Torah Portion:  Emor (Leviticus 21-24 )

Ancient Wisdom and Modern Psychology
Happiness and Wholeness
by Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Schiffman
Toward the end of Parshat Emor we are presented with a description of the various holidays spanning the Jewish calendar. The seventh month – what we now call Tishrei – is jam-packed with holidays, starting with Rosh Hashanah, continuing with Yom Kippur, and culminating in Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret.
After describing the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in great detail, Rabbi Shamshon Raphael Hirsch summarizes their essence as a buildup and counterpoint to the holiday of Sukkot. Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are days of seriousness and somberness, permeated by negative emotions. Rosh Hashanah is a “a day of Teruah, a day of shatteringly shaking us up out of ways of life displeasing to God” and Yom Kippur makes us “appear before God, ‘poor’ in every justification for further living and working” (Judaica Press translation). In stark contrast, on Sukkot we celebrate by “taking of the produce of the earth to gain the joy of living and working in happiness before God.”
Rabbi Hirsch then adds one simple, yet powerful, observation. Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are one day each, yet Sukkot is comprised of seven days. The lesson he gleans from this straightforward calculation is that the Torah is prescribing what our baseline mood should be throughout the year. It shouldn’t be the “bowed down broken feeling” associated with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but the “happy joy of life” experienced while living “a life faithfully devoted to duty,” symbolized by the seven days of Sukkot.
If our status quo mood should be one of happiness, the challenge becomes, how do we work on getting to such a state?
There is an entire field called positive psychology dedicated to the study of happiness and well-being. One important observation that several psychologists have made is that relentlessly pursuing happiness usually does not lead to happiness. Moreover, unless we learn how to understand and accept our negative emotions, we will also not likely find lasting happiness. Healthy negative emotions such as sadness, frustration, concern, guilt, and embarrassment serve functional value. If we try and suppress these negative emotions because they make us feel uncomfortable and we want to be happy, the less likely it is that we will actually be happy.
Perhaps this idea is subtly hinted at within Rabbi Hirsch’s comments as well. While our operating status quo to strive for is to serve God through happiness, we must also make time and psychological space for those more negative emotions. There is an important place for the “bowed down broken feeling” symbolized by Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and that must be experienced, if we want to build toward the happiness of Sukkot. Our pursuit of serving God with joy needs to incorporate a healthy expression of negative emotions, as well.
This may also be reflected in another aspect of the Jewish calendar mentioned in Parshat Emor, one that we are in the midst of currently, namely, the counting of the Omer. The counting is supposed to be “temimiot,” meaning whole or complete. While wholeness in this context has a serial connotation to it, in the sense that we shouldn’t miss a day, wholeness here can also hint at the concept of wholeness of personality. On the one hand, the counting of the Omer represents an exciting build up and progression, whether agriculturally or as a preparation for the giving of the Torah.
On the other hand, it is a time (on a rabbinic level) of mourning and solemnness. Perhaps the “wholeness” of this time requires us to validate and experience both the positive and negative emotions simultaneously. With this, we serve God with our whole selves and it is within this wholeness we can truly experience psychological and spiritual flourishing.

Straight Talk
Shabbat Reality
by Rabbi Shaul Rosenblatt
Why we rest on Shabbat
This week’s portion speaks about the prohibition against “work” on Shabbat. People usually think of the idea of a Sabbath as an opportunity to rest so that one can be fit and strong again for the week ahead. But this is clearly not the Torah’s concept. We rest on Shabbat, the Torah says, because God rested. But God was obviously not resting in order to work better the week after. His work was already finished and he did not continue his work after Shabbat.
The reality is that Shabbat is something different entirely. The word for “work” on Shabbat is melacha. The other place in which the Torah uses a similar word is the building of the Tabernacle. The Sages determined from the Torah’s description that there were 39 creative activities involved – like lighting a fire, cooking, grinding and writing.
There is one thing that all 39 have in common. They are actions that humans can do which animals cannot. All are examples of humans using their intelligence to manipulate and bend nature. Hence, by extrapolation, one can obviously not switch on a light or drive a car.
The “Shabbat rest” is not a rest from physical labor. It is a rest from our constant, though futile, effort to control our world. It is a day to sit back and allow the world to flow by without trying to change it. A day to stop ‘doing’ and start ‘being’. A day in which we do not allow our striving for a ‘better’ future to spoil our enjoyment of the here and now. When we relinquish control of our world for 24 hours, we live in a place that is a more accurate reflection of reality than when we think we are in control. It’s an opportunity to find a place of peace and humility within oneself.
And Sages brings with it great perspective. When one enters a more spiritual place within oneself, there comes a shifting of priorities. The need for more and more money seems less important. Success seems very fickle. And power seems quite irrelevant. But family, love, the pursuit of wisdom, and an appreciation of life’s inherent goodness switch from the black and white of the weekdays to full 32-bit color.
This is the purpose of Shabbat. A day to step out of the craziness of the week — and start living in the real world.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“A bird that you set free may be caught again, but a word that escapes your lips will not return” — Jewish Proverb

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Little Moishie was sleeping away from home for the first time – sleeping at his Bubbie and Zadie’s.
Little Moishie and Bubbie got ready for bed at the same time. Moishie brushed his teeth, and then Bubbie brushed her dentures. Moishie was fascinated by the site of his Bubbie cleaning her dentures.
He sat riveted as she carefully took them out, brushed and rinsed them, and then popped them back in.
“Cool, Bubbie!” Moishie said. “Now take off your arm.”

SHABBAT SHALOM!
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