Achrei MoΘ- Kedoshim

 Language is imprecise. Words are ambiguous, they can have several different meanings. This is a problem when trying to communicate in  science. [Before the emergence of Large Language Models, it looked like the intercession of computers, with the very defined language that they use, could go a long way toward solving that issue. With LLMs that opportunity may be lost.] In ordinary life, and in evolution, ambiguity is an important part of the power of language. The lack of precision allows ideas to flower. This duality is a constant companion to my writing . 

Kadosh, translated as "holy", the root of the title of the second chapter we read in synagogue this week, evades precise definition. That parsha instructs the community to be kadosh (holy). The chapter opens with: 

דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־כׇּל־עֲדַ֧ת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל וְאָמַרְתָּ֥ אֲלֵהֶ֖ם קְדֹשִׁ֣ים תִּהְי֑וּ כִּ֣י קָד֔וֹשׁ אֲנִ֖י

Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them:

You shall be holy, for I, the ETERNAL your Gd, am holy.

This kadosh (holy) is some kind of matching a property of Gd, the most unfathomable entity in the universe.  Fifty one commandments ( mitzvoth) are then declared in this parsha. The commandments go from a prohibition of cheating in business  to the ban on mixing wool and linen in clothing. It is a whirlwind of admonitions  and prohibitions.

Does a person, after accepting these varied and numerous rules, emerge kadosh (holy?). The writings of the classic commentators on this sentence shows an evolution of the idea and purpose of holiness. Rashi (11th century) associates kadosh with sexual relationships. Ramban (13th century) asserts that kadosh implies moderation in all things. Sforno (16th century) sees kadosh as life affirming. 

If the parsha presents a  path to kadosh, it appears to be through the observance of laws that are stated, often followed by the phrase: 

I the ETERNAL am your Gd.

That phrase implies that the rationality (or lack thereof) of the commandment is not the reason for obedience. These laws are followed because they are (1) part of an agreement and (2) given by a far greater power [of both mind and retribution] than a human can fathom. [This list may be partial]. The road to holiness, to kedusha, is arbitrary and may not respect rationality. 

The lack of definition leads to  pronounced differences in the observance of these rules. For many, holy is a feeling (the undefined is kept in the realm of the undefined). You know holy when you feel it; more commonly, you can feel when you have violated it. 

For others, since the nature of the holy is unknown, only the strictest observance can cover all the possibilities; no detail is too small. This road can lead to the unholy states of self-righteousness and/or superstition. Is a thread of linen in a woolen garment the equivalent of offering a child as a sacrifice to Molech?  Who knows?

There is a relationship between holiness and place. This week's first Torah portion , Achrei, begins by recalling the death of Aaron's eldest two sons. It then immediately says:

דַּבֵּר֮ אֶל־אַהֲרֹ֣ן אָחִ֒יךָ֒ וְאַל־יָבֹ֤א בְכׇל־עֵת֙ אֶל־הַקֹּ֔דֶשׁ מִבֵּ֖ית לַפָּרֹ֑כֶת אֶל־פְּנֵ֨י הַכַּפֹּ֜רֶת אֲשֶׁ֤ר עַל־הָאָרֹן֙ וְלֹ֣א יָמ֔וּת

Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come at will into the Shrine behind the curtain, in front of the cover that is upon the ark, lest he die

The implication is that Aaron's sons' violation of this rule was (at least part of) the reason for their deaths. 

The text goes on to describe the Yom Kippur temple service, the one day in the year that a human was invited to enter the innermost sanctum, the home of the ark with its Cherubim, containing the tablets (both intact and broken).  The specialness of this place was enforced with extreme prejudice. Violators of this most private of properties w/could be killed. A place where trespass is so violently banned - that is a place that is (most) holy ( kadosh) 

The association between place and sanctity reappears with the restriction of the sacrificial rite to the the (designated) temple.

וַאֲלֵהֶ֣ם תֹּאמַ֔ר אִ֥ישׁ אִישׁ֙ מִבֵּ֣ית יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וּמִן־הַגֵּ֖ר אֲשֶׁר־יָג֣וּר בְּתוֹכָ֑ם אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲלֶ֥ה עֹלָ֖ה אוֹ־זָֽבַח׃ 

Say to them further: Regarding anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who reside among them, who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice  

וְאֶל־פֶּ֜תַח אֹ֤הֶל מוֹעֵד֙ לֹ֣א יְבִיאֶ֔נּוּ לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת אֹת֖וֹ לַי

וְנִכְרַ֛ת הָאִ֥ישׁ הַה֖וּא מֵעַמָּֽיו׃ 

and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to offer it to GD: that person shall be cut off from their people.

 Acharei ends by tying  sanctity to the right to live in the promised land. 

וְלֹֽא־תָקִ֤יא הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ אֶתְכֶ֔ם בְּטַֽמַּאֲכֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑הּ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר קָאָ֛ה אֶת־הַגּ֖וֹי אֲשֶׁ֥ר לִפְנֵיכֶֽם׃ 

So let not the land spew you out for defiling it, as it spewed out the nation that came before you.  

כִּ֚י כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר יַעֲשֶׂ֔ה מִכֹּ֥ל הַתּוֹעֵבֹ֖ת הָאֵ֑לֶּה וְנִכְרְת֛וּ הַנְּפָשׁ֥וֹת הָעֹשֹׂ֖ת מִקֶּ֥רֶב עַמָּֽם׃ 

All who do any of those abhorrent things—such persons shall be cut off from among their people.

Kedoshim ends with the singularity of a people that is holy: 

וִהְיִ֤יתֶם לִי֙ קְדֹשִׁ֔ים כִּ֥י קָד֖וֹשׁ אֲנִ֣י יְ

וָאַבְדִּ֥ל אֶתְכֶ֛ם מִן־הָֽעַמִּ֖ים לִהְי֥וֹת לִֽי׃ 

You shall be holy to Me, for I GD am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine.

In many years, these two chapters, Acharei and Kedoshim, are read together. Connecting these title words becomes an aphorism: After death, [they (those that died) are considered] holy. There is some implication that perhaps, had they lived, they would not have  been thought quite so holy. To me, this usage, to a degree, refers to the holocaust. The sanctification of those murdered because of antisemitism, in the name of nationalism, has great political repercussions. I do not think that is wrong, but it may be becoming dangerous. 

When are you holy? How do you measure its value?

Tazria-Metzora: Tumah

These two chapters are the peaks of impurity. They deal exclusively with details of the diagnosis and treatment of Tumah.  The word tumah does not translate well into modern languages. I see it most frequently translated as "ritually unclean."  It is not dirt. It is a condition that isforeign to us, it is part of that ritual world. A person or object that is in a tumah state  may not enter a holy space, or eat sanctified food, or touch a sanctified object. Tumah is a disqualification for participation in the sacred ritual.

Tumah is a transmissible property. Usually its intensity decreases as it moves from object to object. The tumah that emanates from the a person's state of being, like the tumah of tzoraath ("leprosy") or ziva (gonorrhea) is particularly intense. The most severe tumah is a dead body. 

The ritual status of a woman who has just given birth to a child is very difficult to understand. Blood that originated in the uterus seems to have a tumah property. Childbirth is associated with such blood and, I presume that is the basis for the first 7 ( for a boy) or 14 ( for a girl) days of tumah after childbirth. The following 33 ( for a boy) or 66 ( for a girl) days of taharah ( ritual purity)  carry with them the restrictions of tumah ( impurity) -  but are called tahor ( pure). The countdown of days is followed by a purification ritual that involves birds (and a lamb, if the woman is wealthy) 

To my modern modern mind, it seems strange to penalize a woman ritually (she is banned from the sacred place, sacred objects, and sacred food for a month or two) and financially ( sacrificial animals were probably expensive) for having a baby. But that sense of injustice comes from the underlying assumption that tumah ,and the banishment that accompanies it, is a punishment. I am not sure that reasoning is correct. 

 It is easy to assume that tumah devolves from an inappropriate act of the victim. That line of reasoning devolves from Gd's involvement in this process. Through the lens of the modern, Tumah appears to be a state in which one cannot come close to Gd and the sacred. Tumah stinks; tumah is ugly; tumah is inappropriate. The dirty child has failed to be careful (or continent). To stand before royalty, one must be clean, odorless and well dressed. Failure to be in that state is the fault of the supplicant.  

The severe and long lasting tumah of tzoraath (the King James committee calls it leprosy) feels like a punishment.  The Talmud lists behaviors that cause tzoraath ( Arachin 16a): 

אָמַר רַבִּי שְׁמוּאֵל בַּר נַחְמָנִי אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: עַל שִׁבְעָה דְּבָרִים נְגָעִים בָּאִין — עַל לָשׁוֹן הָרָע, וְעַל שְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים, וְעַל שְׁבוּעַת שָׁוְא, וְעַל גִּילּוּי עֲרָיוֹת, וְעַל גַּסּוּת הָרוּחַ, וְעַל הַגָּזֵל, וְעַל צָרוּת הָעַיִן.

§ Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Leprous marks come and afflict a person for seven sinful matters: For malicious speech, for bloodshed, for an oath taken in vain, for forbidden sexual relations, for arrogance, for theft, and for stinginess.

The Gd of Justice is invoked as the agent of disease. 

Modern people try to blame the victims of disease, too. It is a way to avoid the indiscriminate aspect of degeneration and  contagion. Diet and exercise have some impact on health, but most of the factors that determine freedom from disease are out of the individuals control (time, genes, principles of biology). It has become inconvenient to invoke Divine justice as the responsible agent when we see extremely sick young children suffer from cancers. 

Although we dedicate almost two chapters of the Torah to these tumah states, they no longer apply. The sacred place, the sacred food and the sacred objects have disappeared.  The remnants that remain serve other purposes.

Lepers searched their past deeds for causes of their plight. People with cancer often do the same (but in more modern terms). Even in the absence of disease there is a value in searching  one's deeds, and staying clean. Maybe it helps a little. 

Shimini: steel

 

Shimini: Hard or malleable. 

It takes seven days to complete the preparations. The inauguration of Aaron and his four sons into the priesthood took 7 days. The eighth day was the graduation. Two of the sons, Nadav and Avihu, went too far. They tried something new. The outcome was fatal for them and solidified the priesthood of Aaron and the remaining sons.

The inauguration had been carried out on the orders (Tzav, meaning order, is the appellation of the preceding Torah portion). The lethal consequences of following some orders and ignoring others are described in this week’s reading. The persistent obedience (to a great, but incomplete, extent [they did not eat a prescribed portion of sacrificial meat after the death of their son/brother]) proves the soldier-like loyalty of the remaining three priestly initiates. Perhaps the deaths of Nadav and Avihu were needed for this trial and the proof that devolves from it.

The eighth day of Passover (yesterday) is one of the four days in the year when Yizkor [remembrance of the departed] is intoned. Yom Kippur, celebrated by many Jews, draws more people than usual to the Synagogue. Yizkor on Yom Kippur is a fund-raising opportunity since the text of the service calls for a charity pledge. The other three occasions for Yizkor are on the last (extra) days that end the pilgrimage festivals that were added by the Rabbis (and have never been celebrated in the land of Israel)

When I was a boy, Yizkor was a huge draw to synagogue. As the child of holocaust survivors, I lived in neighborhoods where there were many survivors and many other Jews who had (relatively recently) lost close relatives in the Shoah. Everyone came to Yizkor. Most did not observe the Sabbath; many had abandoned other Jewish traditions. The crowds were huge. Additional seating and special services were arranged for the overflow. Most left in tears after remembering. Now, I, too leave Yizkor In tears mostly for how I imagine: my cousins being murdered as children, my uncles and aunts shot and gassed, my grandparents tortured and killed. There was no one left to teach me how to be a grandfather.

These Yizkor Jews were experiencing the test of Aaron: could they maintain a connection to an identity that is so dangerous (it had decimated their numbers)  and so painful?  The answers varied in detail, but many (perhaps most) kept the identity despite the cost. 

The loyalty of the veteran soldier is special. Steel  is hardened by bringing It to high temperature  and then quickly cooling (quenching) it. On a molecular level, the iron atoms are set into random motion, they are disordered and then fixed in place. That process makes the steel harder, but more brittle; it breaks and does not bend.  Relief from trauma often  resets the order( of thinking) in a less changeable mode.

This trick of heating and cooling to reset opinion is put to use by the manipulators: politicians, commercial interests, social media. The heat of war creates implacability. Sometimes, shaking up ideas is good. There is a role for strong ( but brittle) steel. Slow (thoughtful) cooling leaves the metal more malleable and capable of a better reaction to future stress. The bendable reed survives the wind that breaks a tree.