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Wednesday, May 2, 2018

SONSINO'S COMMENTARY OF THE TORAH: EMOR (Lev.21:1-24:23) .


EMOR, LEV.21:1-24:23, for 5/5/18

1.     This Torah portion deals with a number of priestly matters, such as the festival calendar.
2.     Who were these priests? In the early books of the Bible (e.g. Deuteronomy), the priests are the Levites. In the later books (e.g., the P source in Numbers), the priests are the descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses. The Levites appear only as guards, singers or instrumentalists. What happened to them?

Here is a most likely reconstruction: After king Josiah of the kingdom of Judah destroyed all the Jewish temples outside of Jerusalem and centralized the cult in Jerusalem (622 BCE), the Zadokites, who were the priests of Jerusalem, gave incoming Levitical priests a lesser role [ Zadok was a descendant of Eleazar the son of Aaron (1 Chron 6:4-8)]. When the 2nd temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the priesthood came to an end. Those with a surname of Cohen, Cohn, Katz, Kahn and others often derive their name from the ancient Jerusalemite priests.

3.     Counting the Omer: in biblical times, on the day after Passover, the first sheaf (“omer”) of the barley harvest was brought to the priests as an offering to God. People counted 49 days until the festival of Shavuot, which commemorates the revelation of the Torah at Sinai/Horeb. Today also, in Orthodox Jewish circles, it is customary to count 49 days until Shavuot.

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