WORDS OF TORAH – April 30, 2020
For this week’s “Words of Torah,” for the combined portions Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, I am offering a commentary on the last verses of Leviticus, Chapter 19. Our Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah students will be sharing their insights during their Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah on May 2, 2020, which will focus on their readings in Leviticus 19:1-18.
We read from Leviticus 19, known as the “Holiness Code,” on Yom Kippur afternoon every year, as the Reform movement decided years ago that this section demands to be shared on that day when we are considering how to improve our behavior and to reach for new levels of sanctity in our actions for the coming year. In this case, this passage is the weekly Torah portion.
Here are my comments on the final verses of chapter 19.
32] You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear your God: I am the Eternal.
This portion earlier states not to show deference either to people who are poor or rich in court. In this case, it is not talking about court proceedings. It offers moral direction for daily life. It calls on people to show respect for elders because that is the right thing to do. Buses in Israel, at one time, posted a sign quoting this verse to remind passengers to offer their seat to the elders among them who might not be able to stand. Another way to state this commandment could be: “Show respect for elders because YOU will be that person in the future.”
33] When strangers reside with you in your land, you shall not wrong them. 34] The strangers who reside with you shall be to you as your citizens; you shall love each one as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the Eternal am your God.
The ETZ HAYIM commentary notes that this verse may have referred, at the time, to strangers who were foreign merchants, people who worked in crafts, or hired soldiers from other countries.
The greater point, though, is that we have all been the “stranger” at some time in our lives. Each of us has likely been the “new” person in a community or organization, or even in another country during a short-term visit or a longer stay. The essential lesson here is similar to verse 32: do not wrong strangers, and love strangers as yourself, because YOU have been that stranger, and you know how you would have liked to have been treated at the time (and, hopefully, you did receive the welcome you deserved).
35] You shall not falsify measures of length, weight, or capacity. 36] You shall have an honest balance, honest weights....I the Eternal am your God who freed you from the land of Egypt.
This biblical commandment has a modern counterpart: “Don’t put your thumb on the scale.” That phrase refers to employing clandestine efforts to change the outcome of a transaction or a situation in your favor; in a word, cheating. The Torah strives here to lead us to the values of equity, justice and honesty.
And it adds the refrain about being freed from Egypt as a reminder that, now that we are free, we should use that freedom to reach our highest moral potential.
May that be our goal every day.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Larry
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