, and no one else might find out, that can be seen as the truest measure of our desire to be God-like.

Parshas Tazria-Metzorah – a thought on the first Rashi

“And HaShem spoke to Moshe saying. Speak to Bnei Yisroel, saying, when a woman conceives and gives birth to a male child she will be ritually unclean for seven days, as the days of her menstrual flow, she will be unclean.”

VaYikra 12:1-2

When a woman conceives. Rabbi Simlai said: Just as the creation of mankind came after that of every animal, beast, and bird in the work of Creation, so too his teaching is explained only after the teaching regarding animals, beasts, and birds.

~ Rashi on VaYikra 12:2

Drawing on a midrash in Vayikra Rabba, Rashi attempts to explain why the laws governing a woman’s impurity after childbirth are placed where they are – right after the laws identifying kosher and unkosher animals, fish, birds, and insects and right before the detailed laws of how to diagnose and deal with a person who contracts Tzara’as (a condition similar to leprosy). The midrash draws a parallel between our parsha and the story of creation, in which Adom and Chava are created after all the animals.

Juxtaposition is one of the factors used to measure significance and relationship between different laws offered in the Torah. Viewed from another angle, the different topics seem to be curious companions – what we should and should not eat (kosher), the punishment for interpersonal sins, often involving speech (tzara’as), and the impurity of a new mother. Perhaps one simple message is that we should not belittle the emotional challenges and difficulties facing a woman with a new born – like the food we eat or the way we comport ourselves to our neighbors, a new mom struggles to make the right choices for herself and her baby. We may idealize the new mother or delude ourselves that parenting will come ‘naturally’ for her. The juxtaposition of verses may be instructing us that the woman’s choices and options aren’t so simple and she deserves great respect for the seemingly simple things so she will do to properly raise the child and sustain herself in the process.