No Bread, No Torah - Parshat Emor

If there is no flour, there is no Torah;

If there is no Torah, there is no flour.

(1) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: These are My fixed times, the fixed times of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions.

(3) On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, a sacred occasion. You shall do no work; it shall be a sabbath of the Eternal throughout your settlements.

(4) These are the set times of the Eternal, the sacred occasions, which you shall celebrate each at its appointed time: (5) In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a passover offering to the Eternal, (6) and on the fifteenth day of that month the Eternal's Festival of Matzot. You shall eat matzot for seven days. (7) On the first day you shall celebrate a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. (8) Seven days you shall make offerings by fire to the Eternal. The seventh day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.

(9) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (10) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. (11) He shall elevate the sheaf before the Eternal for acceptance in your behalf; the priest shall elevate it on the day after the sabbath. (12) On the day that you elevate the sheaf, you shall offer as a burnt offering to the Eternal a lamb of the first year without blemish. (13) The meal offering with it shall be two-tenths of a measure of choice flour with oil mixed in, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Eternal; and the libation with it shall be of wine, a quarter of a hin. (14) Until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God, you shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears; it is a law for all time throughout the ages in all your settlements.

(15) And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: (16) you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the Eternal. (17) You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as an elevation offering; each shall be made of two-tenths of a measure of choice flour, baked after leavening, as first fruits to the Eternal. (18) With the bread you shall present, as burnt offerings to the Eternal, seven yearling lambs without blemish, one bull of the herd, and two rams, with their meal offerings and libations, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Eternal. (19) You shall also offer one he-goat as a sin offering and two yearling lambs as a sacrifice of well-being. (20) The priest shall elevate these—the two lambs—together with the bread of first fruits as an elevation offering before the Eternal; they shall be holy to the Eternal, for the priest. (21) On that same day you shall hold a celebration; it shall be a sacred occasion for you; you shall not work at your occupations. This is a law for all time in all your settlements, throughout the ages. (22) And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Eternal am your God.

(23) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (24) Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts. (25) You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall bring an offering by fire to the Eternal.

(26) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (27) Mark, the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a sacred occasion for you: you shall practice self-denial, and you shall bring an offering by fire to the Eternal; (28) you shall do no work throughout that day. For it is a Day of Atonement, on which expiation is made on your behalf before the Eternal your God. (29) Indeed, any person who does not practice self-denial throughout that day shall be cut off from his kin; (30) and whoever does any work throughout that day, I will cause that person to perish from among his people. (31) Do no work whatever; it is a law for all time, throughout the ages in all your settlements. (32) It shall be a sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall practice self-denial; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall observe this your sabbath.

(33) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (34) Say to the Israelite people: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month there shall be the Festival of Sukkot to the Eternal, [to last] seven days. (35) The first day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations; (36) seven days you shall bring offerings by fire to the Eternal. On the eighth day you shall observe a sacred occasion and bring an offering by fire to the Eternal; it is a solemn gathering: you shall not work at your occupations. (37) Those are the set times of the Eternal that you shall celebrate as sacred occasions, bringing offerings by fire to the Eternal—burnt offerings, meal offerings, sacrifices, and libations, on each day what is proper to it— (38) apart from the sabbaths of the Eternal, and apart from your gifts and from all your votive offerings and from all your freewill offerings that you give to the Eternal. (39) Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the Eternal [to last] seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. (40) On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Eternal your God seven days. (41) You shall observe it as a festival of the Eternal for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time, throughout the ages. (42) You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in huts, (43) in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the Eternal your God.

(44) So Moses declared to the Israelites the set times of the Eternal.

(9) When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. (10) You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Eternal am your God.

The reason for mentioning And when you reap the harvest of your land… a second time is that Shavuot is the festival of the first-fruits of the wheat harvest (Ex. 34:22). So the Torah cautions: Do not forget what I commanded you to do at this time.

We must know that the giving the Torah on Shavuot was not only for the religious rituals (chukim), but also for the most reasonable practices, such as kindness to the poor and the stranger. For without faith in God, the human being becomes like a savage beast, showing no pity on even their own parents…

Therefore, it says that on the Festival of Shavuot you should celebrate the giving of the Torah, not just for the chukim, but also for the rational precepts, for they, too, are only made possible because, “I am the Lord your God.”

The Mishpatim are commandments whose reasons are obvious, and the benefit of their being performed in this world is known – such as: the prohibition against stealing; and murder; and honoring one’s father and mother.

The Chukim are those commandments whose reasons are unknown. Our sages have said, “I ordained decrees and you have no license to question them.” A person’s natural inclination questions them and the nations of the world challenge them. For example: the prohibition of the meat of a pig; mixing milk and meat; the calf whose neck is broken; the red heifer; and the goat sent to Azazel.