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Vayikra/ Leviticus
21:1–24:23
The Torah section of
Emor (“Speak”) begins with the special laws pertaining to the kohanim
(“priests”), the kohen gadol (“high priest”), and the Temple service: A
kohen may not become ritually impure through contact with a dead body,
save on the occasion of the death of a close relative. A kohen may not
marry a divorcee, or a woman with a promiscuous past; a kohen gadol can
marry only a virgin. A kohen with a physical deformity cannot serve in
the Holy Temple, nor can a deformed animal be brought as an offering.
A newborn lamb must be left with its mother for seven days before being
eligible for an offering; one may not slaughter an animal and its
offspring on the same day.
The second part of Emor lists the annual Callings of Holiness—the
festivals of the Jewish calendar: the weekly Shabbat; the bringing of
the Passover offering on 14 Nissan; the seven-day Passover festival
beginning on 15 Nissan; the bringing of the Omer offering from the first
barley harvest on Yom HaBikkurim and the commencement, on that day, of
the 49-day Counting of the Omer, culminating in the festival of Shavuot
on the fiftieth day; a “remembrance of shofar blowing” on 1 Tishrei; a
solemn fast day on 10 Tishrei; the Sukkot festival—during which we are
to dwell in huts for seven days and take the “Four Kinds”—beginning on
15 Tishrei; and the immediately following holiday of the “eighth day” of
Sukkot (Shemini Atzeret).
Next the Torah discusses the lighting of the menorah in the Temple, and
the showbread; (lechem hapanim) placed weekly on the table there.
Emor concludes with the incident of a man executed for blasphemy, and
the penalties for murder (death) and for injuring one’s fellow or
destroying his property (monetary compensation).
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