Parasha Emor – The Art of listening

A reminder of services Friday night, April 26 and Saturday morning, April 28.  As always, Friday night services are at 7:00 pm and Saturday morning services start at 9:00 am.
Mitzvah Day – Sunday April 28 – From the Jewish Federation of Greater Austin  This Sunday, April 28 marks the return of Mitzvah Day, a community-wide Jewish day of service involving volunteers of all ages providing hands-on assistance at one of 30 plus projects in and around Austin.  Please consider sharing a few hours of your time as an individual, couple or family this Sunday. Bring a friend or make a new one. Share your expertise or step out of your comfort zone.  You can browse all the Mitzvah Day projects on the GivePulse.com website and sign up in advance for any opening. We don’t want to disappoint a single senior center, social service agency, school or shelter by having to cancel a project at the last minute because of a lack of volunteers.  More than 150 volunteers have signed up already. We need a minimum of 300 volunteers to fully deliver on the promise of Mitzvah Day.  Questions? Contact Dana Epstein, Assistant Executive Director, Jewish Federation of Greater Austin at 512-735-8008 or dana.epstein@shalomaustin.org.  Thank you for making a difference in your own life and in the lives of others.
From Rabbi Peter Tarlow’s Chadashot La’Shavuah   This week’s parashah is called “Emor”. You can find the parashah in the Book of Levitcus 21:1-24:3. This week’s Torah portion teaches us, as does so much of the Hebrew Bible, that understanding comes not only from what we see at the superficial level, but what we “hear” below the surface. Parashat Emor is a good example of this principle.  If we read it carefully we come not only to “see the text” but to “hear the text” and to learn that understanding often comes by “hearing what we read.” Perhaps it is for this reason that the Hebrew verbal root “K.R.Alef” means not only to “read” but also to “call out” and the Hebrew verbal root It is of “Sh-M-Ayin” means “to hear” and “to understand profoundly”. The language itself is saying: be careful, do not judge something only by what you see on the surface but rather “hear” what is below the surface.  This week’s parashah deals with issues such as the restrictions and limitations of those in the “priestly class” (cohanim), the calendar, the importance of Saturday as a day different from other days, the other holy days, and laws of blasphemy. At first glance, these chapters do not seem to be tied together by a common thread. Yet if we “hear” what we read rather than merely “seeing” what is on the surface of the text, we note that the idea of being specific and providing clarity lies just below the surface. One Hebrew Scripture’s main themes is that things gain essence when they are clearly defined and named. To choose to create a vocabulary that fogs and issue rather than speaking specifically to the issue is to create moral confusion and political mistakes. Is the Torah teaching us that when we fudge reality, when we confuse issues, when we call “X” “Y” and “Y” “X,” then clarity of thought soon dissolves? Is the text reminding us that when that with the loss of clarity our actions and our morals soon decline into a moral state of tohu vaVohu or moral and political chaos? Are we guilty of creating such chaos today when terrorists are called “militants”? Have the media created a new vocabulary of political correctness in which we no longer hear what is being said?  This week’s section forces us to confront the principle that for successful living we must have the ability to “hear” an issue. To “hear/understand” an issue means defining it, naming it, and “seeing it for what it is”. When we are merely re-actors to life’s crises rather than actors in the drama called life, then Judaism teaches that we set ourselves adrift on a sea of confusion. Has political correctness lead to a moral decline and stymied our ability to act? What do you think?
Cantor Ben-Moshe’s Message  The beginning of this week’s parshah, Emor, deals with various laws concerning the Kohanim, the priests. As they were expected to serve in the Sanctuary, they were expected to maintain, as much as possible, a state of purity. They were therefore prohibited from contact with the dead, and were in fact barred from funerals except for those of close kin. The Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, actually could not go to any funerals at all-not even of his own parents, such was the level of purity that he was to maintain. There was, however, one exception to this rule-the case of the Met Mitzvah, someone who had died without family to make funeral arrangements, or who had died anonymously. In such a case, the duty of burial falls upon the community-and our Tradition teaches that if no one else is available to care for the Met Mitzvah, then that duty falls upon the High Priest himself. Such is the importance that Judaism places on l’vayat hamet, literally “accompanying the dead” to their final rest.  We look forward to seeing you this Shabbat as we join in prayer and in learning more about this parshah